[HCDX] Glenn Hauser logs June 20-22, 2008

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

** CUBA. DentroCuban Jamming Command is crazy, jamming frequencies with nothing on them. A quick bandscan June 20 at 0615 found the same raspy pulsing at the rate of two per second on these frequencies: 9840, 11775, and by 0622 also on 7365, 6100. I did not use a second receiver to see if they were synchronized, but probably were. As recently pointed out, 6100 is used at other times, only two hours a day, by R. República, and was also testing Cuban music later in the night from WHRI. 7365 is R. Martí at other hours and formerly Cuban music via WHRI until 1500. 11775 is R. Martí, only earlier in the evening. 

But 9840? No targets known there, but since it is a WHRI frequency, currently available at 1300-2000 per HFCC, I suspect this points to yet another previous Cuban music test we may have missed. Checked at 1752 June 20, 9840 was on with usual WHRI gospel rock music fill (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. Tnx to a tip from Jean-Michel Aubier in France, that R. República was on both 6135 and 5940 from *2200 June 21, I rushed to check out new 5940 at 2355 UT. Yes, still on then and beneath heavy jamming on both; as far as I could tell the two were // and synchronized, which has not been the case when RR was running from both DTK and VTC facilities in Europe. Therefore, I suspect new 5940 is also coming from Rampisham, as RR steps up its output to dilute the effectiveness of the DentroCuban Jamming Command. At 2359 there was ``Atención``, presumably a frequency change announcement, but could not copy it due to jamming. Both 5940 and 6135 went off at exactly 0000, and by the time I had retuned one receiver to 6155, it was already going there as per usual schedule.

Then I looked around for a successor to 5940, but none found on 49 or 41m; altho jamming against nothing was then found on 5890, and it diminished in level by 0005. Also heavier jamming on 9885, both of which point to VOA Spanish target --- except neither starts until 0030, and with non-Cuban programming at the outset. Heavy splatter from WWCR/DGS 5935 started at 0000, but as far as I could tell the jamming was no longer on 5940.

The previous addition to RR was 5955 but nothing on there at this hour; it had been observed May 22 at 0100-0200 Tue-Sat via Nauen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ECUADOR. HCJB is really in a rut, a captive of its unsupervised automation system. As I previously noted a few years before, when the Spanish service on 9745 signs off, this still happens: June 21 at 0501 Ecuadorian national anthem in progress, ending at 0503. Time to turn off the transmitter, right? Wrong. After a few seconds pause, starts playing an Andean music piece for about 70 seconds, and THEN the transmitter cuts off while that music is still playing. Could be a studio silence-sensor kicks in with such fill music instead of realizing it is time to quit, and a separate timer on the transmitter is set to turn off one minute too late (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LAOS [non]. Hmong World Christian Radio, presumed, Saturday June 21 at 1406 on WHRI 11785, playing the same rustic singing with frogs(?) chirping in background that we also hear on Hmong Lao Radio during the previous hour. Makes one wonder just how closely related these two programs are (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. As you may know, I could not care less about stupid ballgames, but after dining at a restaurant which had some European soccer championship up on a screen, as it was shown in the USA even on ABC-TV, Russia leading 1-0 at that point, I inevitably ran across some of RNW`s special coverage during a routine SW bandscan.

June 21 at 2119, WWCR/DGS 13845 was suffering from huge continuous crackling noise which also marred sidebands more than usual as far as 13835 and 13855, the latter bothering RNW in Dutch; this was not synchronized with strong 17765 and weak 17485. At 2122 I noticed a much stronger //, Sackville 11640, on for this occasion only, no trace of anything under it, during sad solo singing --- imagine that, MUSIC on RNW`s Dutch service!! ID, `Dit is de Wereldomroep`, but did not say which one; 2124 a vaguely familiar song in English! So mutch for Dutch music. This too was of a lamentational nature, so I concluded that Netherlands must have lost. This matters only insofar as Lowcountrypeople believe it does; in reality, it is better for a nation to lose such a contest, so it may then concentrate on something that really matters to national achievement, e.g. scientific research, the arts, freedom (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEW ZEALAND. RNZI`s newer DRM transmitter is also capable of AM, and that was evident June 21 at 0421 when I found BOTH RNZI frequencies, 15720 and 13730 running AM! Some show about downloading songs, good reception on both. But what will the poor Pacific Island relayers do when the DRM frequency comes in on AM instead? Do their receivers automatically switch to AM? Then I look for an explanation on the RNZI website but only find this referring to six days earlier, not exactly applicable now:

``21 Jun, 2008 09:15 UTC --- There will be no DRM transmission on Sunday 15 June due repairs being carried out to the AM transmitter`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** RUSSIA [and non]. VOR, English on 13635 via Pet-Kam to WNAm, inbooming June 21 at 0423 during talk about a St. Pete music festival, but there were occasional split-second audio dropouts. During the following semihour, 13635 was better than 9450 via Germany (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Ran across Brother Scare on a frequency new to me, fair-poor 11520, June 21 at 2126; is it // WWRB 9385? No, but he is talking on same subject, prophecy of inevitable armed conflict between US and Iran before Bush is out (do we need this crap to muddy the waters, or contribute in the minutest way to it possibly happening?). 

So may be same program but unsynchronized from different sites. I forced myself to keep listening, and eventually determined that 11520 was running 2 minutes and 48 seconds behind 9385! That`s a lot of delay, even if multiple satellites, internet and digital processing are all involved.

It so happened that B.S. went on to talk about his current SW schedule, so this broadcast was of some usefulness after all. Here is how he gave it, never mentioning timezone! But probably EDT of UT -4; my comments in brackets:

 3185, 1-9 am [WWRB]
 5110, all-night [WBCQ]
 5745, 8 pm - 1 am [WWRB]
 6110, 10 am - noon [DTK]
 6175, 3-5 pm [DTK]
 6890, 6 pm - midnight [WWRB]
 7415, 9-11 pm [WBCQ – surely not every night now, just filling in?]
 9265, Sat 10 am - 2 pm [? Inactive WMLK scheduled from 1600 UT; WINB 
       only until 1200]
 9330, all-day [WBCQ]
 9385, all-day [WWRB]
11520, 5-6 pm daily [no listings at all for this on any of the online 
       skeds; but suspect DTK; = 21-22 UT when I heard it]
13570, 2-3 pm daily [WINB]
13810, 10-11 am daily [DTK]
17435, 11 am - noon daily [sic, means 17485, DTK]

A few minutes later he gave the SW sked again in a different form,  mixing local time and UTC, sic:

12-9 am, 3185 [WWRB]
3-11 pm, 7415 [WBCQ; he still thinx he has 8 hours straight on WBCQ 
         rather than here and there!]
9 pm-8 am, 5110 [WBCQ]
7 pm-midnight, 5745 [WWRB]
14 UTC, 6110 [DTK; no end times given]
19-21 UTC, 6175 [DTK]
6 pm-midnight, 6890 [WWRB]
8 am-9 pm, 9330 [WBCQ]
9 pm-7 pm, 9385 [sic, means 9 am-7 pm; WWRB]
14 UTC, 13810 [DTK]
15 UTC, 17485 [DTK, got the frequency right this time]

Yes, I know, DTK is now supposed to be called M&B. Note latest addition 11520 is missing from second version, and so is 9265. I`ll leave it to others to pick out the conflicts between the two versions other than those and 7415. Said his total SW airtime is now 144 hours per day. And he is on 133 stations around the world, 31 of which run him all-night. I heard him on WOAI 1200 recently plus IBOCs; has Clear Channel no shame? Also plugged his availability on cellphones, for a long-distance call anytime to 712-432-7250. Thank a god for that! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K. A good time to hear From Our Own Correspondent on that antiquated medium, SW, from BBCWS, is UT Saturdays 0432 on 9410, 62 degrees from Rampisham, as I did June 21 instead of webcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. WWCR/DGS service, 13845, suffering from revival of heavy continuous crackling on audio, June 21 at 2119, pushing sidebands further than usual to 13835 and 13855, latter bothering R. Netherlands soccer special. I could also hear the crackling on Anguilla 11775, but much less of it. They may have better audio filtering, but taking the same defective satellite feed from HQ in LA. I assume uplink dish is not aimed accurately, altho downlink dish misalignments could add to the problem. This has been a recurring problem for years with The University Network; they obviously don`t care or don`t know how to fix it. None of the Costa Rican frequencies were audible to look for crackling there too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###


      

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