Thursday, August 09, 2012

Blog Logs

Thank you to all that contributed their loggings and shortwave newsletters, for a great issue of Blog Logs. What are you hearing from your listening post ?
Gayle Van Horn

// parallel frequency *sign-on / sign-off*

logs edited for clarity

All times UTC

Anguilla
11775 University Network (presumed) 2003. Tapes of Dr.Gene Scott on the failings and weaknesses of the apostles. SIO454. No sign of harmonic Dr Scott on 23550. Freq 11775 17 sec.! ahead of 13845 WWCR (presumed) SIO 4+54+ (Harold Frodge, MI/MARE 689)

Australia
9580 Radio Australia, 1240, English service with station ID as, "this is Radio Australia." Total Rugby program and information about the Olympics and rugby, followed by newscast at 1300. News covered on the Olympics, rebel fighting in the Philippines and more world news. Good signal with some fading, no noise. (Kincaid, MI/MARE 689)

2368.5, Radio Symban, 1138-1204.* Phenomenal reception! By far one of their best days. Greek music and songs to station sign off announcement with frequency. Edited
MP3 audio at https://www.box.com/s/3a19f0ad438ded101ef2 .
Still with heavy summertime local interference (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA)

4835, ABC VL8A Alice Springs, 1235. Live coverage of the Olympic boxing match between Australia and Cuba to 1300 “this is Olympic game coverage on A-B-C Grandstand, London 20-12, stay connected. Have your say . . on 783 A-B-C Alice Springs Facebook page, Grandstand on A-B-C Local Radio, carrying on the Olympic tradition.” Programming into the ABC news. At tune in RA was not carrying this Olympic coverage, but was later. Edited MP3 audio posted at
https://www.box.com/s/b6417e5a6dcb026e00a1 (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA)

Bangladesh
Bangladesh Betar test transmission, 2010, 15520 (SINPO 55444). Empty carrier with a big hum stretching from 15510 to 15530. Around 2014, an apparently additional signal came on and was switched off again (same spectral range as the hum, but more homogeneously filled. Looked like DRM, but DREAM didn't detect any DRM). When checking again at 2025, subcontinental music, slightly overmodulated, ID at 2030. In silent periods between songs, the big hum returned into the audio feed. Some kind of "carrier" accompanied the music at +/- 4.5 kHz which was beyond the modulation range, so it could be filtered out easily. Listened to the music until 2045. At 2100 and 2110 still on, but silent carrier with the big hum. At 2136 and 2152 still empty carrier without the hum, still same signal strength.
Screenshots:
DRM-like noise switching on: http://tinyurl.com/cs9m2eq
The big hum, not the DRM-like stuff: http://tinyurl.com/c8yem3l
Big hum in silent period between songs: http://tinyurl.com/d9y6lzd
(Eike Bierwirth/HCDX)

7250, Bangladesh Betar. Better reception than yesterday at 1152, August 7 with subcontinent songs. Station ID and time pips at 1200. News in assumed Bengali till 1205 followed by male/female chatting. Ads at 1231, news 1235-1240. News in English (item about an auto accident, etc.) followed by “news commentary.” More subcontinent songs and a series of speeches in English till 1259, 1300* when they went to a test tone. (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA)

15520, Bangladesh Betar, 1743-1859.* Poor reception and sounded like some white noise jamming. Was in English, but hard to make out a lot of what was said, just bits and pieces. Thanks again to Swopan Chakroborty for the tip about this frequency.

Highlights:
1743: External Service interval signal to time pips News in English, break in the news for ID: “this is Bangladesh Betar bringing you the news.” Weather (“thundershowers”) followed by “news commentary.”

1801: Reciting from the Qur’an.

1830: Seemed to be the Voice of Islam program in English. Clearly talking in English about the holy month of Ramadan and holy Qur’an. Not sure just when this program actually started, 1801?

1836: Interesting break in the program to play pop song by Sting, “I’ll Be Watching You”.

1845: End of program; played pop and rap songs (Celine Dion “If You Asked Me To”, etc.)

1859: sounded like sign off announcement and went to test tone.

https://www.box.com/s/6cb53917e838e0d92d03 contains edited. (MP3 audio (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA)

Bolivia
6134.815, Radio Santa Cruz, 0105-0120. Music noted at tune in to 0107 which followed with male's comments. Music continued after announcer's comments. Traditional music of flutes. Signal fades into the noise by 0120. (Chuck Bolland,FL)

Brazil
Radio Nacional da Amazonia in Portuguese, 2357, 6180 (SINPO 55444) with football. A minute later China Radio Int'l signed on and RNA went to SINPO 52442. Nice ID heard under the English chat from Beijing. (Eike Bierwirth/HCDX)

11765v Radio Super Deus e Amor, Portuguese 2110-2134.+ New Testament service, closing with long "Brasil." Promotional for program Voz do Libercion and partial ID as, "Radio Deus--no Super or Amor. SIO=222 in AM with transmitter hum? and chirpy interference with using LSB tunes out. Frequency drifted up and down a few 0.01 kHz, but settled at about 11764.98. (Harold Frodge, MI/MARE 689)

China
PBS Qinghai in Chinese, 2218, 6145 (SINPO 23322). Interview and monologue in what didn't sound like Mandarin (not as tonal). At 2230 switch to China's CNR-like format with male+female presenter, sounded more like Mandarin now. (Eike Bierwirth/HCDX)

5050, CNR1, randomly from 1134 to 1300/* What is this all about? Noted for the first time today! // 6125 (strong). In Chinese mixing with and underneath Beibu Bay Radio (BBR), after 1300 BBR in the clear with their usual fair reception in Vietnamese. Strange! At first I was thinking it might be the return of the Voice of Strait after many years of being off this frequency, but turned out to be parallel to CNR1. I listen here daily for about 10 to 15 minutes checking for the return of the low powered Australian station, Ozy Radio, but not heard yet (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA)

Clandestine
Voice of Wilderness via Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, 15180 & Dushanbe, Tajikistaan, 15630 at 1300-1330. Lady follow male announcer in Korean with two vocal solos. Signal strength of 15180 fair and 15630 poor. (Wendel Craighead, Kansas)

5985.0, Shiokaze/Sea Breeze via Yamata, Japan. Tuesday is still their favorite day to broadcast Chinese (scheduled from 1330 to 1400) and Korean (scheduled from 1400 to 1430). Signal fair, best in LSB due to Myanmar. Checked at 1333 and 1405 (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA)

11870, Radio Biafra, London, *2000-2100.* Station's sign on with African music and opening ID announcements in English and vernacular. Vernacular talk. IDs. Occasional English. Fair at sign on, but deteriorated to a weak signal in noisy conditions by sign off. Thur, Sat only. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Diego Garcia
4319-USB, AFN, 1322-1344. Phenomenal reception! Perfect grayline reception!! DG sunset 1311 UT, my local sunrise 1319 UT. Daily I check here and only hear strong interference from the NATO STANAG signal (per Al Muick),but that was totally absent today (very rare!). Program of C&W songs. Listeners calling in talk about the Olympics. “American Forces Network” IDs. Military spots (US Marines training exercise in Hawaii to “this is one minute of American history” (San Francisco 1906 quake)Promo for “Air Guard.” Defines A-W-O-L etc. Back to C&W songs. MP3 audio posted at https://www.box.com/s/90b59a36de6b661302ee (Ron Howard,Asilomar State Beach, CA)

Equatorial Guinea
15190, Radio Africa, 1757-1900+. U.S. produced English religious programming with gospel music and religious talk. Gone at 1958 check. Fair signal. Mostly good audio. Irregular. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Germany
Radio 6150, 2349, 6070(SINPO 35333) with ID loop in German and English, asking me to stay tuned to be there when the station's re-launch comes in August.(Eike Bierwirth/HCDX)

India
4970, AIR Shillong. Since June 1 have enjoyed hum-free reception, but sad to say the adjustment made to their transmitter did not last long! August 7 again heard with prominent audio hum, noted 1313 to 1317. (Ron Howard,Asilomar State Beach, CA)

Indonesia
3325 RRI Palangkaraya, 1221. Playing the patriotic song “Dirgahayu Indonesiaku” at the conclusion of the Jakarta News relay, probably will continue with this throughout August.MP3 audio https://www.box.com/s/40922c8d849461cd0e41 . (Ron Howard,Asilomar State Beach, CA)

9680.053 RRI Jakarta Cimanggis domestic service program, observed on remote SDR unit in Queensland Australia, S=7 fair. Phone-in talk by two men, like answer a radio quiz question. (Wolfgang Bueschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews)

9680.00, RRI Jakarta, 1035-1045. At tune in, noted a female in conversation with a male. This seemed to be a live round table type program. Signal was fair. (Chuck
Bolland, FL)

9526.004, Voice of Indonesia, 1115-1120. Very, very weak signal for lady announcer's comments. Language unknown (Tok Pisin ?) as the signl was very weak. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Israel
15850 Galei Zahal, 2153-2204.+ Male/female with program interview, apparently in Hebrew. Easy-listening bumper music and station ID into news to 2202. SIO 2+52+. (Harold Frodge, MI/MARE 689)

Kuwait
Radio Kuwait in English, 2057, 15540 (SINPO 55444). Pop music, frequency announcement (correct), national anthem, into Arabic program at 2100 but sudden c/d after a few seconds..(Eike Bierwirth/HCDX)

Kuwait/Mariana Islands {Tinian}/Philippines/Thailand
China's CNR1 heavy jamming of S=9+30dB powerhouse against VOA Uzbek language service daily at 1500-1530, to cover national speakers in western China on Uzbekistan border.
Weak 9580PHT, mixture on 11920TIN, best Uzbek reception on 11930 UDO channel,and powerful jammed 15100KWT relay transmission. (Wolfgang Bueschel, Germany/Top News)

Malaysia
11665 RTM program from Kajang site, seemingly Wai Sarawak FM in Malay language, sweet female singer at 0805 UT July 30, in peaks fair at S=6-8 signal, heard on remote unit in Australia.

Also poor 9835 kHz from Kajang Malaysia at 0822. Mixed Malay and some English language segments noted by most modern male disc jockey.

Yesterday July 29 noted RTM Kajang at 1655 UT on very odd 5964.706 kHz, poor S=7 signal on mostly nightime path MLA towards Europe.(Wolfgang Bueschel, BC-DX TopNews)

New Zealand
11725 Radio New Zealand International with English newscast, weather and program Great Encounters, relayed via Radio New Zealand National with text on the inventor of 'humane' animal traps that use CO2 cartridges to kill the animal and then re-set the trap. Time check and ID as "New Zealand National" at 06, SINPO 4544+4 0600-0610 (Zichi, MI/MARE 689)

Nigeria
15120, Voice of Nigeria, *0458-0510. Station's abrupt sign on with English preview of upcoming programs. ID. Email address. News at 0500. Good signal strength but with a slight whine in audio. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Palau
9930.0 T8WH "Voice of Praise." Loud roarer English sermon, "Glory Halleluja". S=9+10dB proper signal into remote SDR unit in Australia. Nearby VoKorea Kujang in Russian on 9974.958 kHz, latter Novosti in Russian. (Wolfgang Bueschel, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews)


Papua New Guinea
3345, NBC Northern, the Voice of Oro. Heard for three consecutive days now! August 7 had strongest reception so far, 1303 bird call/NBC National News in English. News // 3204.96, 3315 and 3365. At 1323 hit song “Baby I Love Your Way” followed by phone calls in Tok Pisin which started with “Hello N-B-C”. (Ron Howard, Asilomar State Beach, CA)

3259.988, Radio Madang, 1042-1050. Male announcer's friendly conversation. Couldn't identify the language due to poor quality of the signal. (Chuck Bolland, FL) perhaps it was Tok Pisin ?

3315.078, Radio Manus, (tentative) 1048-1055. SIgnal with a threshold signal. Noted music and comments by a female. (Chuck Bolland, FL).

Peru
4809.983, Radio Logos, (tentative) 0945-1010. Very weak signal with steady period of music. Unfortunately, signal marred by utility interference on this frequency. noted at 0959 male announcer gives station identification and other info amid very weak signal, returning to music after one minute. Radio Logos remained at a threshold level. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Vietnam
9635.003 Voice of Vietnam 1st program, in Vietnamese, 0815 on remote unit in Australia. Could identify Vietnamese talk by two woman from Son Tay transmitter site, but otherwise tiny S=4-5 signal in southern Pacific.(Wolfgang Bueschel, BC-DX TopNews)