martedì 27 dicembre 2011

Glenn Hauser logs December 26, 2011

** CHINA. 11945, Dec 26 at 2124, huge signal in Chinese from CNR1; it really stands out, as there is nothing like it anywhere else on 11 MHz or higher bands. Not in schedules, so we have R. Free Asia to thank for this, since if it were not broadcasting Mandarin at 95 degrees from Tajikistan overnight, all the way from 15 to 22 UT on 11945, CNR1 would surely not have accidentally landed on the same frequency. I did find a weaker // on 9455 running about two seconds ahead of 11945. That of course is also a jammer against RFA Mandarin, 16-22 via Saipan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9565, Dec 26 at 2159 as I tune in R. Martí, there is a story about OVNIs, (UFOs), necessarily in Cuba?? I`ll never know, as cut off the air while jamming continued, resumed at 2200 with ID, weaker signal, i.e. the site switch from Sackville to Greenville (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 9445, Dec 26 at 2128, AIR GOS is in weekly Monday mailbag `Faithfully Yours`, informal M&W hosting conversationally, reading and replying to reception reports, at the moment one from Germany in October. Next one they politely refuse to verify due to insufficient details; try again. More reports from Germany, Austria, until 2135 change to Film Music. F.Y. starts at 2120. I could also hear it on 11670 and, perhaps better, on 7550. I should have, since at 2136-2137, 9445 cut off the air, but the others were on as soon as I checked them.

After a stint with Romania next door on 9435,, at 2201 I was back on 9445 for the news, but it cut off and on and off and on and off again until 2204; meanwhile I found a much better signal with music on the National Channel 9425. 2210, commentary which I thought was rather smug, about Pakistan`s perilous balance among the government, military and intelligence agency. It seems India has a name for this, something-gate, but I couldn`t understand or Google it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SERBIA [non]. 6100, Dec 26 at 2223, fair signal with a rather sad Balkan-sounding song, from what? 2227 outro in English as International Radio Serbia, giving three frequencies without making clear that the other two apply only to the separate English broadcasts at different times. Contact info, 2228-2229* IS. Per Aoki, this daily 2200 transmission to Europe is on exactly the same 310-degree antenna as the 6190 transmission to NAm including English at 0130-0200 Tue-Sat (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 15570, Dec 26 at 2121, surprised to find VOA here instead of 15580, with classic rock, 2122 confirmed ID as `American Gold` from VOA Music Mix, Mondays at 21-22. Good signal here and in fact the SSOB, with only 15195 YFR/Ascension rivalling it, not much else on 19m. Mistake or deliberate QSY? Has this page been changed?
http://www.voanews.com/english/programs/frequencies/
Or course not! How about this schedule?
http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=B11&broadc=IBB
Still 15580 for English from Moepeng Hill, i.e. BOTSWANA, and still nothing but 15580 for many other hours via different sites thruout the day, no 15570 at all.

If this hour has changed permanently, how about the others, and why? Going by HFCC and Aoki, there is no co-channel problem on 15580, and the only possible conflict would be with 15575 KBS at 16-22, 250 kW, 290 degrees from Kimjae to Iraq/Oman/Afghanistan --- but that would still be 5 kHz away from the other side. 15570 is certainly available except at 01-08 when CNR is using it for Tibetan service from Beijing site. VOA has also been on 15580 at 03-07 via Botswana and Sri Lanka. Time will tell (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 7465, Monday Dec 26 at 2217 as I tune in `Frecuencia al Día` on WWCR, a well put-together DX program with an impressive roster of contributors, I hear misinformation: in his AER report, Pedro Sedano is conveying the Spanish schedule of Radio Taiwán Internacional, with 0400 on 6890 and 0600 on 6875. Evidently he has ignored my almost-daily reports for several weeks that at 0600, 6875 has been in the wrong language, German instead of Spanish; and I have also reported that at 0400, 6890 is in Chinese instead of Spanish. He`s not the only DX reporter relying on `official` info instead of axual monitoring.

It may well be that all the other scheduled Spanish hours via WYFR are replaced by something else, so I check the 23-24 UT broadcast on 11885: yes, it`s in Chinese, not Spanish. There is something underneath it --- nothing in incomplete HFCC to account for that but Aoki and EiBi show it`s probably CNR1 jamming --- not against the WYFR relay, but against RTI from Hu Wei, Taiwan site itself in Mandarin also scheduled in this hour! The intervening RTI Spanish broadcast is supposedly at 0200-0300 on 9355 via WYFR, which Pedro also mentioned, and 11995 via Guiana French. Maybe the latter at least has not been lost in the WYFR shuffle? What about the one other, 20-21 on 3965 via France? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)