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[HCDX] Glenn Hauser logs October 23-25
** COSTA RICA. Another check for the REE 17850 spurs, Oct 23 at 1850: nothing
detectable on 18105v or 17595v, but REE Noblejas on 17595 by itself. It axually
sounded louder than 17850 during silly ballgame, but the meter said 17850 was a
stronger signal, the weaker modulation making the difference. However, 17850
was not as strong as it has been in past when the spurs were audible, so not
certain they have really been suppressed beyond audibility. Apparently: no
longer heard either on Oct 24 or 25 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. RHC 13680 transmitter out of whack again Oct 23 at 1307. There were
spurs all over the band, such as 13532, 13581, 13606, 13631, 13729, 13778.
These are approximate centers of big noisy blobs. Only the ones closest to
13680 had audible RHC modulation, such as 13631 and 13729. The others had noise
of the same pitch. I am sure if it were not for my local electrical noise level
I could have detected even more of them further out. These were all
distinguished from the separate RHC intentional frequency 13760, which was
slightly out of synch due to different site and/or feed routing.
But wonder of wonders, this time, Radio Tirana lucked out, and was getting
through clearly on 13750 as none of the RHC spurs happened to land close to it!
R. Prague, 13580, was not so fortunate [in B-07, Prague remains on 13580 to NAm
but shifts to 1400-1430; it`ll be a few years before they dare use 21745
again].
Since this and other problems keep on happening with RHC transmitters, we can
only wonder if the dentroCubans are 1) unaware, 2) unable or 3) unwilling to
fix them? At some perverse level of management, has it been decided that the
more frequencies RHC can occupy, the better, so why worry?
This clearly brands Cuba as an outlaw nation insofar as international frequency
management cooperation, and its `engineers` are obviously incompetent or are so
demoralized that they take no pride in their work. If they can`t fix it, the
least they could do would be to close down the transmitter and scrap it. There
are still plenty of others, as we know all too well, plus all the transmitters
dedicated to jamming which might be repurposed for voice-modulated
broadcasting.
Altho I am absolutely certain that these spurs exist, since I hear them on
multiple receivers, and have not been challenged, it would be nice if some
other monitors would take note and report them as well. Quite possibly they
also occur around other Cuban SW frequencies I have not yet encountered. Note:
I do not enjoy having to make such comments, and would be quite pleased if RHC
cleaned up its act, so I would have no reason to. The same can be said for all
the other transmission deficiencies I unavoidably encounter if I tune around at
all. Oct 24 at same time, 13680 was OK without the spurs; you never know from
one day to the next (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GALAPAGOS. Not much broadcast DX possible from here, so I was satisfied to
hear HC8N on the Oct 25 ten-meter opening, at 2047 on 28515-USB working North
American hams. Not much info via QRZ.com page. BTW, The Ecuatorians, or at
least the Voice of the Andeans, refer to this as ``Our Columbus Archipelago``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. Usually it`s DGS Costa Rica on 9725, but has been missing
lately, and propagation differed too on Oct 23 as on 9725 with hum, until 0530
I was getting NHK Warido, R. Japan. Before signing off, announcer gave all the
frequencies for the next broadcast at 0900. Since Oct 1, I`ve never heard them
give frequencies for the broadcast actually in progress! So to find out the
frequencies for 0500, one needs to listen at 0019? This is 250 kW from Gabon
beamed 170 degrees toward South Africa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PORTUGAL. A month ago I remarked that Oct is the annual peak for 13mb
reception, but that certainly has not panned out this year with sunspots zero
and solar flux minimum. Nevertheless, I occasionally patrol the band in case
something beyond NAm make it through. And so it did, besides WYFR on 21455,
21525, Oct 25 at 1938, good signal from RDPI on 21655 in silly ballgame. 1942
made it // 15560 which had a huge SAH of 4 Hz, as if a second transmitter at
the same site were inadvertently turned on the same (almost) frequency. But
only one audio source. However, these `SAH` fades also put out pulses audible
out to plus/minus 20 kHz from 15560, so maybe it was really one transmitter
malfunxioning. By 1952 the signal on 15560 had recovered when the important SBG
coverage was interrupted for a pending QSY announcement, 21655 to 15295 in ten
minutes for Cabo Verde. A brief check of 15560 at 2001 found some other noise
on the transmission. At 2030, 15295 was also coming in. When may we hear 21655
in B-07? Per full tentative sked via Carlos Gonçalves in DXLD 7-125, 13 m usage
is:
0800 ? 1500 .....ss Af 21830
1100 ? 1300 mtwtf.. B/Af 21655
1100 ? 1700 .....ss B/Af 21655
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SOUTH AFRICA. Conditions on 31m were rather different Oct 23 than they had
been lately. At 0531, Channel Africa was coming in well on 9685 in English with
that curious variety of accents their people use.
This is 500 kW at 335 degrees, so not too far off for NAm reception (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Solar-terrestrial indices for 22 October follow. Solar flux 67 and mid-latitude
A-index 4. The mid-latitude K-index at 0600 UTC on 23 October was 3 (24 nT). No
space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather
storms are expected for the next 24 hours (SWPC via DXLD) See also JAPAN [non]
** SUDAN [non]. Miraya FM began regular SW service on Oct 25, 9825 scheduled at
1500-1800 via IRRS Bulgaria, but on the first day ran at 1300-1600 instead by
mistake, they tell me. All I could get was a weak carrier, but confirmed with
good reception in England, by Noel Green, Alan Pennington. Details in DX
LISTENING DIGEST 7-128 and 7-129 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Oct 23 at 2100 I checked 11675 again to see if IBB had improved its
performance in getting BBCWS on air on time. No: carrier not on until 2101:10
and audio not brought up until 2102. Is there some technical reason the audio
cannot be turned on immediately the carrier is on? It`s not like the
transmitter has to warm up, just having switched from VOA Hausa on 11720 (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WWCR, 15825, at only one megameter from here is usually weak or
inaudible, as OK is in the F-layer skip zone, so when it inbooms I know
something interesting is happening propagationally, i.e. a sporadic E opening,
which may or may not attain VHF and also bring in TV or FM DX. This reception
eventually encouraged me to tune up to 30 MHz and find lots of DX on 10 and 11
meters:
Oct 25 at 2002 I found 15825 inbooming with Rock the Universe, at an
unscheduled time. Lots of great music, harmonious love songs of the sixties,
and at 2027 a plug for the Doowop Café, http://www.doowopcafe.net
Current online sked dated Oct 1 lists The Pat Boone Show for Thursday
2000-2100, among other music fillers during this weekday hour --- so the paid
show which knocked WORLD OF RADIO from Thursday to Friday at 2030 several
months ago is long gone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
PROPAGATION --- Big Opening on 10, 11 meters --- Off-season sporadic E appears
to be underway Thursday afternoon; WWCR inbooming on 15825, normally weak in
skip zone, after 2000 with unscheduled appearance of Rock The Universe.
Moving up past 25 MHz, I found Spanish-speaking freebanders all over the place,
mostly on AM with tones, echoes, pileups on some frequencies. Mexico? Including
within the so-called 11m SWBC band, where these will really be a problem if
groundwave DRM is ever tried as proposed.
These frequencies all seemed to end in 5, implying some kind of coordination;
no attempt to ID or locate them, but frequencies heard from 2035 included:
25985, 25705, 25785, 25755, 25835. Also:
26715, 26735, 26585(pileup), 26375, 26225(SSB), 27815, 27985, 28045, 28215,
28315 (yes, encroaching on the 10m hamband above 28000) And many others lower.
So is 10m open too with real hams? Yes, but not nearly as much activity as
among the CBers just lower (the US CB also full of signals).
2044 on 28495, 6H1MW, working US & Canadian stations back-to-back, many of whom
I could also hear, like it were a contest, never giving handle or location
until finally at 2100 mentioned he is Carlos, 50 miles S of Mexico City (WPX
target, I guess, not an XE-). Still going at 2117.
2047 on 28515 HC8N - must be Galápagos
2050 on 28480 PY2OMS, Brasil
2053 on 28347 LU#OT, weaker, CQ North America. Argentina. Could not get the
number.
These deep South Americans imply something more than just a plain old
short-skip opening. Looked around for broadcast harmonics up to 31 MHz but did
not find any. No activity yesterday or today on http://dxworld.com/tvfmlog.html
so the MUF must not be up past 50 MHz (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, Oct 25, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
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