lunedì 15 febbraio 2010

Glenn Hauser logs February 14-15, 2010

** ARGENTINA [and non]. Just like the good old days, an audible het of about 200 Hz between two obstinate stations which refuse to move apart and eliminate the problem, despite plenty of open frequencies just above and below.

Yes, RAE has drifted off-channel again to 15345.2 or so, but around 2115 Feb 14 the dominant audio is Arabic from MOROCCO. Next check 2219, Morocco is off, leaving very weak and fluttery RAE, or rather R. Nacional relay on weekends via same General Pacheco transmitter, in the clear. By 0010 Feb 15, 15345.2 signal has surged to good level but still heavy flutter in live play-by-play of some SBG (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 11760, RHC in French, Sunday Feb 14 at 2139 with Le Monde de la Filatélie. Naturally, the stamp subjects are yet more fodder for revolutionary political propaganda. Then tuned up 10 kHz to RHC Spanish on 11770, and they were just upwrapping equivalent El Mundo de la Filatelia. The variably-timed DX program, En Contacto, began at precisely 2144:30 this week, also on 11730, 11800, etc., starting with birthday greetings.

At 0013 on 13820, DCJC pulses against nothing since R. Martí quits this frequency at 2200. But propagation from Cuba must be very good. Checking some other jammers, 9810 obliterated R. República at 0014, and contained beeps. At 0033, 5890 VOA under heavy jamming without beeps, but // 9885 well over jamming with beeps during an innocuous discussion about teaching children.

13770 Spanish and 13790 weekly Esperanto both inbooming UT Monday Feb 15 at 0022, seem equal level tho 13770 is normally much weaker here; must have changed antennas. Also had heard Esperanto earlier Sunday just after 1500 on 11760; was not copying the announced schedule, but am fairly certain there was no mention of the 13790 transmission at 0000, just the 2330 one on two frequencies, which I doubt still exist.

They are mainly concerned with promoting and anticipating the 95 Universala Kongreso de Esperanto, Havano, 17-24 Julio, 2010 --- that is, if armed counter-revolution has not broken out by then. I continue to be amused by one of the announcers, obviously not a native-speaker of Esperanto, who cannot break himself of saying ``Amériko`` instead of ``Ameríko`` as invariable Esperanto rules require penultimate stress.

3445 at 0058 Feb 15 with weak Spanish talk, sure sounds // RHC 6060 et al., but only one receiver handy at the moment so can`t be positive. Plus weaker second audio source. Definitely not // Rebelde 5025. Since it ends in -5, can`t be a leapfrog or difference mix of any regular RHC or CRI relay frequencies since they all end in -0, except 17705 which goes off at 0030. For the same reason, it could not be a mix with any local MW station. Could be a mix with an equally strong spy transmitter at same site but punching numbers into the calculator, I have not come up with anything recognizable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ECUADOR [non]. HCJB via CVC CHILE 11920 spurs containing mushy distorted // audio in Portuguese, Feb 15 at 0026 centered on about 11900.5 and 11939.5 = plus and minus 19.5 kHz, while 25+ hours earlier they were circa 11904 and 11936 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, R. Africa at 2220 Sunday Feb 14 with evangelist Tony Alámo, convicted and sentenced to 175 years for child sex abuse, rambling about baptism and resurrexion, from a station and a broker, Panamerican Broadcasting in Cupertino CA, which have no compunxion about diffusing this monster with money. WINB broadcasts him only Monday-Friday so this is a much-needed Sunday fix; Saturday too?

Whew, he`s out of Oklahoma after being transferred thru OKC on the way to his permanent prison, or at least the next one, which is in Tucson AZ. Now officials are trying to figure out how many ``wives`` still under his influence will be allowed to visit him, altho not conjugally. See
http://www.tonyalamonews.com/3271/21210-tg-tony-alamo-transferred-to-tucson-prison.php
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TIBET. 4820, at 0030 Feb 15 in Chinese, vs CODAR and some SSB on one side, and a SAH of about 8 Hz. We may confidently list-log this as Lhasa, and Kolkata, as they are the only two stations in the world on 4820 and both could be propagating near grayline (unlike Aoki, forget about Botswana and Honduras).

4800 had a weaker tentative Chinese at 0033, which would be Geermu, on the same frequency as Chennai; discounting XERTA which I see is missing from Aoki (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED 4895

** U S A. 600 kHz, good signal looping NE/SW with nostalgia music, at 0052 UT Feb 15, a love song for VD, soon outroed as by Mary Jo Stafford, and the Phil Weston Orchestra, on ``Musical Memories`` for a Sunday afternoon, mentioning current hour 6-7 pm, so apparently live DJ somewhere in the CST zone, also giving weather forecast for what ``we`` could expect, including snow and below-freezing temps, but never a geographical hint as to exactly where ``we`` are, for those yearning for an ID.

But must be WMT Cedar Rapids IA. Soon confirmed it`s Jim Doyne at http://www.wmtradio.com/pages/musicalmemories.html
which says his show starts at 2 pm = 2000 UT:

``Relive your Musical Memories every Sunday with Jim Doyne --- Jim provides his listeners with the great songs of the 40's, 50's and early 60's every Sunday afternoon from 2 to 7 pm.``

Companion show before it at 7:30 am-2 pm [1330-2000 UT] is: ``Leo Greco's Variety Time --- Leo has been a musician and entertainer in Eastern Iowa since the mid 1940's. He show features a special blend of polkas, standards, country and other musical favorites. He's been waking up Iowans on Sunday morning for over 35 years.``

WMT must be a ``full-service`` station daring to play music as well as news/talk the other six days of the week. Well, axually a disservice as their `news` comes from Fox, and Rash Limburger is on the roster, along with anti-administration stuff plastered all over their homepage.

Besides the nostalgic music, I`ll give them some credit for carrying Jim Bohannon --- since our local KGWA has dropped Jimbo, WMT is a possible source for him here at 0307-0559 UT Tue-Sat, tho hardly QRM-free (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 4895, Feb 15 at 0033 had a weak fluttery signal at same time I was getting Tibet/China on 4820, 4800. Could be Mongolia, especially if AIR Kurseong was not on the air; normal sign-on is 0055, and Jose Jacob monitoring in late January said it had been off the air lately (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 5955, trying to pull something out of this weak unID again Feb 15 at several chex between 0000 and 0057, but just too much WYFR splash from 5950, and also from RRI Spanish 5960 especially when it`s playing music, which is often. Dave Valko`s third report on this 25 hours earlier says he heard Radio República IDs, and it was previously logged by him in Oct 2007. Here`s a pertinent log from 2008y:

``CUBA [non]. 5955, *0100-0125, CLANDESTINE, 25+28.06, R. República, via Nauen, Germany, Spanish ID, talk about Cuba and Colombia, interview about internet, 54554; still on 5955 until 30.06! Different program on 6155! (Anker Petersen, AOR AR7030PLUS with 28 m longwire in Skovlunde, Denmark, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD 8-075)``

So has that relay started again, or is it now a peanut-whistle in Central America like 11600? No sign of jamming, so the DCJC must not have heard 5955 yet; and if DXers really have to dig for it, hard to imagine it having any impact among general Cuban listeners (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###