** AFGHANISTAN [non]. R. Solh reception was better than usual, 15265 via Rampisham UK, March 20 at 1430, so was looking forward to another replay of the Solh Theme Song which has been appearing without fail every day at 1451-1457. But not today! Some urgent speaking was going at 1450, and it was not until 1453 that the song which always precedes it started; and not until 1458 till the Solh Theme began, 7 minutes late. And of course was cut off abruptly at 1500 when the transmitter must close down. However, they had the courtesy to fade it down in the last few seconds before cutoff (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ECUADOR. I occasionally run across HCJB closing down its all-evening-long Spanish service on 9745, and always the same thing happens. After the national anthem at approximately 0500, and a pause, they start playing some nice Andean music, and that is always interrupted abruptly at precisely 0504* when the transmitter cuts off the air. Why do they do this? Yet another instance of automation gone wild and no human minding the store to control what actually goes on the air. NA traditionally means the end of transmission, so they should not start playing more music after it. If they do, they should at least let it run until it finishes! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** GUIANA FRENCH. DRM test, 17870-17875-17880 on March 20 was already buzzing at 1355 check, unlike the day before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** INDIA. Only AIR Delhi is supposed to be using the aeronautical band frequency 15050, for Sinhala at 1300-1500. Nevertheless, March 19 at 1352 I found a heavy mix of two different services, one of them with Indian vocal music, and the other speaking in an unknown language. Both continued past 1400 without a break, and still at 1408 recheck. At 1411, it sounded like there were THREE different audio streams mixing. By 1440 one speaker mentioned ``Bharat`` and Sri Lanka, so likely the Sinhala service, also at 1449 with the usual chanting closing that service as heard previously on other frequencies. At 1500 everything was off. Meanwhile, I looked up what other external language services AIR has at this time supposedly on various other frequencies. Dari switching to Pashto at 1415; Sindhi; Nepali. The two (or three?) transmitters were well synchronized in frequency as I could not detect any beat. The relative audio levels did vary somewhat, so I think there were at least two on the air, rather than a horrible audio feed mixup radiated from a single unit. Somewhat better coordination among multiple transmitter sites is needed. Can anyone figure out exactly what was happening here? I seem to recall a previous instance of the Dari/Pashto service being on the wrong frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** MEXICO. I was expecting to hear XEYU, 9599+, March 20 at 1343 check, since it had been reported back on the air the previous afternoon, but nothing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ** RUSSIA. March 19 at 1349 I noticed some hi-pitched time pips on 15000, on top of WWV/H. There was no announcement until 1350, but some pips were doubled or skipped. Then from 1350 added rapid pips between each second, maybe 10 of them -- I think this is some kind of binary code, which some timesignal stations do. This was still the case until 1400 when replaced by a continuous carrier. Meanwhile, I realized this was actually centered on 14996, so it must be one of the Russians. Finally at 1409:20 ID repeated several times in code as RWM, which is Moscow. From 1410 the pips every second, some of them double, resumed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ____________________________________________________________________________________ Finding fabulous fares is fun. Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097 ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Preorder your WRTH 2007: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2007 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html
