martedì 26 luglio 2011

Glenn Hauser logs July 26, 2011

** CHINA. Firedrake, July 26: local noon-hour:
16980, very poor at 0455; no others found 19-12 MHz

Before 1300: all checked were // and if unchecked still sounded //.
16100, just barely audible at 1251
15800, very poor at 1248; meanwhile only CNR1 on 15795 vs India
15550, fair at 1248
14950, very good at 1255
14700, poor at 1255
13920, good at 1254
13130, fair at 1254
12900, good at 1254
11500, good at 1257; none in the 10`s

After 1300:
11500, poor at 1333; no 12`s except 12025 or 13`s at 1319 or later

12025, very poor at 1311 under CNR1 jamming which is // 11990, 12040. 12025 probably stayed on at hourtop as previously observed. The question is whether RFA Tibetan via Kuwait was really there. As of July 23, Ivo Ivanov had that on new 13795, frequency-hopping instead of 15230, 11520, 12025 previously.

14400, good at 1314 and 1333
14700, very poor at 1314, 1333
15285, poor at 1345

15445, good at 1314, well over weak Turkey 15450, but off at 1330. Same behaviour as previous appearances on 15430 tho not daily, presumably vs V. of Tibet via UAE as in Aoki, which however used to start rather than stop at 1330. VOT on 15445 today? Aoki dated July 26 at 0200 does not yet have FD or any target on 15445.

15525, fair at 1342; was not on at 1331 when checking the next two:
15545, poor at 1315; off at 1331 check
15565, good at 1315, off at 1331 check
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, July 26 at 1305, it`s Tuesday, so I struggle to hear very poor VOI signal and whether they are still doing the RRI Banjarmasin hookup. Dead air at first, then beeps as in phone busy signal; 1306 a bit of music and talk, very poor and it`s either in Indonesian or heavily-accented English. Not worth any further effort to understand (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 12065, July 26 at 1252, weak station in English with a het on the hi side; Aoki shows only V. of Russia on 12065, via Chita, but supposed to be in Vietnamese at 12-13, English at 11-12 and 13-14 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [and non]. 13620, July 26 at 0458, R. Dabanga via MADAGASCAR, again has the continuous tone jammer underneath.

BTW, Ivo Ivanov reports that this week, July 25-29 there is a special additional transmission, which he heard at 1651 July 25:
``1630-1725 on 11555 MDC 250 kW / 000 deg to EaAf Mon-Fri``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 12100, July 26 at 0459, good signal from WTWW-3 in Portuguese Bible readings, declining to fair at 0515, poor at 0530 English ID and switch to Bible in English.

Now there is something strange interfering: six rising tones, repeating over and over, from carrier about 12102. With BFO tuned slightly above it, I hear six descending tones. As I start to time how many times per minute, they stop abruptly after three of them at 0533:10*. (Altho CODAR also infests the area, this was not that.)

And altho fade-down of WTWW signal during that semihour indicates it might have stayed on all night but becoming inaudible, when 12100 checked next at 1251, not on. Kept a receiver on frequency and it cut on at *1304 without sign-on, joining Arabic Bible in progress (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA [non]. 11705, July 26 at 1257, RNV via CUBA again missing; might have just signed off but normally runs late rather than early. How about the next broadcast at 1500 on 11680? NO, not there either July 26 at 1504 --- just some North Korean operatic singing.

Now we need to confirm whether any of the other RNV transmissions are still on the air. During its entire existence, RNV has NEVER been willing or able to publish or announce its own schedule accurately! Instead it was assembled by monitoring by yours truly, and subsequently published by WRTH and other references, including the WRTH A-11 update v.2; the nominal schedule has really not changed at all in many years:

``Summer Schedule 2011
Spanish/English Days Area kHz
1000-1100 daily Am  6180hab
1100-1200 daily Am  6060hab
1200-1300 daily Am 11705hab
1500-1600 daily Am 11680hab [this one was always missing on Sundays]
1900-2000 daily Am 15290hab
2000-2100 daily Am 17705hab
2200-2300 daily Am 11670hab
2300-2400 daily Am 13680hab, 15250hab``

Also, two audio clips of interviews by RNV officials on the 880 station in Caracas, via
http://diexismovenezolano.blogspot.com/2011/07/venezuela-detalles-sobre-la.html
via Horacio A. Nigro, dxldyg, update us on progress in constructing RNV`s own SW site in the middle of Venezuela; I never heard the place ``Calabozo`` mentioned in connexion with this. The audio is very low on both clips via embedded players, so I had to put on headset and turn the volume all the way up. My summary translations:

First one is 10 minutes from 13 July 2011, interview with Daniel Peralta, chief of RNV Canal Internacional:

The new station is in response to ``systematic attacks on our country``. Model is RHC, which went 24 hours after the Honduran coup, as the ``only source`` for the Honduran people on what was really happening.

Everything should be ready to go by the end of October or beginning of November 2011. Programming will be fed live via satellite from Caracas. There will be a 2-hour program in Spanish repeated several times, including one hour of news, 20 minutes daily of speeches by Chávez, and 30 minutes of music: 2 days a week from Caribbean, 2 days from Venezuela, and 2 days from the rest of Latin America.

Also half an hour daily in English, repeated several times. Later Portuguese and French, and later still Quechua and Guarani like RHC.
[so at last English will no longer be mixed in with Spanish!]

Three antenna beams each toward the north and the south. Will cover all of N, C and S America, and reach DXers everywhere else.

Earlier 18-minute interview of 28 June last year, 2010, with Jhon [sic] Paez, in charge of the construxion:

Mostly explaining what SW is. There will be four 100 kW transmitters covering 6-21 MHz. There is room for six. Antennas will cover 6-11 or 11-21 MHz. Plans to add tropical band too for closer coverage. Mentions 3 x 50 kW for that. China supplied all the equipment; Cubans are helping install it. There are 30 construxion workers and seven maintenance personnel on site. Big building of 2,600 square somethings. The site covers 100 hectares, needs lots of room for antennas, whose towers are 100m tall and 100m apart. There will be 15 fixed antennas, aimed at such places as Los Ángeles, San Francisco, New York, Brasília, Santiago, Buenos Aires. Frequencies will vary, not selected yet. Project began in 2005 or 2006; all should be ready by the beginning of 2012y (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###