domenica 28 febbraio 2010

Glenn Hauser logs February 27-28, 2010

** BRAZIL. 4845, one of the Brazilians with play-by-play of some SBG, producing bad het, presumably with Mauritania, 0020 Feb 28 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9955, WRMI Saturday-evening exile block, fair signal with no or maybe minimal jamming, UT Sunday Feb 28 at 0031 discussing the death of hunger-striking political prisoner Orlando Zapata, and Castro`s ``apology`` for it. Same topic when next checked at 0119. According to latest schedule of a week ago, at 0030-0045 it`s Voz de Coordinadora, 0100-0130 Conversando entre Cubanos.

Meanwhile at 0030, plenty of heavy noise jamming on 9810 against nothing, ex-República, also 9825 against R. Martí and 9885 against VOA Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. Incredibly awful signals from R. Cairo, Feb 28 at 0036: 9390 big carrier but whine and undermodulated; 9915 had similar mix of talk and music, but not //, and in contrast was very distorted and overmodulated; they should split the difference? 6270 was open carrier, no modulation unlike somewhat distorted Arabic on 6290. All three of them supposedly carry Spanish starting at 0045 but 9915 and 6270 are not scheduled to open until then (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. RN Spanish, good on both 9865 via Sines, PORTUGAL, and 9895 via Greenville, USA, UT Sunday Feb 28 at 0034 with ``La Fonoteca``, DJ Alfonso Montealegre, who we thought had retired last September. Replaying old shows, or an independent contractor now? Strangely, both pop songs I heard were in English; why? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. RNZI with continuous tsunami coverage before and after 21 UT Feb 27 on 17675, reports from Hawaii, warnings to other islands.

Unfortunately with the usual adjacent QRM from stronger CVC Chile 17680, which had continuous quake coverage all afternoon. Thus the only two stations directly covering the quake/tsunami on 16m are interfering with each other despite plenty of other clear frequencies on the band as this colossal mismanagement of SW frequencies goes on.

Was not hearing R. Australia until after 2200 on 15560 with of course news on same subject, but 2205 into regular Correspondents Report program (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9369v, WTJC upacting again, Feb 28 at 0038 with gospel music splattering 9362-9385 and maybe further but obscured by WYFR 9355 and Cairo 9390. Fundamental itself was distorted and with clicking noises (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Tnx to tip from Will Martin, WWCR has decided to replace 4775 with 4840 from 0300 starting March 1. Tnx to tip from Gilles Letourneau, they were already testing it at 0300-0400 UT Feb 28. This of course affects the UT Sunday 0330 airing of WORLD OF RADIO, originally on 5070.

4840 is pretty weak here at 0315, but I suppose 4775 would have been too under current propagation conditions. 4840 seems to be on the edge of CODAR heard just below it, while 4775 was in the middle of some CODAR, usually not a problem when WWCR was inbooming, but last night around 0600 it was also weakish there interfering with CODAR, which in this utility band presumably has priority.

Unclear if WWCR`s latest shift is reactive or proactive. 4840 should have fewer issues with other broadcast stations since nothing but Mumbai is scheduled there at times which will not conflict. As always, there are some adjacent Latin Americans which will be affected.

And the biggest signal from Africa, Mauritania on 4845. It also has ute QRM to one side most of the time. See also BRAZIL.

The WWCR spur which formerly showed up on 7095 when 4775 leapt over 5935 would now land on 7030.

Earlier I happened to tune to 12160 at 2255 UT Feb 27, and stuck because it was playing Bach on synthesizer/authentic instrument. That must have been fill after Golden Age of Radio. 2258 QSY announcement to 5070 with steel drums and shortly off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 4050-, Feb 28 at 0024, country music barely audible at peaks, no doubt once again, 3 x KWMO 1350 Washington MO. Slightly low in frequency as also previously detected (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 11575, good signal but flutter, Feb 28 at 0131 with Pres. Obama comment, voice-over in Pashto; 0158 with Deewa Radio ID, address, 0200 VOA YDD jingle. Scheduled 01-04 via Sri Lanka, 250 kW, 340 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###