** BRAZIL [and non]. 11855, slightly wavering audible het from station in
Brazilian Portuguese soon conveniently mentioning Aparecida, just as I
expected. Initially it was about level with the collider, WYFR in Spanish, but
by 2307 Fámily Radio had increased to dominate. A pipeline from Brasil was
open, with huge RNA 11780 signal; 11815 RBC much weaker but in the clear;
Bandeirantes audible on 11925 but badly squeezed by HCJB on one side and
DentroCuban jamming pulses against nothing on the other; and 11765 good signal
with Deus é Amor service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 17705, RHC with yet another engineering problem during French
broadcast at 2238 March 4: there was crackling on the audio, the modulation
cutting in and out, but also the signal strength was jumping up and down, altho
never cutting off completely. As if there were a loose connexion or a short
somewhere in the antenna system. I recall a similar instance on RHC months ago.
More than wiggling a patchcord will be required to fix this. You`re welcome,
from RHC`s volunteer monitor and technical advisor in Oclajoma.
12060, second harmonic of DentroCuban Jamming Command with pulses at the rate
of about 126 per minute or slightly over 2 times per second, against nothing,
at 2301 March 4. Initially I thought it was OTH radar, but too narrowband, and
then the pulse rate clocked in. Collateral damage from jammers against Radio
Martí on 6030. These also appear on 3x = 18090 in a ham band when propagation
is favorable. Fortunately there were no innocent bystanding broadcasters on
12060 at the moment. There is very little usage of 12060 anyway, and nothing to
or from the Western Hemisphere. This may not be coincidental (Glenn Hauser, DX
LISTENING DIGEST)
** GERMANY [non]. Chinese on 11830, March 4 at 2308, with heavy echo. This is
DW at 2300-2350, 250 kW, 263 degrees via Petropavlovsk-Kamchtsky, Far East
Russia, the same site that also easily gets VOR and RR into North America when
aiming usward.
In this case, the long path goes across the Indian Ocean, near Bouvet in the
South Atlantic, across South America entering at Porto Alegre, hitting North
America around the LA/TX bayou border. Pet-Kam is not that far away from Enid,
only some 4800 statute miles, about the same distance as Brasília in the other
direxion. Therefore the long path measures 25000 minus 4800 = 20200 miles, and
subtracting 4800 again, is 15400 miles longer than the short path. Therefore
the echo delay is 15,400 divided by the speed of radio, 186,000 miles per
second, .083 second or one twelfth of a second, in roundish figures. These are
always much shorter than synchronous satellite delays, where the minimum
up-and-down path is much longer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE [and non]. Instead of the terrible collision on 9420 between VOG and
CVC Zambia, March 4 at 2151 I found CVC all by itself, not a trace of QRM.
Usual gospel-huxtering in English, for the younger crowd including some revival
in Cape Town charging 20 rand admission. Kept listening until CVC finally
turned off at 2203* revealing nothing else on frequency. Meanwhile, before 2200
I checked 7450 and 7475 and found only fair signals there, presumably Greece as
usual. Rechecking 9420 at 2304, ERA was back on the air. I wonder if they were
monitoring CVC for themselves, or trying out another frequency while it was on?
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. RNW Indonesian service via Saipan, 15280 at 22-23 is
still suffering from severe but intermittent audio problems. March 4 at 2215 it
seemed OK, but at 2218 started sticking and looping. This is not to be confused
with reduplication of words as normal Indonesian pluralization! I taped 3
minutes of it at 2223-2226 and sent it to RN, also messing up some barrel organ
music and ID. It was still breaking up after that.
Lots of things could cause this, but I suspect it could be solar transit outage
interfering with the digital satellite feed, as it`s the season, the same thing
messing up CNN and other cable TV channels as received in OK around local noon.
Is Saipan aiming its downlink dish into the sunrise? There may well be more
than one satellite hop involved in this feed, not necessarily the most direct
route, as we have learned before about IBB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** SAIPAN. 12090, good signal but rolling fades at 2244 March 4 with Vietnamese
songs, brief announcement and another song which had a more religious tinge to
it, then talk in Vietnamese, but including this English phrase at 2248: ``the
other woman in your marriage``. Hmm. 2258 wrapping up with website, postal
address in Manila, and a bit of echo, long path? Just before 2300* YL with
English ID as ``The international service of FEBC, KFBS from Saipan, Mariana
Islands, in the Pacific``. It`s the Vietnamese service at 2230-2300 aimed
westward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. On a caradio MW bandscan from a hot spot in a store parking lot in
west Enid, March 4 at 2020 UT, I found a gaping hole on 690, KGGF Coffeyville,
Kansas, off the air! I could make out two extremely weak signals instead and a
trace of a SAH. Assuming it was not a remnant of some local mix, nor skywave in
axion this early, I guess the prime suspect by groundwave would be KTSM,
ex-KHEY in El Paso, 10 kW, and with a lobe almost in this direxion. The
somewhat closer stations in CO, TX, AR and MO are quite low-powered. I can
normally hear a bit of Midland, TX, KCRS on 550, underneath dominant KFRM in
KS. But Midland is closer, and path from El Paso would cross a good swath of
lower ground conductivity in NM. But what became of KGGF? Anyhow, it was back
at next check 2136. Next time would they please notify me when they are going
to be off, so I can see what I can get on a defacto fence beverage (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN [and non]. 9600, March 4 at 2312 under powerful RHC in Spanish,
could hear weak talk in English making SAH of about 3 Hz; 2314 much more
readable Vatican Radio IS, and 2315 into Vietnamese. So VR is still
broadcasting an otherwise secret and unscheduled 3-minute English service at
2312 when it turns on this transmitter early (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST) ###
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