[HCDX]: Glenn Hauser's SW/DX March 19

["Glenn Hauser" <wghauser@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

        GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 98-11, March 19, 1998

THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 933. WRN on WCSP; record FM tropo DX
Mexico to Hawaii; HIFER beacons; USIA cutting jobs, closing
Rhodes, buying KHBI; Greece adding prime time VOA USA relays;
summer frequency changes for Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania,
Israel; China/Mali listed again; Guinea back on SW; and much more
including the stories below (Hauser)

WORLD OF RADIO APRIL SCHEDULE ON WWCR. Here are the anticipated
times following the DST shift April 6: Thu 2030 15685, Sat 0600
3210 and 5070; Sat 1130 5070; Mon 0400 5070; Tue 1230 15685.

CUBA. Hey, I fell off my chair! On the March 14 DXers Unlimited,
Arnie Coro did deal with the RHC noise-burst problem I reported
previously. But instead of explaining in any detail what caused 
it, how it was repaired, and godforbid, apologizing to the 
countless listeners and stations this affected for weeks and 
weeks, he used his time to make a vicious personal attack on 
yours truly! I heard it, and anyone can read it on the RHC 
website. Those who read my DX reports 98-07 and 98-10 will see
that I did not make a personal attack on Coro about this, but
he responds with a personal attack on me.

Coro apparently took great offense at my sarcastic remarks about 
RHC transmitters, assuming that everyone would agree with him 
that I was way out of line. I repeat: "LOUSY". Any serious SW
listener will be aware that RHC transmitters repeatedly suffer
from modulation, spurious and harmonic problems. If the RHC
engineers were as on the ball as Coro would like us to believe,
the problems would be fixed permanently or nipped in the bud. But
it took a yankee imperialist to uncover the source of the noise
blasts on 31 meters each morning. Why don't Coro and the rest of
the staff monitor their own station? If I could hear this, the
same must have been audible to anyone turning on a SW radio in
groundwave range around Havana.

Yes, I am impatient with incompetence in the operation of SW
stations, and frequently point it out. RHC is certainly not the
only station with such problems. By attacking me personally, Coro
is trying to shift attention away from the REAL problem, "non-
essential radiation" from RHC, by blaming the messenger! He went
on to criticize Hotmail, claiming he had not received my message
directly to him about this, and even WEWN, as if I were somehow
responsible for them. As a matter of fact, as many other than 
Coro will remember, it was I who exposed WEWN's super-splatter
problems, something which they did not appreciate, either. Tough
luck. Stations are using OUR airwaves, and I will make public
problems wherever I find them. At least, briefly in the middle
of his diatribe, Coro admitted RHC was the source:

"YES, Mister Hauser was right, we had a problem with the 
frequency generator used at our old Brown Boveri of 1961 vintage."

He calls me isolated--this from someone in one of the most 
isolated countries on earth! He calls me unprofessional for 
making public the problem rather than quietly telephoning him 
directly about it. Let me explain a few things. I am not isolated, 
but independent. I am not on any station's payroll, and not 
obligated to give any of them technical advice. I am not 
unprofessional, but non-professional. I am a listener, critic and
SW journalist. I report to the public on what I hear. In order to 
do that, something has to be transmitted. In this case, severely 
interfering noise bursts, week after week. I may make a 
reasonable effort to inform the station of the problem, as I did 
in this case with the E-mail directly to Coro a few days earlier, 
but I am not going to sweep it under the carpet, nor am I going 
to refrain from expressing my opinions, even if they are 
sarcastic. Everyone has the right to do this. In this country, we 
happen to have freedom of speech.

May I remind you that Cuba is one of the few countries which
deliberately jams foreign SW broadcasts, mostly from the US,
causing a lot of collateral damage much like the RHC noise bursts
did. This is one topic Coro doesn't dare mention on his show.

He makes a big deal of not receiving my direct E-mail, and not
learning of the problem (doesn't he have a SW radio?) until 
forwarded by Wolfgang Bueschel. As my previous report said, it 
seemed the problem had already stopped before this, but perhaps 
it was just intermittent. He says on Friday, March 13, he and the
chief engineer spent the whole morning looking for the problem,
finally found and fixed it by removing a "decadic [?] frequency
generator and connecting a spare unit". And indeed since then,
we once again have a clear 31 meters in the morning, thanks to
me, at least for the time being. Unfortunately, Coro thinks I
am "super-egotistic, 'only I know about everything'" Of course
not, but I obviously knew about this before he did, and he just
can't take it. 

I think this episode gives us a rare glimpse of the real Arnie
Coro, behind the good-fellow your-friend-in-Havana facade he
tries so to hard to portray. I'm not surprised. I've previously
received word from an American SWL, which I have not made public,
that at considerable personal expense and trouble, he sent Coro
something he needed via a third country. And all he got in reply
was a slap in the face. In reality, Coro shows he is a vindictive
ideologue who can't take criticism, on the payroll of one of the
most repressive dictators on earth. Tsk, tsk  (Glenn Hauser,
"selfish, autocratic, chief engineer for the world")

MEXICO. XERTA is back, after an absence of 4 or 5 months. Hector
Garcia B. in Mexico City tells me he first heard them in the
daytime March 13 on 4800, but on March 14, 15 they had problems
and were on 4952 instead. March 16, back to 4800. I was hearing
a carrier on 4800.7 that day, and on March 17 at 1225, definite
ID in French, also during following hour with previous format of
music and frequent produced IDs, the same as used before. This is
all bad news for Buenas Nuevas, the Guatemalan on 4799.9, with an
equally strong signal; the two produce a heavy heterodyne when 
both are on, and are difficult to separate. XERTA really ought to
get a frequency not already used by a neighboring country! By
March 19 around 0530, XERTA was relatively clear, now with live
DJ and timechecks, more talk; same at 1150 check but now again
versus TGBN. After 1230 or so the Guatemalan begins to fade and
XERTA has the upper hand for about an hour (Glenn Hauser, OK)

PORTUGAL. R. Portugal's Winnie Almeida made a very brief
announcement at 0457 March 18 on 6150, 9570 that their English
service would be closed down at the end of March. As usual, it
was very difficult to understand her amid the low modulation,
co- and adjacent-channel interference. Until then the English 
sked is: M-F 1430-1500 to ME on 21515 [heard a trace of it here]; 
2100-2130 Eu 7110, 9780, 9815; UT Tue-Sat 0430-0500 6150, 9570 
(Glenn Hauser, OK)
   All foreign language programs end as of March 31, also
French and Tetum [for Timor]. English had been on the air since 
1954 and was known as Voice of the West in the 60s and early
70s. Portuguese external services will continue on a 
restructured schedule. Winnie Almeida was responsible for many of 
the feature programs including the DX program which aired from 
1975 to 1997. (Roy Baker, UK [who wrote the DX program] via Mike 
Barraclough, World DX Club, WORLD OF RADIO 933)

SWITZERLAND. SRI's Schwarzenburg transmitter site closes down 
after March 28. For a complete frequency sked for the site, see
my March Spanish DX report, posted on my website,
http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio  (Glenn Hauser, OK)
   On Mon Mar 30, there will be a short Two Bobs item marking
the closure. A full 14-minute feature will be aired on the
following weekend, April 4-5. This will be in the good old ad-
lib Two Bobs style (Bob Zanotti, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL
BROADCASTING)                                            ###


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