lunedì 28 gennaio 2013

Glenn Hauser logs January 27-28, 2013

** AUSTRALIA. 11945, Jan 28 from 1505, RA`s excellent `Asia-Pacific` newsmagazine, but cut off abruptly at 1528 before it`s over. At 1529 I notice that next frequency 11880 has started a bit early. Now must get in habit of immediately retuning, just as one must do at 1458 from 9580 to 11945. But if it is the same transmitter, there will still be a break of at least a minute before 11880 come up. If possible, listen instead to 7240 which should stay on. The people running the Melbourne studio just don`t get it that they need to build in pauses with no significant programming, to accommodate SW frequency changeovers. O yeah, SW is just an outdated adjunct to continuous short-range FM relays and webcasts (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH. 4752, Jan 28 at 1351, still a carrier here hetting RRI Makassar, see INDONESIA. Abu Tabib Md. Zia Hasan, Senior Engineer, Research & Receiving Centre, Bangladesh Betar, denied to Supratik Sanatani, India, that they are on 4752 instead of 4750! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 11880, Jan 27 at 2140 check, RHC is in proper Portuguese this Sunday instead of Esperanto as last Sunday. 15370 at 2243 check, ``Guantanamera`` is playing, maybe in Esperanto version, but couldn`t tell from the many refrains ``guajira, guantanamera`` which are apparently untranslatable. Then talk in Espo.

Noisy blobs all over the 25 m band, Jan 28 from 1322: first noticed circa 11845 and 11874, no intelligible music or talk modulation, but a constant-pitch whine which matches on these and all the rest. At first I suspect RHC 11860 transmitter as the source, but these are not exactly the same plus and minus from it, and as I tune on down, many more are encountered every 13-15 kHz or so, to as low as 11580 area.

Many have no exact carriers and can be heard better in AM mode than with BFO. First rough finds are circa: 11745, 11731, 11718, 11703, 11674; also 11788, 11801, 11816, 11827, 11888, 11901, 11914, 11954. The separations here are, also approx.: 14, 13, 15, 29, 13, 15, 11, 61, 13, 13, 40. Common factor 13-14 kHz.

By now it`s 1347 and at this point I am suspecting Anguilla 11775 could be the source. But at 1353 I can barely hear the same pitch whine under the otherwise good modulation on 11760 RHC. At 1404 I notice the noise also QRMing 11775 but its level fluxuates with fades, and the offsets do not match that exactly. Some of them do have carriers and make hets with nearby victims, e.g. 11815 REE Costa Rica, where the het on the hi side is circa F#6 = 1480 Hz. Call it 11816.5. If 11760 is the source, that`s 56.5 kHz above, fourth multiple of 14.125.

At 1530 they are still going, and on the YB400 BFO 1 kHz steps I estimate several of them as: 11674.9, 11703.1, 11732.4, 11788.4, 11816.9, 11832.4, 11845.1, 11873.6. The intervals between these are: 28.2, 29.3, 56.0, 28.5, 15.5, 12.7, 28.5. The common factor here is somewhere around 14 kHz. Possibly some carriers from other sources got in, to explain the disparities; also the spurs themselves vary somewhat over time.

It only remains to monitor the RHC sign-off circa 1600, listening to one of the spurs (11703) on one radio, and 11760 on another, both with BFO to hear exactly when the transmitter is turned off. Yes, both disappear at exactly the same instant, 1600:28*. Such a panoply of spurs from awful RHC transmitters has happened several times before, a fine old anomaly, but bad news for all the other stations: RHC the worst neighbor possible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 4750, Jan 28 at 1351, soft island music, presumed RRI Makassar, poor with weak 2-kHz het from Bangladesh 4752 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. ARTS channel via Enid PEGASYS cable access ch 12, UT Monday Jan 28 at 0520, is starting to play ``Stairway to Lenin``, from ``The Orchestra``. This is an hilarious satire on Soviet Communism, set to the music of Ravel`s ``Bolero``. ARTS provides no program schedule, so you can only tune in at random and see what`s playing. I have seen this many times, always already in progress, but now from the beginning. Unfortunately, I am not prepared to tape it! But maybe it will show up again in the next few days under current rotation. Unfortunately2, PEGASYS only provides lo-fi hissy audio and video from this channel: at least the video is not breaking up at the moment and the sparklies are not too bad. The original was produced in HDTV! Look for it on YouTube: here`s a fragment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoANrOmdtYc
Some others have been deleted. I think Zbigvision is trying to keep it salable on DVD, along with other great videos, via http://www.zbigvision.com (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KURDISTAN [non]. 11510, Jan 28 at 1425-1500, another great concert of Kurdish vocal and instrumental music with hardly any announcements, tnx to the PKK terrorists of V. of Kurdistan, and coinciding with peak reception hour, better than usual today from presumed PRIDNESTROVYE site. BUT, annoyingly frequent IADs which BRB seems content to allow forever (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1653 monitoring: 0530 UT Monday Jan 28 on 9955, WRMI ID can be heard under the heavy jamming, and then WOR 1653 opening, confirmed anyway as on the air. Tnx a lot, Arnie! Next: Tuesday 1200 and Thursday 0430, the latter maybe with new 1654 if ready in time; Wednesday 0630 & 1630 on HLR Germany 7265-CUSB. Wednesday broadcasts appear to be regular now in addition to Saturday, but need confirmation they still include WOR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)