[HCDX]: DX Listening Digest 00-28 Feb 20
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[HCDX]: DX Listening Digest 00-28 Feb 20
DX LISTENING DIGEST 00-28, February 20, 2000
edited by Glenn Hauser
{Items from this and all DXLDs may be reproduced and re-reproduced
only providing full credit be maintained at all stages}
** AFGHANISTAN. Please be informed that the sound files of
AFGHANISTAN have been posted on :
http://homepages.go.com/~vaghjee/KABUL.htm and
http://pages.intnet.mu/vaghjee/KABUL.htm (Mahendra Vaghjee, Rose-
Hill, MAURITIUS, Feb 20, hard-core-dx via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA. Another screwup at RCI, but we always wonder if it happens
at the Montreal control board or at Sackville. Sun Feb 20 at 1305
punched up 17710 for RCI Quirks & Quarks, but found BBC WS instead.
This continued past 1400, even tho at 1358 RCI claimed to be on this
plus 13650, 9640 which did have RCI. I checked 9515 in case this had
RCI by mistake, but it was correctly BBC. In any event, no one at
Montreal or Sackville is paying attention to what is going out! Feed
mixups are a recurring problem with RCI. Obviously they need to
revamp their system so this cannot happen, or if it does, someone
notices immediately and fixes it! (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
That reminds me,
** CANADA. Am listening to filler music on RCI during the time they
should be airing Madly Off, 2200 UT Dec 19. This is at least the
second recent weekend that RCI has aired the Mailbag and preceding
arts program OK, followed by announcement that Madly Off was coming
up, then instead had filler music. Wonder just what is going on with
them? No other major international broadcaster I can think of seems
to mess up the program feeds so often! And it`s not like this is in
the middle of Sackville`s local night, when screw-ups could be
expected. Instead this repeatedly happens on an ordinary afternoon,
admittedly on a Sunday, but what the hell; they ought to be used to
shift work by now. Can anybody explain this? They *can* air the silly
sports program that follows Madly Off on the schedule, so why not the
far-more-interesting-and-enjoyable comedy program? Humph!
I suppose I could be accused of ungrateful and snide behavior in
saying this, because I just heard on the Mailbag that I was one of
their winners of the ``identify the Canadian location`` contest and
will get a T-shirt as a result. But I don`t think that it is
unreasonable or presumptuous to expect scheduled programming to
appear as announced, no matter what the station`s relationship is to
you.
Later, as 2330 rolls around, RCI`s North American service *is* airing
Madly Off! They did start it in mid-intro, having a brief burst of
filler music. But if they can get it on the air now, why couldn`t
they do it a sesquihour ago? Something is really screwed up at RCI`s
control room, I fear. (Will Martin, St Louis, P-mail just arrived, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
I think the latest strike may have been underway on Dec 19, which
would be the excuse with management personnel trying to do the job of
unionists (gh, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. Otherness: 2-12 1800 kc Habana, 3rd harmonic all nite long
(Ron Gulyas, Lansing MI, MARE via DX LISTENING DIGEST) [MARE spells
it both Guylas and Gulyas; pronunciation previously given would
indicate the latter be correct -gh]
** GREECE. It seems that the schedule reshufflings at Voice of Greece
are rather extensive. Dieter Hommel and Günther Weihönig report that
German was expanded from 10 to 30 minutes, now 1930-2000 on 7475 and
9345, also announcing MW 792 and 1386 alongside with a couple of FM
frequencies in Greece. However, 792 from Kavala is scheduled for VoA
Turkish in 1900-2000 range and 1386 is of course impossible to listen
in Central Europe when co-channel Bolshakovo is on air (which is no
longer the enormous powerblast it used to be here since another
antenna aiming at the UK instead of Germany is in use, but it still
easily blocks out the 50 kW from Athens). The broadcasts consist of
news and a commentary with lots of music in between but still no
features or other stuff beyond this. The identification was changed
into "ERA Interprogramm". (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 20, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** IRAN. IRN jamming: Hello, some observations of yesterday Sat Feb
19, and today Sun morning RL: [after the elexions]
In general no Iranian BUBBLE jamming heard here in EUR against VoA/RL
anymore, only on 6085 1900-2000, BUT seemingly wobbling jamming from
CHN against TWN Chinese sce on co-channel.
RL 0430-0730: 7285LAM and 9585LAM jammed by VoIRI Arabic sce
[//9895, 13670, 15125]. but the other two channels jammed by d i f f
e r e n t programme from Iran:
0430-0730 12015KAV and 15290KAV disturbed by V of Islamic Revolution
in Iraq / V of Palestine [//9610] til 0527, and
from 0530 jammed by VoIRI Bosnian/Serbo-Croatian service [//15235
Kamalabad, and satellite delayed Sirjan on both 15510 and 17585].
RL 1500-1700 6015LAM, no jamming heard here in EUR. 11730 LAM, also
VoIRI English sce to SoAS/IND heard from 1530 UTC onwards co-channel.
15410WOF, powerhouse in Germany, though no jamming heard so far.
RL 1900-2000 6085LAM, Wobbling/Bubble jamming, BUT CHN origin against
TWN Chinese?? 7280KAV 9770WOF and 11960KAV, no co-ch jamming heard,
but latter one suffered from BSKSA Riyadh 11950 powerhouse.
Other strange engine/wobbling tone heard on both AIR Bangalore 15200,
and 11620 English at 1745-1945. Talking always about elections in
Zimbabwe, any coherence? Other jamming heard on 9685 til 1859.
Also CHN type against RFA Mandarin progr 11945 1920, 11790 1940, 9355
1945, 9875 2000, 9885 2000, 9775 2000.
The only [Iranian] BUBBLE jamming is against BSKSA Arabic 11930 at
1930. 73 de Wolfy. (Wolfgang Bueschel, Stuttgart, Germany, Feb 20, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** ITALY. Rai, English at 2200 Feb 19 to Australia, had no news but
mention of a journalists` strike (Chris Hambly, Victoria) Promptly
checked at 0050 Feb 20 on 11800, and heard opening giving metres
first as 49.92, 31.01 and 25.42, then frequencies as equivalents:
6010, 9675, 11800, even tho it is the meters which are approximate
equivalents of exact kHz frequencies! Hey, it`s almost Century XXI!
0051 standard news opener, then about a minute explaining that there
is no news due to a strike by the National Press Federation, and
summarizing their grievances. 0053 standard news outro and into
music. Checking the parallels, I noticed that 9675 had lower-fi audio
than 11800, and as best I could tell amid QRM, 6010 was higher-fi
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH. More on RKI`s antenna work: one of the old ones will
have to be torn down before the new one can be built since there is
no extra space available. This is the antenna for service to
Indonesia and the Pacific, which is bound to suffer for several
months. Trying to find alternatives, RKI will test Feb 23 and 24 with
a non-directional antenna instead on 9570 at 0700-0900 in Korean and
English. Comparative reports by monitors in the target area are
wanted, along with cassette tapes (Han Hee Joo and Esther Li, RKI
Multiwave Feedback Feb 20 via Hauser, also via Bill Bergadano, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** MARIANA ISLANDS NORTHERN. At 1500 very strong signal of registered
RFA Saipan 11945 S=55555, much stronger than Tinian 13690, 13735,
15215. So I wonder if there is a location exchange between Saipan and
Tinian ??
Also puzzled me up, that the both "MRA outlets" of RFA Saipan and RFA
Tinian have a remarkable satellite DELAY each other, when carrying
the same programme. I guess, that RFA Tinian is fed via IBB control
center Munich Ismaning, were I have seen the satellite circuits
towards Asian/CIS/Iranawila/Udorn/SaoTome/Botswana/Kavalla/Kuwait,
amongst there 25 satellite dishes and txion equipment, when I
visited the station last June [also MW 1197 site].
And opposite the RFA Saipan is still fed via PAC circuits of the
previous private religious broadcasting era. (Wolfgang Bueschel,
Germany, Feb 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS. I finally received an RN ``goodie bag`` in November;
they had promised me one many months before when I was a called-guest
on Sincerely Yours. But it never came and I finally sent them an E-
mail after hearing other missing-bag reports on the program from
participants in other areas. I had thought that such missing-form-
the-mail glitches were a 3rd-world problem and not likely in a Europe-
North America shipment, but I then heard a comment on RN that missing
stuff was a ``nightmare`` worldwide. I don`t know what the original
lost one would have had in it; what came was a T-shirt, cap and tote
bag (Will Martin, MO, Dec 19, 1999, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. > Why the hell is there a bubble jammer on 9790
in the 0900-1100 UT timeframe?
I didn't try this freq on that time slot. If this is not a local
mixture in the rx, one should always try to listen to such outlets on
two or three different rxs. It could be VTN jamming against FEBC
Manila in Vn at 1100 on nearby 9795. VTN used to set the jamming tx
some 2 kHz away from the exact freq, like 15472 against RFA Tinian-
MRA 15470 Vn sce 1400-1500. Also VoA Chinese is scheduled on 9790
via Tinang-PHL, but starts from 1300 UTC only. May the CHN set their
jamming tx before 1300 UTC already ? 73 de wolfy DF5SX (Wolfgang
Bueschel, Germany, Feb 20, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5046.2 R. Integración, Abancay; 17/02 1100-1144 33333 mx en
quechua ID ?Esta es Radio Integración, son las 6 de la mañana con 10
minutos...? NOTA: la programación se realiza en quechua y español
(Pedro F. Arrunategui, Lima, Chasqui DX via DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TIBET [non]. V of Tibet heard yesterday, Sat 19th, at 1230 on
v15640.21 via TJK, but couldn't trace on 9910, due to poor
ionisation/propagation? and some nearby RTTY stations on 9907.6 and
v9912. Today Sun 20th, 9910KAZ heard again, when RTTY 9907.6 was only
poor (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K O G B A N I. Regarding BBC WS, they still have for example a
Czech service, which is carried on a couple of FM transmitters in the
Czech Republic and as part of the "CRo 6" network on MW 1233 and
1287. They also still have a service in Slovak, once again using some
FM frequencies in Slovakia and more or less regular MW 1521. This AM
channel didn't appear on any schedules, seems than one can state they
are testing it already for a couple of years now, or was it no longer
operational recently? 1521 uses two transmitters, a powerful one at
Kosice-Cizatice and a modest power one at Rimavska Sobota. A while
ago a lack of proper synchronization of these two was reported.
Perhaps BBC WS will soon also have again a German service, produced
this time not at London but at Leipzig instead, where an allocation
of FM 98.2 seemed to be just a matter of form. However, at the last
moment also RFI applied for this frequency, hence a formal decision
is now needed; the media authority of Saxonia also suggests a common
use of 98.2 by both BBC and RFI like at Budapest. The BBC intended to
engage first of all journalism students of the Leipzig university for
their local programmes, forcing me to assume it will become a low
budget service.
By the way, 98.2 is the correct frequency, not 98.5 as previously
reported. This 98.5 MHz was used in the past with modest power of
some 1 kW for both local programming from Leipzig (during the trade
fairs with extended transmission times as "Messewelle" and also on MW
729; contrary to the large Nalepastraße apparatus at Berlin a QSL
also for GDR listeners was never a problem) and DT64. It was shut
down sometime around 1990. Regards, (Kai Ludwig, Germany, Feb 20, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** U K O G B A N I. Sorry for the short notice, but a friend has just
alerted me to the fact that this week's edition of Waveguide on BBCWS
(Sunday 2105 UTC) is about Cold War jamming. Some of you may be
interested in that topic. I also noted that BBCWS program schedules
are now downloadable in Excel spreadsheet format, one file per stream
per week, which also may be of interest as programmes are apparently
being shunted around the schedules. Go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/ (Andy Sennitt, Feb 20,
swprograms) We still have another, better chance at Waveguide,
Tuesday 1445 on 17840, 15220, 9590, 9515 (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** U S A. It's been so long since I heard any Space Shuttle
Communications via WA3NAN at the Goddard Amateur Radio Club in
Maryland I was beginning to wonder if they were still active, but I
finally heard it February 19 around 2118 UT on 14295 USB. Signal was
weak but audible, at least until two hams came on frequency with a
QSO around 2125. Later, I checked on the internet and found that one
can find the status of these rebroadcasts at:
http://garc.gsfc.nasa.gov/www/retransmission/retrans_status.html
For example, I found: "Goddard Amateur Radio Club Shuttle
Retransmission Status...As of Sat Feb 19, 2000 14:45:55 (EST) Sat Feb
19, 2000 19:45:55 (GMT) The station is On-The-Air... This is NOT a
Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment... The Control Operator on duty is
Morris Bealle, K3INF... The station is transmitting on the following
frequencies... 40 meters SSB 7,185 kHz, 20 meters SSB 14,295 kHz, 15
meters SSB 21,395 kHz, 10 meters SSB 28,650 kHz, 2 meters FM Simplex
147.45 MHz [I assume that the 75 meter frequency of 3860 was off at
the time]... You can contact the station at 301-286-6673 or (301-286-
4534 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM M-F Eastern Time only)..."
Additional comments included the name of the mission [STS-99], the
primary payload, launch date and time, name of Orbiter, mission
duration, landing date and time, crew members, next mission dates,
etc. (John Norfolk, OKCOK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. Checking the URL for the Save VOA site in DXLD 00-26, I
found it really has to be:
http://members.aol.com/savevoa/index.html
with an L on the end. Seems to be run by hard-hit Polish employees,
recounting several ``lies`` about VOA, urging letters to management,
congress (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. In DXLD 00-27 I referenced the Tom Joyner Show on AFN as
having been on Sunday; actually I heard it on Thursday (and
presumably other weekdays). Again this Sunday Feb 20 at 1205, 12689.5
and 4278.5 had something else, whilst only 6458.5 had Perspective
from ABC (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** USA. 6900.00 WYFR 1015, Spanish religious talk, 1030 ID. Weak
signal, // 6105 and 9555. (Mark Mohrmann, VT, Feb 20) 2 x 6105 minus
9555 = 6900, a strange mixing product (gh, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
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