martedì 16 marzo 2010

Glenn Hauser logs March 15-16, 2010

** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake March 16: 8400 good with flutter at 1324, `ramshorn` to drumming-only segment, // much weaker 9000. At 1326 also on // 9380. At 1419 also on 7585 atop something, much weaker than // 8400, and nothing Coplandesque discernible during this Firedrake minute.

Aoki has nothing on 7585 at this hour, not even SOH, but Radio of Tajikistan has reserved the frequency so now may be relaying something objexionable to the ChiCom. 9380 FD is there because of SOH, but DW suffers collateral damage, if it has not moved yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. RHC still on 6180 at 1315 March 16, and still on 9600 at 1332, both of which supposedly close at 1300. Confused apparently by local DST time shift so running an hour late?

The DentroCuban Jamming Command continues to attack the French to Haiti service of WRMI, 9955, during its new hour of 13-14 M-F, pulsing mixed with it at 1338 March 16 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 3325, March 16 at 1257 conversation in Indonesian, one of them on phone, 1259 mentioned Palangkaraya but no specific ID heard, same kept going past 1300; fair signal. 3325 is RRI Palangkaraya; also something on 3345, Ternate? Both also have PNG stations.

9525-, VOI, March 16 at 1329, undermodulated talk in English, seems scripted item and not in the voice of the Banjarmasin guy who surely was on elsewhen this Tuesday. Also suffers from hum, adjacent interference from both sides, and flutter.

Strangely, RRI 9680 at 1333 was not only much better modulated as usual but without the flutter even tho they are from the same site.
Therefore, the main variable must be the transmitted azimuths, 30 degrees on 9525 and 316 on 9680, per Aoki.

Theoretically, 30 USward should be much better here, but also getting upmessed in the auroral zone. If 9680 is really aimed NW from Cimanggis, its relatively good reception here to the NNE is even more remarkable, and how does it avoid the flutter? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 11670-11675-11680, DRM from MOI (Ministry of Information) making a buzz against REE Spain 11680, as I was hunting for its Sephardic broadcast at 0115 March 16. This buzz has a different sound to it than your usual DRM, so I wonder if that correlates with the very low bitrate that DRM monitors have been reporting from Kuwait. Does the bitrate affect the sound of DRM when heard on AM?

Strangely enough, this broadcast is not in HFCC, just D = non-digital from Kuwait on 11675 starting at 0315. But it is here
http://www.drm.org/for-listeners/live-broadcast-schedule/
at 2200-0300, 350 degrees to ENAm, 120 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 6104.8, tell-tale het from XEQM, March 16 at 1422 against something Asian on 6105.0. Otherwise, have not logged Mérida for some time with readable audio which used to be possible after 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAIPAN. 11650, March 16 at 1340 religious talk in Turkic language, and some nice music, then almost all praise music until 1359 ID unexpectedly in Russian as KFBS, Saipan, Radio Teos, and off. Good signal but slight het from something off-frequency. Per EiBi, WRTH and Aoki, none of which mentions the Radio Teos ID, on Tuesdays at 1330-1345 it`s in Udmurt, 1345-1400 in Tatar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. Another fruitless search for REE`s Sephardic service to South America, scheduled for UT Tuesdays 0115-0145 on 11780 per some sources, 11795 announced on the previous 1425-1455 broadcast heard on correct 15385.

At 0113-0117 March 16, nothing at all on 11795. Usual huge signal from Brasília on 11780 with music. Spain however had a respectable signal in Castilian on 11680 to S America, so I really think I should have been able to detect something under RNA on 11780, at least the REE IS, if anything was there.

Could the broadcast be on some totally different unknown frequency? I did search the entire 25 m band (only) and did not find any sign of it. Also checked 9690 and 9650, registered at 0115 or 0415 as alternates: nothing.

At 0413 UT Tue I tuned to 9690 to find VG signal with REE IS, and 0415 fanfare, sign-on in Ladino claiming this is on 9650, and the 0115 on 11795! It will be a banner day if all the announced and transmitted frequencies for these judeo-español broadcasts ever match up. How can one produce a SW broadcast week after week and not care enough to find out what frequencies it is on? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SRI LANKA. 11905, S Asian music at 0116 March 16, fair signal from SLBC. In my early DXing years, before all the hi-power relay stations, it was quite a thrill to pick up Radio Ceylon from the opposite worldside for the first time, and this brought back a bit of that. QSL from 1959 on 15265:
http://www.w4uvh.net/ceylon.jpg (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 9800, March 16 at 1335, something with hum of same pitch as AIR on 9690, so much of it that could not discern the language under. I thought sure it must be another AIR transmission from same site, Bengaluru, but none such listed, in HFCC or Aoki, just VOR in Russian, 500 kW, 150 degrees from Irkutsk.

Instead it must be a common transmitter problem; I am not adept at estimating such pitches, but may be 100 Hz = 2 x mains frequency 50 Hz, as others have reported, equivalent to 120 Hz hum from 60 Hz areas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 11845, March 16 at 0117, low-pitched buzz here somewhat like a junior Saudi Buzz. Only thing listed is a CRI 500 kW transmitter at Xi`an; out of order? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###