martedì 9 novembre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs November 8-9, 2010

** ALASKA. I frequently check 2750 in routine bandscans, for HAARP to show up again, but no sign of it until: Nov 9 at 0647, with a wide variety of carrier and tone tests past 0719. Of course, until the DST/ST shift I was seldom monitoring that late, as unfortunately my daily routine has to be tied more to the local clock than to UT, even tho I denounce the very concept of shifting time.

At 0647, carrier cutting on and off, gradually speeding up the pulse rate, peaks S9+25. 0643 it reaches about 10x per second and still rising. 0644 cuts briefly to constant carrier, then resumes pulsing at increasing rate. Meanwhile, I amuse myself by playing ``O What a Beautiful Morning`` by adjusting the BFO tuning on this carrier.

0646, adds tone modulation to the carrier pulsing, and that rises too as the pulse rate continues rising to ``airplaning``. 0653 still increasing rate and pitch but very slowly. 0654:36* cuts off the air, but soon back on at 0655 now with sweep tones upward repeated every 6 seconds = 10x per minute, past 0700+, and off at 0704:34*.

*0705 back on with carrier, then hi-pitched tone test stepping up, rather than sweeping up. 0707 slow subaudible heterodyne, then increases (as if two separate transmitters deliberately slightly offset). 0708 constant tone, stepping up. 0709 lo-pitched tone, stepping up. 0710 slow SAH increasing to fast. (I take a few minutes to tune around for other things).

0719:34* after OC without tones, and soon back on with the SAHs as I quit. When I wake up at 1250, nothing on 2750, around the time I last heard this a few weeks ago: ``Oct 4 at 1214, strong signal and still but weaker at 1242.``

Identity of all this as HAARP, Gakona, Alaska is based on previous reports and this is one of their known frequencies, tho certainly there was nothing like an ID heard, nor probably sent tho it would have been easy to do so. There is a lot of information at
http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/ but searching on 2750 does not get any hits. WTFK? I have yet to find any specific frequency info. It does say that some of the antennas cover 2.8 to 8.3 MHz, avoiding the 40 and 80m hambands. The 2750 signals I was hearing were not especially wideband, as some had reported, just normal bandwidth (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, Nov 9 at 1450, carrier only detectable from LRA36 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ARGENTINA. 15345+, Nov 8 at 2217, tango music, very poor with heavy trans-equatorial flutter, must be RAE, with Morocco off the frequency after 2200. I had also checked in the 18 UT hour for English to Europe, and could only hear a very weak signal (or two?) slightly below 15345-, while now it`s slightly above. Need to listen for English at 0200-0300 UT Tue-Sat on 11711v (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRIA. 17605, Nov 9 at 1443, Horn of Africa music, i.e. a few notes sung up and down with plucked instrument, 1444 to birdchirps and Arabish announcement including a ``salaam aleikum``, but must be Afar as scheduled from AWR, 300 kW, 145 degrees from Moosbrunn at 1430-1500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 3280, Nov 9 at 1254, oriental talk, no doubt V. of Pujiang, Shanghai, but also with a fast SAH. What else could be on 3280? Nothing known in Asia, but La Voz del Napo, Tena, Ecuador is being reported as reactivated. But surely it`s too late for that to reach here.

Bingo! 3280 = 2 x 1640, probably second harmonic of my local KFXY. Its site is far enough away that its harmonix are rarely heard unlike from 960 and 1390 closer locals. At 1300, the non-Okie had a timesignal about one sesquisecond late, last pip higher and prolonged (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Nov 9:
8400, poor with flutter at 1348; nothing on 10500 or 11100 as heard yesterday, nor anywhere else tho did not do a complete bandscan up to 18 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [non]. 15230, CRI English via Sackville, Nov 9 at 1447 M&W discussing Carl Sagan, SETI; seems like there is CCI, but comparing to 13740 via Cuba, both have musical undercurrent on the program. Still, I hear something else under 15230 tho nothing is scheduled. Hmm, could be crosstalk from super-strong REE/CR on 15170 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. Checking for RHC new frequencies at the first opportunity, UT November 9: Mesa Redonda is now scheduled 2330-0100 on 9640, 6000, and is still going a little past 0100 on 6000. By now it`s badly squeezed between RFI Spanish via Guiana French on 5995, and CRI English via Sackville on 6005; 6000 off the air shortly, and does not come back in English as now scheduled during the next few minutes. I get tired of waiting for it but at next check 0123, 6000 is on, and still squeezed.

The other new channel is 6050, a slap in the face to HCJB`s only remaining frequency from Ecuador, where it has been for sesquidecades. Altho the targets are very different, no doubt the 250 kW RHC transmitter will be ruining HCJB reception in Ecuador and vicinity. I notified Allen Graham about this when Arnie`s tentative schedule first came out in mid-October, but no response. Later: I hear from Stephan Schaa in Germany that he is now responsible for HCJB frequencies.

Will RHC axually activate on that frequency? 6050 finally cuts on at *0108 November 9 with English programming in progress, and since 6000 was not yet on, the first octominute was lost to eternity (except it repeats every hour thru 0700 Or 0900? Sometimes some of the Spanish frequencies carry more English). 6050 suffers from splash de Spain 6055, surprise, surprise, just like RHC Spanish does on 6060, // 6140. And 5970 remains vacant, duh! There is also an undercurrent on 6050 itself, no doubt poor HCJB.

At 0635 RHC: music in English service on four of the five frequencies now scheduled after 0500: 6010, 6050, 6060, 6150. But no 6000 (WYFR is back there, BTW, after 0500, but weakish here). Nor is RHC to be heard on 6140. Spanish on 6120 and 5040 only. At 0713, 6010, 6050 and 6060 have all changed to RHC Spanish as well as 6120 and undermodulated 6150. 6120 has SAH and CCI in Dutch, i.e. RNW via VATICAN at 07-09.

At 1446 Nov 9 I notice RHC missing from the new frequency just started yesterday, 15390, but still on 15360 with CCI and strongest RHC on band, 15120. 15360 clasher is RFI in Persian at 1430-1500, 500 kW, 80 degrees from Issoudun (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. 5980, R. Martí, VG Nov 9 at 1259 with frequencies for next hour: 5745, 7405 and 11930, correct for a change, and 5980 went off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS. 13458-13483, OTH radar pulsing, presumed from here, Nov 9 at 1453 QRMing CODAR, tsk2 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 3325, RRI Palangkaraya, Nov 9 at 1324 with romantic music, 1330 plays 7-note IS for a minute, then announcement in presumed Indonesian. Wish I had my tape recorder handy; maybe another day. Then I look for same at
http://www.intervalsignals.net but Dave`s one clip of this station does not include it. How about at Atsunori Ishida`s site? Not on the opening nor closing, but there it is on the `news` clip: http://rri.jpn.org/snd/03325_news.mp3 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, VOI did not check until near end of English hour Nov 9 at 1353 in music with dratted IADs; yes, another Exotic Indonesia has gone out this Tuesday, as 1355 conversation between Jak YL and Banjarmasin OM. But feed from Banj has crackle noise breaking up audio both on his talk and music, so it would have been more frustrating than usual to monitor the whole hour; 1359 switch to music from Jak without crackle, but still IADs; 1400 ID in English, into warta berita, news in Indonesian. VG signal strength, anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN. 5920, Nov 9 at 1333 Qur`an almost sounds like a soprano, but surely no ineligible subhuman female who must neither be seen nor heard! With long pauses, 1336 into talk and bits of music mixed. Presumably IRIB opening Kurdish service as scheduled 1330-1630, 500 kW, non-direxional from Kamalabad, rather than also scheduled anti-Islamic TWR India in Maithili since this is a Tuesday, 250 kW, 224 degrees via Irkutsk, Russia, but those two should clash quite a bit in S & SW Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. 2850, KCBS, Nov 9 at 1251, S9+10 in Korean talk after choral music, but insufficient vs noise level. This had not been audible past few mornings (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. 21695, Nov 9 at 1436 war news from Afghanistan, 1437 YL ending news ``from Radio Jamahiriyah``, then bored OM will fuller ID as ``Voice of Africa from the Great Jamahiriyah``, Beethoven`s Ninth theme, Reading from the Green Book, part 1: ``solution to the problem of democracy``. S9+15, SSOB honors shared with Spain 21610, 21570, and much stronger than // 17725. 21695 has improved modulation and carrier is stable, but program feed sounds like a lofi webstream, especially during music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5985, Nov 9 at 1403 Shiokaze in Chinese this Tuesday, slow YL talk with sad piano music background; good with no het audible from Burma (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. While I am getting Indonesia, q.v. on 3325, I check for other 90m carriers at 1326 Nov 9, and find: 3290, 3315, 3345, 3365, all probably PNG; some music audible on 3290. Also an unfitting carrier on 3230, maybe ute (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 6075, R. Rossii via Petropavlovsk/Kamchatsky, Nov 9 at 1341 jazz music atop the motorboating, which for now has been suppressed to less audibility, but will it last? Carrier is still unstable revealed by BFO. 1346 Russian announcement (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAIPAN. 9715, R. Svoboda, Nov 9 at 1352 Russian with ID in passing; remains in whack with stable carrier and modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. So will REE use 5970 or 6055 for English to NAm, after some uncertainty? UT Tue Nov 9, anyway, it`s 5970 when checked at 0050. Off a few minutes before the hour, and at 0058, 6055 resumes with IS prior to Spanish for the rest of the evening.

So will REE really use 11780, the frequency now announced for the Emisión Sefarad to Sudamérica UT Tuesdays only at 0115-0145? Yes, checked at 0125 Nov 9, a bad collision with RNA Brasil slightly stronger here at the moment, both unusable. In last few weeks, REE had this on 11795 which was quite clear and also VG in North America, and now 11795 is vacant, duh! At least we have another chance at the Judeo-Español, UT Tuesdays at 0415-0445 to NAm on 9690 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 3160, I have not been trying to hear the WPJK harmonic in the evenings, since it is so reliable in the mornings, and being almost a kilomile westward from this daytimer, we are in a much better position to hear it in the mornings. However, given its incorrect sign-on timings, I was wondering if they manage to sign off at the correct legal sundown time for November at Orangeburg SC, according to their entry on the FCC website, of 2215 UT.

So Nov 8 at 2213 I start monitoring 3160, and do succeed in detecting a carrier --- will it shortly go off? Yes! At 2215:47*, so that is probably it. My request for others closer to monitor that has not been answered.

Next check at 1252 UT Nov 9, music is just barely audible on 3160 before fadeout.

BTW, Eugene Robinson, author, Washington Post columnist and political commentator on MSNBC, was born and grew up in Orangeburg, as introduced on C-SPAN`s Book TV Nov 6 at 2300.
http://www.booktv.org/Program/11954/2010+Texas+Book+Festival+Eugene+Robinson+quotDisintegration+The+Splintering+of+Black+Americaquot.aspx
But I am sure he bears no responsibility for this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** WESTERN SAHARA [non]. 6297, Nov 9 at 0713, SASASAM morning chants, fair to good. I was not hearing this during previous hour, so are they now signing on circa 0700? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Trans-Pacific MW carrier search Nov 9 just after local sunrise from 1304 UT, upward in USB mode on DX-398 with internal antenna: 594, 666, 693, 702, 747, 774, 792, 972, 1107, 1242, 1566 (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###