mercoledì 6 ottobre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs October 5-6, 2010

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, LRA36, Oct 6 at 1331 music audible, weaker than 15480 talk via Rampisham (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA [and non]. 9560, 9580, 9590, R. Australia Oct 6 at 1307 playing music instead of excellent newsmagazine ``Asia-Pacific``, so I knew something was wrong. Shortly at 1309, ``Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to bring you our scheduled program. Please stay tuned. We will resume our normal programming as soon as possible`` (maybe not verbatim, but close as I hastily scribbled it down). Well, I didn`t and had not returned until 1330 when ``Rural Reporter`` was starting unscathed. BTW, 9560 had a het on it, no doubt the variable Ethiopian, which had been missing for many days (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 6070, CFRX, still needs some work: just barely modulated, Oct 6 at 0610 check on S9+10 carrier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHILE. 17680, CVC transmitter way out of whack, Oct 6 at 1345, some distortion on fundamental, but putting huge splatter over most of the 16m band, detectable between 17400 and 17840, worst peaks around 17630 and 17730 during Spanish talk, and then music, disrupting numerous other stations.

If at the transmitter site Calera de Tango, alarms are not going off, why aren`t they monitoring it off the air back at Miami studios? Next check at 1620, however, splatter was gone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. RHC anomalies Oct 6: 9525 and 11760, normally closing at 0500, were on an additional hour: at 0556, 9525 inbooming in Spanish, along with 6120 and 5040; 11760 also VG, in English (music at the moment) // 6060, 6150, but 5970 was open carrier until English cut on at 0558. Back at 0557 the others ran IS and ID, not giving any specific frequencies, as back in the studio no one could keep up with all the variations of what is really on the air at any given moment. 6010 was not on, so that is the transmitter probably on 11760. Next check at 0607, both 11760 and 9525 off, and 6010 had come on, in English.

Frequency manager Prof. Arnaldo de Jesús Coro Antich, the one person who ought to know what is happening, has failed to say anything about these RHC frequency changes or tests on at least his last two DXers Unlimited shows, as scripted.

DentroCuban Jamming Command, recklessly jamming R. Prague in English  via WRN via WRMI, 9955, Oct 6 at 0613, heavy pulsing with tones applied altho not a wall of noise.

Another collateral victim of DCJC is KSDA`s Japanese service on 9805, way under leftover jamming pulses at 1311 Oct 6, as R. Martí is finished at 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also UNIDENTIFIED 11435

** EGYPT. 9305, R. Cairo, Oct 6 at 0615 poor in presumed Arabic, but modulation seemed OK rather than extreme distortion usually here. Has been closing this frequency around 0600* all summer, so this must mean DST is over in Egypt, now running another UT hour. Yes, per
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst2010.html UT +3 ended on October 1. These SW transmission shifts affect only the HS relays in Arabic, not foreign languages.

15710, Oct 6 at 1333 African music, 1334 W&M talking slowly and alternately, sounds like two different languages, so consecutive translation? Unseems Arabic, YL sounds more like Russian intonation. Anyhow listed as R. Cairo Indonesian service. Poor signal, and suffers from chirps de 15700 R. Bulgaria overmodulation spikes; also interruption by ``running water`` ute burst at 1337 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** FRANCE. 15300, Oct 6 at 1357, Mideast music, so must be RFI; 1359:30 to French announcement. I quickly punched up WWV 5000 on second receiver (not 10000!, blocked by WWCR), anticipating another off-time signal, and sure enough, RFI was 5 seconds late, incredible, as this is not even via an overseas relay site but direct from Issoudun. 14h TU timecheck, news sounder and news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUATEMALA. 4055, R. Verdad, just barely audible (JBA), Oct 6 at 0600, carrier only during a bit of apparent dead air, 0601 brief YL announcement and shortly starting the national anthem (NA) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. 2850, KCBS, Oct 6 at 1251 music, poor signal, switched on BFO to help and found the carrier is wobbling (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. 7350, R. Nigeria National Service, presumably Abuja ex-7275, as IDed by Mauno Ritola via Noel Green, again Oct 6 at 0612 very poor signal, but they did pick a nice clear frequency; just needs more oomph (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Brother Scare is so ignorant that he puts a U in Al-Qa`ida. However you spell it, there is no U after Q in Arabic, but he was pronouncing it ``Al-Kwaida``, more than once, Oct 6 at 1312 on 9980 via WWCR. See more under USA concerning WWCR, WWRB, WWV/H (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 10000, WWV and/or WWVH blown away by splatter from huge WWCR 9980 signal carrying Brother Scare, Oct 6 at 1314. This is the NORMAL situation all day long when WWCR is on 9980: we can forget about getting NIST timesignals on 10000. Altho only 9990-10010 is protected for Standard Frequency & Timesignal stations, it was a bad idea for FCC ever to authorize high-power US broadcasters as close as 9980 (and WYFR is even closer at night, 9985, tho I have had no problem with it). (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 3255, WWCR still testing this planned frequency for B-10 at an earlier hour, so as yet no one must have complained via the FCC, Oct 6 at 0605. Very strong, so accompanied by the spurs on 3270.5 and 3239.5 making respectable carriers, but could not detect any audio on them (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9250-, Oct 6 at 1301, WWRB ID by Dave cutting into continuous B.S.., spur from fundamental 9385; also heard it yesterday around this time, but not audible later in the day while 9385 was still on. It`s closer to 9250 than before, and unstable carrier with BFO on.

As I checked 9385, was hearing a pre-echo of what The Last Days Prophet of God was proclaiming, i.e. crossmod overload from same but unsynchronized via WWCR 9980, until I switched in attenuation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. While KJES was inbooming 24 hours earlier on 11715, Oct 6 at 1318 not there, only a very weak carrier detectable. Nothing else is scheduled during this hour per HFCC, EiBI, Aoki, altho Aoki still has the B09 schedule for KJES, one hour later than reality in A10, i.e. 14-17 UT instead of 13-16, when it is on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15185, VOA Hausa very strong at 2050 Oct 5; has to be Greenville now, replacing a Botswana transmitter that broke down. Until today, this transmission was unnoticeable here, but now it is a serious problem for R. Africa, Equatorial Guinea, on 15190. Conversely, in W Africa, Greenville 15185 is probably less of a problem for 15190. The 2030-2100 Hausa transmission is M-F only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1220, Oct 6 at 0625, South Asian music caught my ear as I tuned across; 0628 YL ID, but only caught ``12-20`` in English. Dominant signal on frequency for a while, but fading for next announcement at 0631. Presumably KZEE Weatherford TX, which I have heard before, a Metroplex outlet known as ``Hot Pepper 1220`` and ``South Asian Radio`` with ethnic format per NRC AM Log 2010-2011. Night power is 200 watts, so enough here to overcome XEB and WHKW.

1320, at 0634 Oct 6 had M&W in Chinese(?), probably KXYZ Houston, one of the Multicultural stations tho listed as mainly in Spanish. Hard to find any specifix about its program/language times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6297.1, SASASAM, Oct 6 at 0609, fair with usual soporific wake-up chanting at this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 11435, huge S9+25 open carrier Oct 6 at 0617, with slight fading; kept a receiver on it but never heard any modulation such as numbers or data bursts until 0631*. Presumably a RadioCuba transmitter as previously monitored, and correlating with big signal from RHC on 11760 until 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 17101-USB, Oct 6 at 1350, leisurely conversation in colloquial Spanish, probably two skippers and may even be legal, non-intruding on this frequency, but do they ever ID? Of course not! At one time mentioned ``azules``, perhaps referring to bluefin tuna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
 
** KUWAIT. 15540, R. Kuwait still here tho much degraded reception as long after dark and plunging MUFs now when English starts at 1800 UT. Oct 5 at 1830 newscast somewhat audible; by final headlines at 2050, inaudible.

Rechecked 24 hours later, Oct 6 at 1830, too weak to copy, splashed by much stronger RNW 15535 off the back of 150 degrees via Wertachtal, GERMANY, which itself was only fair but readable (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K. 13745, BBCWS Portuguese toward Angola from Rampisham, Oct 5 at 2054, sure thought they mentioned RDPI in passing, but unlike 24+ hours earlier, the latter station was not on the air from 13755; must have been a sports special then. And this time BBC accent is not Brazilian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 17775, KVOH, Oct 5 at 2052 giving phone number in Spanish; carrier unstable, not very strong and no spur audible on 17920v (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###