venerdì 12 marzo 2010

Glenn Hauser logs March 11-12, 2010

** AUSTRALIA. RA is not quite back to normal; altho 9560, 9580 and 9590 were doing well before 1400 UT March 12, later in that hour I noticed that 9590 was absent tho it is supposed to run until 1600. 7240 was still on but weakening.

``teddyfnballgame`` in the ptsw yg got a March 10 reply from Nigel Holmes, RA CE: ``RA's Shepparton transmitters were whacked by a cyclone on Sunday 7 March. Several aerials were knocked out including the one which carries 9580 kHz. Repairs are underway and we hope to be back with 9580 tonight. Thank you for your kind comments about our programming, We're glad you've enjoyed our broadcasts over 25 years. Good listening. Kind regards, Nigel Holmes, Chief Engineer, Radio Australia`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BULGARIA [and non]. R. Bulgaria, 15700, Friday March 12 at 1439 with music including ``Hava Nagila``, but marred by continuous CW QRM on 15699, not noted before; whence? // 11700 but weaker (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGERT)

** CHINA. Firedrake March 12: 8400 just barely audible at 1325 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. Major RadioCuba outage, March 12 at 0627: RHC 6010 and 6060 English, 6120 Spanish, 6140 English or Spanish all absent, but still on 6150 in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526- absent again March 12 at 1329 during the English hour, but 9680 RRI was good with Indo call-ins. 9526- still absent during 1400, and at 1522 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [non]. 11705, NHKWNRJ via Sackville in English, March 12 at 1415 starting Radio Japan Focus, about the future of television, i.e. merging with internet, and there are such devices already on the market in Germany for $900, HbbTV, a hybrid format co-developed by Germany and France. This is part 2, following part 1 on March 11, audio available for the moment, one week? via
http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/program/index.html

Enjoy this transmission while you can, because it appears it will be dropped in A-10, altho Yamata goes back to 11705 from 5955 for English at 1400 to Asia. A new Sackville relay is projected for 1300-1500 on 11655, but may be all in Japanese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 6185, quick check of XEPPM, March 12 at 0802 found it still in the clear with DJ and eclectic music, no QRaMazon. Brazilian DXers have confirmed that RNA 6185 has been off the air for several days, preceded by a modulation problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. I don`t pay much attention to KTLR 890 OKC, but on the caradio around 2122 UT March 11, paused during bandscan since it was playing some semi-classical music. Soon went into lengthy announcement as ``Annunciation Radio``, from 1 pm to sunset sign-off, and continuing all night on KTLR-FM 94.1.

??? No signal from that here in Enid. FCC FM Query shows there is no such FM call; 94.1 is really a 250-watt translator from a site in Nichols Hills, north-central OKC, K231BH. Then into long list of businesses supporting the venture, some of them with Italian names.

It seems they want to eventually get Catholic radio on the OKC air 24 hours; see
http://www.okcatholicbroadcasting.com Naturally a substantial portion of programming comes from EWTN. I guess they are just buying time on the present transmitters, and Tyler Media`s KTLR 890 runs something else in the mornings and on weekends.

Checked 890 at 1650 UT Friday: a deeply-accented huxter was attempting to negatively correlate children out of wedlock with gardening. That must be Watchmen on the Wall.

Here`s KTLR`s own schedule grid showing little of interest, just more gospel huxters, posing as mere ``Community Talk``, including Brother Scare noon Sundays, and Spanish Saturday afternoons:
http://www.ktlr.com/engine/emw.exe/*qshome=home&st=561&rec=4&kw=news&parm=4&trec=2&lktype=6&snum=1
Also shows sign-on and -off times month by month.

The same company
http://www.tylermedia.com/ owns KKNG 93.3, Disney 1560, Jack FM 97.3, KTUZ-FM La Zeta 106.7, Telemundo affiliate KTUZ-29, plus low-power Univisión outlets in Woodward/OKC, Tulsa!

Gee, I thought TM and UNI were heavy competitors. I should think Univisión corporate would be chafing about its inferior signals in the OK markets; or does off-the-air really not matter any more (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES. 9520, RVA at 1329 March 12, English ID and Sinhala about to start, G signal helped by absence of Indonesia from 9526.
Retune at 1457 to hear IS and off after Telugu service.

Then at *1458 on 9570, English IDs with jazz background, introducing Russian service, really R. Blagovest starting with its big bells. Suspect this is the same Palauig-Zambales 250 kW transmitter, stronger here on 9570 after beam change, altho both far from USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. V. of Turkey`s twice-yearly printed schedule folder received 11 March in the P-mail; postmarked 2 March. Unfortunately, their semester programming cycles are way out of synch with time and frequency A- and B-season schedules, so this still shows B-season info only, which will be out of effect in 2.5 weeks! And those depending on P-mail won`t get the A-season frequency schedule until August, or September?

And don`t you believe the last entry in the SW schedule page, English to Australia on 9610 at 2330-0030! That`s really a duplicate of the same frequency under Asia at the correct current UT of 2130-2230, so the Au listing at 2330 is Turkish local time. That could explain why announcements on every English broadcast for months have been claiming to have one at 2330!

Also erroneous is listing the 0400 English broadcast on 6040 both under Americas and Europe. Altho not marked as such, that`s the Sackville relay frequency westward, intended only for NAm, tho it may be audible off the back in Europe, and both continents are simultaneously served by 6020 direct from Turkey, with the Peruvian het presumably less of a problem in Europe.

In the program schedule, we see that DX Corner on Saturdays is now supposed to alternate with Foods of the Court, which is what we heard on March 6, but it claimed to be coming back in one week, not two. And indeed on Saturdays, the rest of the broadcast is just music, Turkey`s Musical Colours, except for the final Do You Know and Question of the Month, both of which are very brief capsules showing at the end of every day`s English broadcasts, repeated far too often, and previously admitted to be expendable for timing reasons (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. George McClintock tells me that WTWW is moving from 5755 to 5080 starting 0000 UT Saturday March 13. The frequency has been approved by the FCC, subject to the usual NIB complaints, which could end it in one day or somewhere down the road.

I am afraid there will be some, as there is a pretty constant and strong ute on 5078, which I just reconfirmed at 0025 UT March 12, not sure of the mode, but sort of RTTY with regular beep patterns. Even if it does not complain, should be considerable QRM to WTWW.

He says WTWW will remain on 9480 as day frequency, and 5755 to be held for WTWW-2, now under construxion but not to be on the air for a few months. It appears that Scriptures for America = Pastor Pete Peters will continue to be the prime if not only customer on WTWW-1.

9480, however was off the air when I checked at 2135 and 2258 March 11. George says he was working on getting the remote control funxional, and now it is; 5755 was on as usual at 0025 March 12 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WINB, 9265, still Brother Scare until 1500, but Friday March 12 at 1522 also still running child-sex-criminal evangelist ``Tony Alamo``, convicted and sentenced to 175 years. What a lucky prisoner he is, still able to minister unto the world. At the moment, he and Michelle were doing a mailbag, from some other Arkansawyer.

Bonus: harmonic on 18530 audible at 1525, carrier more unstable than 9265, as to be expected, warbling with BFO on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1503 monitoring: WRMI lists a new airing, Thursday 2200, but did not know about it in time to check March 11. May apply only to webcast, not SW, anyway. Confirmed on 9955 at 0130 UT Friday March 12. At 1530 Friday, reception too poor to tell with Taiwan stronger, but no jamming; however, confirmed on webcast at that time. All these one UT hour earlier from next week, and the Tuesday night broadcast is rescheduled a further hour to be at 0030 UT Wednesday, just like Friday.

Updated WRMI schedule grid as of March 11, shows WORLD OF RADIO, with the times here converted to UT from EDT effective March 14, one hour later until then:
Thu 2100
Fri 0030
Fri 1430
Sat 0800
Sat 1330
Sat 1900
Sun 0800
Sun 1515
Sun 1900
Tue 1530
Wed 0030
Wed 1530

WBCQ: new 1503 edition confirmed at 2000 UT Thursday March 11, but on 7415 only. Sometimes 9330-CUSB stays on for part or all of the following semihour. From next week, times will be 1900 Tue, Wed, Thu.

Area 51: missing the past few weeks from scheduled 0100 UT Friday time, but was back March 12 altho starting several minutes late, now on webcast only, not 5110.

ACB Radio Mainstream,
http://www.acbradio.org/ --- Still running last week`s edition 1502 on webcast at 0100 Friday. Notified them immediately, but still 1502 instead of 1503 at next check 1700. WOR appears every two hours UT Fridays, 12 chances to hear it, but apparently not including #1503. Unless next week it be on instead of 1504? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###