martedì 19 ottobre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs October 18-19, 2010

** CANADA [and non]. 9650, Oct 19 at 1312, the CRI English relay still has co-channel QRM from RNW Dutch via Tinang, PHILIPPINES, but today Sackville is on top, and there is no audible heterodyne, just a SAH. As closely as I can tell, RCI transmitter is no longer off-frequency, but 9650.00 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Oct 19: none found 1315-1325 between 8 and 18 MHz, and the most likely spot, 10500, has some bubble jamming from local cable DTV converter boxes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. Ananomaly check Oct 18: 17705, at 2058 wraps up RNV relay hour with a minute of IS, and off at 2059* instead of starting over and going on and on as it did a few days ago.

Anomalies Oct 19 at 0521, English only on 6150, 5970; both 6060 and 6010 were absent; the latter had two stations mixing with low het, music and talk, no doubt LV de tu Conciencia and Radio Mil.

Arnie has released the tentative B-10 schedule for RHC, English only, showing 6050 at 01-07, which would replace 5970 --- but that would blot out HCJB`s only remaining frequency. Way to go. Spain has 5970 planned at 2300-0200 in French, English, Spanish, surely just backup/alternate to 6055 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS. 21420-21445, rapid OTH radar pulses Oct 19 at 1354 and still after 1400, presumably from here. The ``15m`` hams will be having a fit, justifiably. At this time, 13m was open from all over the area: Kuwait, Saudi, Spain, Portugal, Ascension, Libya and after 1400, BBC Cyprus 21470 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, Oct 19 at 1326, VOI about Mother Teresa on This Day in History, 1327 Banjarmasin guy talks about instant noodles, how Taiwan had withdrawn some from Indonesia, but they`re OK as long as put in boiling 100-degree water. (But what about at higher elevations? Did not get into that.). Another Tuesday, so another joint `Exotic Indonesian ``produxion with RRI Banjarmasin. 1336 answering listener question about good spots for photography in South Kalimantan; find the announcer at his office in the RRI building at km 3.5 on Jalan-something, and he will show you. It would also help if we could ever find out his true, correct and complete name. Then he and a YL announcer presented a pre-produced scripted feature describing mosques for religious tourism. The IADs continue thruout, but VG signal otherwise and not much hum. I did not pay any attention to VOI the previous morning Oct 18, when Ron Howard found double-audio in Japanese and English
 during the 12-13 hour! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN. 3925, R. Nikkei, Tuesday Oct 19 at 1305 with German lesson, concentrating on the word ``mehr``, explained in Japanese, but I also heard ``more`` as if they were explaining German in English as well. Mostly free of QRhaM, but a little SSB on the hi side; // 6055 better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH [and non]. Breaking away from MW DX session on internal antenna only due to storms, by 1300 Oct 19 it was safe to reconnect the 110-foot east/west longwire to the FRG-7, but a bit too late to get much on 120-60 meters; nevertheless, at 1304, KCBS 2850 was still audible in Korean, and different Korean on 3480 from V. of the People, south to north (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 21540, R. Kuwait, Oct 19 at 1357, music after drama, well over REE Spain, making SAH of about 5 Hz; see also SAUDI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. 21695, V. of Africa, Oct 19 at 1324 in Swahili, and 1355, music sounds awful due to rippling modulation, as if there were CCI from another station maybe 20 Hz off, but this is just their own defective transmitter. 1402 ponderous English announcer also degraded by this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. T-storms in the area Oct 19, so even more reason to concentrate on sunrise MW DX, only with internal antenna in the DX-398; not too many lightning crashes per minute, and diminishing. Prime reference is the WRTH 2010; Cantú if necessary:

540, in CBK null, at 1230 TC as 6:30, temp 12 grados, SID ``XETX, 5-40 AM, 5 mil watts, La Ranchera de Paquimé, . . . Sonora, y el sur de Nuevo Méjico y Tejas``. But it`s axually in Nuevo Casas Grandes, the NW part of Chihuahua, and could also claim to reach another state, Arizona.

610, at 1233, ``el noticiario más informado de Sinaloa``, soon mentioning Guasave too: so it`s XEGS.

640, at 1219 music, 1222 ad for what sounded like Iluminaciones Loya, but that does not Google; CNDR PSA, ID mentions 640, Radio Vivo (?), definitely ended in -o, CCI from another Spanish; with WWLS nulled. Most likely Radio Uno, XEHHI, Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, tho there is another Uno in Zacatecas.

650, at 1225-1228 ad/PSA string, finally Radio 65 ID in passing, 1228 music: i.e. XETNT, Los Mochis, Sin., a regular. 1234 more journalists found executed, risky profession. By now WWLS 640 IBOC bothers but can be nulled.

710, at 1220, ``la mejor programación, XEDP, La Ranchera de Cuauhtémoc`` singing ID, TC, music, from hi-elevation Chihua2.

730, at 1238, XEHB canned ID by super-hype announcer, 50 mil watts (Parral, Chih.); by now KRMG 740 splatter is a problem with its own 50 kW day power. XEHB and Tahiti 738 listeners note: KRMG official sunrises, UT: Oct 1230, Nov 1300, Dec & Jan 1330, Feb 1315.

760, at 1208-1210, Mexican NA playing late; op overslept? UnID roughly from WSW direxion, then mixing with Antena 7-60, plus more Spanish from the south (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. Musical call-signs in the OKC market, even for talk stations: I would never deliberately listen to an outlet dedicated to stupid ballgames; thus it was solely fortuitous that on caradio I happened to pause on 1340 at an hourtop, 1900 UT Oct 18, and heard a new legal ID: ``The Game, KGHM, Midwest City-Oklahoma City``, on to Fox Sports Radio news. (Don`t some ESPN or Fox Sports affils default to real non-sports news on the hour from some other net, even CNN?).

FCC AM query confirms KGHM is now the call for this old graveyarder which like most OKC market stations has gone thru convulsions of callsign and/or format changes. To us, 1340 is the original KOCY, which in its 60s heyday was a major rocker. FCC callsign history, which does not go back nearly that far for any station, just shows:

Call Sign Begin Date
 KGHM 10/02/2010
 KEBC 08/23/1996
 KXXY 08/05/1985
 KCNN 11/03/1984
 KXXY 08/29/1983

I`d forgotten about KCNN – or was out of state during that gestation period, but KXXY was also the call on 96.1 FM (and still is, I think, glibly contracted to ``KXY``). KEBC was also on FM 94.7, a C&W force for many years. Then the KOCY call came back on 1560, the station hijacked to The Metro from poor little Chickasha, originally KWCO as Women`s College of Oklahoma; now Radio Disney, but how much longer?

What has Midwest City to do with this? 1340 KOCY was not attributed to that SE suburb as city of license, so why should 1340 KGHM be now? [ex-]KEBC address per NRC AM Log is in NW OKC on NW Expressway and Penn and 50th at the towering Clear Channel building, topped by its logo, across from deadly Penn Square Mall, along with KTOK-1000, et al. 

Still no Tiger maps from Census available via FCC, but
http://www.radio-locator.com linx to Google maps pinpointing KGHM site still at NE 29th St, 3 blox east of N Santa Fe, and just a bit further from I-235, i.e. appropriately for an ND graveyarder, close to the center of OKC, not MWC. If it were out there, would have a hard time getting to the NW side at night vs hundreds of other kilowatters.

I wonder if CC ``needed`` the KEBC call somewhere else? FCC currently has it nowhere on AM or FM; someone else should go get it, preferably an educational station. ``KGHM`` will encourage some misundereducated Okie sportsnuts to misspell the word ``game``, I am afraid --- or is ``ghm`` already textese for the word, saving a hefty 25%? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA [and non]. 21505, BSKSA, Oct 19 at 1325 drama with music, while Kuwait 21540 is airing another Arabic drama; a favorite late-afternoon local time for such? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SCOTLAND [and non]. 24947, Oct 19 at 1404, GM4WZL, John in southwest Scotland making lots of US contacts, a W-zero at 1407. QRZ.com lookup shows, along with his dog Lucky:
JOHN SCOTT
5 Barrwood Gate
NR GALSTON IN AYRSHIRE, KA4 8NA
Scotland

Maybe a rather localized opening as the second-best signal on 12m, Oct 19 at 1408 on 24972 approx., was G0DBE in Liverpool, yes, with a Beatles accent.
LEE MARSLAND
154 MOSS LANE, LITHERLAND
Litherland, LIVERPOOL, L21 7NN
England

When 12m is open like this, one laments the lack of any nearby BBCWS UK transmitters on 11m, which inboomed to NAm circa 1958 in the big solar peak we`re unlikely ever to experience again. OTOH, 11m CB and 10m ham were not open.

Perhaps more realistically, when 12m is open from Europe, we ought to get some equally low-power broadcast harmonix, so I scanned 23-25 MHz, but no results yet. Prime sources would be:
23000-24320 = 2 x 11500-12160
23020-25188 = 4 x  5755-6297
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TUNISIA. 7225, surprised to find Arabic music here Oct 19 at 0513, but nothing on 7275, the correct spot for RTT. 0517 YL announcement, more music; 0530 ``Tunis`` mentioned at least thrice in apparent next program title, more music. 7335 not yet on which would be an easy //.

It so happens that 7225 IS the scheduled RTT frequency in the evenings, at 1700-2110 per WRTH May updater. So operator obviously forgot to change the frequency after that, or re-entered the wrong one by mistake, and likely will be back on 7275, 24 hours later. Fortunately, was not colliding with any legitimate occupant of 7225; nothing scheduled after VOR finishes with Pridnestrovye at 0300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 17920, the dirty KVOH 17775 spur easily audible with whine and garbage, but no intelligible modulation, Oct 18 at 2055 while fundamental was S9+25+, about what it takes to audiblize the spur which is probably always radiated if not propagable.

And also as usual, the match around 17630 was much weaker, just detectable at peaks with same-pitch whine. Why should it be so assymmetrical? Please tune up yours spurs, Voice of Restoration (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 3160, WPJK Orangeburg SC, 2 x 1580, not heard Oct 19 as local T-storms kept me off SW till it was too late, so I submit this instead of a relog:

Some might have better luck hearing it in the evening, just before official local sunset and sign-off, UT: Oct 2245, Nov & Dec 2215, Jan 2245, Feb 2300. Per FCC AM Query for WPJK`s coordinates. Like the sun, these are not dependent on DST, which means that in terms of Eastern time, Nov 1 thru 6, it should go off at 6:15, but from Nov 7, 5:15. Some stations get mixed up, or don`t reset their clox/timers, and stay on an hour too late during the Week of Confusion. Morning sign-on during that week is supposed to be at 1200 UT = 8 am EDT, becoming 7 am EST Nov 7 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Amid all the Mexican sunrise skip, I caught a few domestix too Oct 19:

720, at 1252, KDWN Las Vegas NV, talkhostess Heidi Harris defending Sharon Angle, so that`s all we need to know about Heidi. Has channel to herself, yet at 1317 she`s gone and am hearing Cubs talk from WGN.

760, at 1256, central Arkansas weather, on Morning Express, 66 degrees; in Kansas City null. Lo key ad for auto sales in Camden (? that`s down in south-central AR) --- anyway, wonderful to hear a car lot which doesn`t scream at us. ``AM 760, KMTL Radio, Sherwood - Little Rock - North Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America, Inspiration Radio``. This is 10 kW nondirexional daytimer, Sherwood being a suburb NE of NLR.

770, at 1239, Albuquerque ad, mixing with something in Spanish. Perhaps the Santa Fe 230 watt relay as this is more than a semi-hour before Albuquerque primary cuts to day pattern. Standing by again at 1314, and comes on a few sex before 1315, saying that NM governor candidates` debate will be Thursday 7 pm on KOB-TV ``4``, repeated on KKOB 770 Friday night, same time. Signal now is fair and steady.

870, at 1243, WWL dominating with NOPD PSA. It seems eastward stations are making a comeback after sunrise today, tho XETAR may have been in earlier.

950, at 1217, 50s and 60s music, playing Pet Clark, loops NW/SE, holding its own so far against local KGWA-960 which is also to the NW. By format and time, most likely KRWZ Denver CO, except they supposedly have a day and night null SE toward us. What was once KIMN.

950, at 1244, in local KGWA null, ``Radio 950, KWON``, sounded like, sports talk. But can`t be KWON as that is 1400 in Bartlesville OK. Searching 950 listings, closest match is KWOS in Jefferson City MO, which NRC AM Log says is News/Talk, but includes ESPN among its networx (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX-398, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Lacking any hint of sporadic E on channel 2 for months now, I typically leave the analog TV tuned to ch A-48, northeast, tracking the mystery Univisión relay. UT Oct 19, however, the signal remains very weak, not building up during the evening, nor the following morning, so something is changing, probably just where and how area tropo enhancement occurs. This is the case even when OETA-38 in Ponca City is decoding, making it less likely that 48 is in the same place (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. TP MW carrier scan Oct 19 at 1212-1215: only very weak ones from NW on 792, 774, 747 and more like SW on 738. See MEXICO 730 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###