Wednesday, March 17, 2010

St. Patrick Day Blog Logs

All times UTC // parallel frequency *sign-on sign-off*

Canada
6030, CFVP (Calgary), 0409-0425. English. Country music with male announcer. Mention of Alberta at 0409. Poor signal under Radio Oromiya, occasionally on top for a few seconds, but usually below. First log of them since August, 2009. (Jim Evans, TN)

China
11945, Firedrake and CNR-1 echo jamming both used against RFA, 1612 + 1632.

11720 Firedrake against RFA, 1612 + 1632.

8400 // 9000 Firedrake against SOH; 1612 + 1632, // 11795 Firedrake against BBC till 1630.

4940, Voice of Strait, 1500-152. Focus on China progrtam Sunday in English. Usual canned ID as, "hhis is the Voice of Taiwan Strait News Radio” and “This is the Voice of Strait, Fuzhou, China.” News items (slim chance of survival for miners trapped in Inner Mongolia, etc.). Promo for China tourism. Today only a 25 minute program, not the usual half hour.

5050, China Huayi BC, 1214. Chinese service, 1230 into non-stop pop Chinese songs. No sign off announcement, just time tips at 1300 and off. Well above the interference from Guangxi Beibu
Bay Radio.

5050, Guangxi Beibu Bay Radio, 1300. Time pips about a half second out of sync with CHBC pips. Multi-language IDs (“This is Guangxi Beibu Bay Radio”), in Vietnamese. 1304“Weather Report” with weather for many cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, etc. Played mostly pop Vietnamese songs. Noted some All India Radio-Aizawl interference (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

China Radio International, 15230 via Sackville, in English, 1432. Male announcer translating a lady announcer's Chinese talking about friendship,then back into China Drive programs. (s9+10) (Sean Gilbert, UK/Cumbre DX)

Colombia
6010, La Voz de Tu Conciencia (Puerto Lleras) (presumed), 0448-0505. Spanish. Upbeat local music. Talk by man and woman regarding "La Familia" at 0454"Conciencia" mentioned two times at 0501. Good signal with a hint of cochannel interference from another Spanish language station (probably Radio Mil) until 0501:30At that time RHC attempted to start their English language broadcast with a few 3-5 second periods of talk, then 15-20 seconds of no carrier. Finally successful at 0502RHC dominated the frequency thereafter. (Jim Evans, TN)

Cuba
Radio Habana Cuba (presumed) 15120 via Habana. Spanish, 1353. Presumed to be RHC. Lady announcer's talk with some music. Heard in clear occasionally over BSKSA. Most of time beating with or below Saudi Arabia. Appears to be a few Hz off frequency as there is a SAH when the two stns are near the same strength. (s5) (Sean Gilbert, UK/Cumbre DX)

Egypt
Radio Cairo 15080 via Abis, in Arabic (I think), 1338. Incredibly distorted audio. Worst I have ever heard Radio Cairo. Male announcer, overall this signal is not useable. Urgent repairs needed! Switched to FM and the signal is just as understandable as it was in AM, if not slightly better! (s8) (Sean Gilbert, UK/Cumbre DX)

Goa
15175, All India Radio-Panaji, 1514. AIR interval signal, assume service in Gujarati. Sub-continent songs and frequent breaks in the transmission (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Indonesia
4869.89, RRI Wamena,(presumed), 1020-1035, Noted a female's comments to 1025, followed by music. Additional comments again at 1030. Signal is absolutely threshold, even the music is barely audible. However, this station is not often heard at my location, so I consider this a prize this morning. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

India
4850, All India Radio-Kohima, 1310. Totally covered by assume OTH radar (strong pulsating noise), in the clear by 1333 with the usual program format. News item about the 175th anniversary celebrations of the Assam Rifles. Normally Kohima is stronger than Shillong (4970), but today Kohima was much weaker and had strong CW interference. At 1400 started the pop music show, but found off-the-air at 1424 check. March 16 was off-the-air.

4965, All India Radio-Shimla, 1436-1500. Program of sub-continent songs, 1500-1512 talk, but too weak to ID language, 1512 switched over to Delhi programming. Not often I hear this one! (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Malaysia
11884.49v, Voice of Malaysia, 1210-1213.* Pop music, assume the Bahasa Indonesia program. Station suddenly off (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Myanmar
For the past week it seems to me that ALL the Myanmar stations have had well above average reception. There are also some new developments.

5770, Myanmar Defense Forces Br. Station has been the strongest of all the Myanmar stations during the past week, from about 1400 to 1500.

5915, Myanma Radio - Minorities and Distance Learning Services, 1347- 1450. Series of non-stop lectures for mathematics (“the 10th power minus . . .”), etc. Surprisingly good against CRI QRM, almost equal in strength!

5985.75v, Myanma Radio. Believe this is the Yangon transmitter (noted slight drift to about .77), but much weaker than normally herd via the Naypyidaw transmitter usually on 5985.00. At
1320 pop songs, 1330 heard their usual distinctive indigenous theme music followed by the usual chimes. Could not hear them at 1530 check. March 16 found off-the-air at 1339 check, but was heard earlier, so looks as if they sign off much earlier now than their normal 1600* (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Papua New Guinea
3385, Radio East New Britain, 1236-1304*, Tok Pisin language for DJ playing pop songs, suddenly off. Poor signal, did not hear a station ID, but definitely PNG. Have not heard PNG
for a while now, so I am glad they are still on SW (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Sri Lanka
7190.04, Sri Lanka BC, 1226-1234.* In vernacular with subcontinent singing. Choral anthem at sign off. Poor signal quality. (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Suriname
4990, Radio Apintie (Paramaribo), 0401-0430, Dutch. Easy listening pop vocal music short announcements by a woman. Poor to moderate signal, peaking 0420-0425. Best signal in years, finally making it out of the noise for extended periods. (Jim Evans, TN)