sabato 22 maggio 2010

Glenn Hauser logs May 22, 2010

** ALASKA. 7355, KNLS, May 22 at 1233, poor signal with Bible story in English about Israelites (not to be confused with Israelis) building a temple in Jerusalem, has to be this; yes, 1237 YL ID in passing. Barely above noise level, and also bothered by overload from WWCR 7490.

Why in the world is KNLS staying on this lo frequency in the Arctic summer, which will enjoy little darkness to propagate Chinaward? This is the one English broadcast supposed to be on two frequencies, the other, 9680 per
http://www.knls.org/English/ksched.htm
and also the versions on the Chinese and Russian pages which do not always match.

But WRTH Update with a double-dagger says one of the two transmitters is inactive. And if they were really on 9680, KNLS would be under Indonesia, Taiwan and China jamming! As gamelan was dominating there at 1247. What genius picked that frequency?

The other three English broadcasts at 08, 10 and 14 are scheduled on 11765, which is the silent transmitter as Mandarin at the same hours takes priority on the only remaining unit. So 12-13 on 7355 is currently their ONLY English broadcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake May 22:
 8400, good at 1240 and at 1350
10300, good at 1249 and at 1349
11500, fair at 1252, poor at 1347
12960, good at 1333 and at 1356 and at 1410 to 1412:47*
13300, very good at 1334 and at 1356 and at 1410, also off at 1413
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COSTA RICA. 9630, REE relay, May 22 at 0530 Spanish conversation, // much weaker 5965 and 3350, so all three transmitters are on in analog now. Suspect 9630 may be the new unit accounting for DRM tests earlier circa 15170, 17850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 4750, RRI Makassar, May 22 at 1223, amazingly fair signal with Indonesian talk, best extracontinental signal on 60m. Local sunrise in Enid today was 1119 UT, only 5 minutes away from its earliest at 1114 in early June (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. 9345, Korean rather distorted modulation, May 22 at 1242, from VOK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9650 via Canada, KBS World Radio, Saturday May 22 at 1244 with Seoul Calling, mailbag in progress. Even tho the OM speaks English with an American accent he doesn`t know much about US geography, as refers to mail from: ``Rochester, in the United States``; and another one from ``Indiana, USA``.

How are we ever going to convince these foreigners that it is not sufficient to mention town and country, without the state??? Place names are duplicated in state after state, so we have no way of knowing which one you are talking about otherwise. In the case of Rochester, there are two main cities of that name, in New York and Minnesota. As for Indiana, besides being a state, it is also the name of a town, at least in Pennsylvania!

You don`t necessarily have to know these details about each name, just include the city plus the state every time. Of course, it`s usually but not always safe to assume our major cities, u.o.s. There are Houstons and San Antonios besides the ones in Texas, etc., etc.

At 1254-1257 ran Kevin O`Donovan`s ``Weekly Listening Guide`` with some DX news items partly from Christer Brunström in Sweden, concerning Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Japan; WRTH free pdf supplement issued; PWBR ``appears`` to have ceased publication; and propagation from SWPC, the same source I cite on WOR but he summarizes it non-numerically as I used to do. All this squeezed into three minutes.

Just before Kevin, a listener in North Carolina had mentioned QRM on 9650 believed to be from R. Netherlands. NOT – as soon as KBS cut off at 1259, on came the RNW IS via Tinang, soon to be overridden by Sackville back on for CRI relay, but as usual enough to cause annoying QRM even here to CRI, serves the damn jammers right.

Anyhow, RNW is not interfering with KBS on 9650; instead the main QRM from 1200 is North Korea`s Japanese service, as these two have clashed for ages. This surely gets worse further west in North America. I assume it`s just another manifestation of the N/S standoff with neither willing to lose face by conceding defeat and moving. Who cares about the listeners? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. XEXQ-OC, 6045: it`s gone again. At least cannot detect even a carrier, May 22 at 1216 and later; while XEOI 6010, Radio Mil had its usual fair signal at this hour, with music on Saturday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
 
** RUSSIA. 5930, R. Rossii, Petropavlovsk/Kamchatskiy, now with severe motorboating May 22 at 1215 such that one can barely tell there is Russian talk underneath it. What in the world are they thinking at this site, allowing this to go on for years and years? ``We are totally incompetent radio engineers``? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 9455, open carrier with good signal at 1352 May 22, then intermittent tone tests to 1358, a sure sign of something from the CIS. 1358 back to open carrier, 1359:30 start VOR IS, 1400 open in English.

Altho 265 degrees from Pet/Kam at 14-16, this should be sufficient in the western North American mornings. However, by 1409, ChiCom echo-jamming on 9450 against Sound of Hope was getting to be a problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** THAILAND. I am wondering how the government`s Radio Thailand is covering the strife in Bangkok. I rather doubt it`s objective, but reception has been poor to nil. 15275 seldom audible. And nothing audible on 9890, May 22 at 1248, no tnx to VOA Greenville music splash from 9885. As a reminder, here`s the complete English schedule, from WRTH Update:

0000-0100 daily NAm     15275
0200-0230 daily NAm     15275
0530-0600 daily Eu      17655
1230-1300 daily As, Pac  9890
1400-1430 daily As, Pac  9575
1900-2000 daily Eu       7570
2030-2045 daily Eu       9680

HSK9 was extremely foolish not to insist on being relayed by Delano and Greenville as long as they exist(ed), as a condition of allowing IBB to operate the station at Udorn (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 17585, VOA Greenville, Saturday May 22 at 1406 with panel discussion, which per
http://www.kimandrewelliott.com/VOA_English_to_Asia_and_ME.pdf
is On the Line, so feeds straightened out, no longer offensive rap on Music Mix. At least not on weekends. Signal not so hot; at 1417 bothered by YFR Bengali via Wertachtal on 17580. Nothing on 9760 from VOA Philippines during this hour on weekends; why not?

1427 to US Government editorial, which finished a few seconds just in time before 1430* after which a much weaker VOA Botswana signal was detectable on 17585.

So fans of VOA Editorials must get used to new times for them, formerly :55 past certain hours. Kim`s sked shows :25 past: at 1225, 1425, 1725, 1925, 0125, but only Saturday/Sunday; and really at :27 past. When they were at five till, usually ran short and had to insert fill. Are the eds really only once a week now or inserted elsewhere into weekday programming? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9385, WWRB with Brother Scare`s Sabbath, May 22 at 1341, putting usual scratchy buzz on WTJC 9370 and FEBC 9400. A respite at next check 1409 as WWRB was missing, working on the problem? I seriously doubt it. Dave loses no love for WTJC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1513 monitoring: Saturday May 22 at 1338 fair on WRMI 9955, and no jamming audible. At 1643 loud and clear on WWCR-2 12160. Next scheduled airings on WWCR are: UT Sun 0230 on 4840, 0630 on 3215, 2330 on 9890, Mon 0330 on 5890 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. I finally remembered May 22 to identify the ``cowboy music show`` I had run across months before on KGGF 690 Coffeyville KS, Saturday at 11 am CT.

After ABC news, started at 1605:30 UT, ``Chronicle of the Old West``, weekly edition. So there is also a daily edition, and both are available on demand, details here
http://www.chronicleoftheoldwest.com/the-radio-show2.shtml

Mentioned they had just added a new affiliate, KRLL in California, Missouri. WTFK? I have to look it up in FCC AM Query: 1420 kHz. Now we only have to listen to it for 168 hours to find out the time.

Looking for a complete affiliate list, but all I find is this journal which mentions a number of them in passing:
http://www.chronicleoftheoldwest.com/on_the_road_journal2.shtml

COTOW, hosted by a guy named Dakota Livesay (live with a short I), originates in Show Low, Arizona, which is a neat town I have visited a number of times, now uninfested by William Cooper. But don`t forget your papers.

Listening to this week`s show on KGGF, it`s talk rather than music, including a long interview about Amanda Blake, Gunsmoke actress as Miss Kitty (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###