sabato 18 dicembre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs December 17-18, 2010

** GREECE. 7475, VOG, Dec 18 at 0600 classical music, pause, no hourtop ID or any announcement, more classical. The strike continues preventing normal programming from airing, but I must say I approve of their substitute.

John Babbis, Maryland, VOG`s #1 monitor abroad, explained on Dec 17: ``Glenn: I think that this is the Mother of all Greek strikes and is slated to last all week. I am sure that everybody at ERA5 has walked out, leaving the Managers to hire strike-breakers with their albums of American music, etc. The radio employees are also hired by the state.
 
On November 30, journalists staged a nationwide strike to protest wage cuts and layoffs. Last week public transport workers struck, leading to the network grinding to a halt in Athens. This week refuse workers, air traffic controllers, bank staff, state-television employees and rail workers are scheduled to strike in separate disputes`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUATEMALA. 4052.5-, R. Verdad, Dec 18 at 0556 very poor with talk, intonation sounds English as nominal during final hour of transmission. Dr Madrid continues to have problems with the transmitter, so operation is intermittent and underpowered as he gets advice from Engr. Rafael Borthwick in Canada (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, ORTM chanting, poor Dec 18 at 0616, squeezed by English on both sides, from DW and Vatican (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO. 15341.1, RTVM in Arabic with hum but no het, Dec 18 at 1605. The usual shift from 15341.1 to 15345 circa 1500 did not take place today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES [non]. 15350, Dec 18 just as I tune in at 1504, transmitter cuts off the air. Back on at *1505 talk with heavy echo which I think is self-imposed rather than LP/SP, since bits of children singing do not have the echo. This is R. Veritas Asia, Filipino/Tagalog service relayed by VATICAN back to the ME (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [non]. 5965, REE via COSTA RICA, Dec 18 at 0606 opening ``Amigos de la Onda Corta``, soon into ``noticias DX`` most of which have nothing to do with shortwave frequencies, logs or schedules, such as some item about Pope Paul VI. Ironic, as once again has major QRM from Vatican in English on 5965. The 25m //s from REE are not propagating here, nor are they intended to. What a pity that REE and VR insist on colliding as they have for years (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 17745, Dec 18 at 1609-1615+ hilife music, good from Sudan Radio Service, currently scheduled 1500-1700 daily, 250 kW, 114 degrees via Sines, PORTUGAL (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15825, Dec 18 at 1606, WWCR has a good S9+22 signal with some fading, indicating that winter sporadic E is in play. Without it, at only one megameter, 15 MHz is mostly in skip zone. Then I check
http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&Map=NA
and find several 50 MHz ham contacts are underway in the eastern half of the USA. Might make it up into lowband TV or even FM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WWCR`s DX Block is being dropped on Saturday evenings for lack of sponsorship, so from first Sat of Jan 2011, the program which had been following it expands to two hours, as has been wanting to do for some time. The DX programs will be moved elsewhere, but not in one tidy block. Solely an economic move, for no other reason, says Dr Jerry Plummer (Ask WWCR Dec 10, notes by gh for DX LISTENING DIGEST)

So that`s how we find out that one of our most listened-to WORLD OF RADIO airings is going away, 0330 UT Sundays on 4840; as it already did once earlier in Dec, perhaps as an experiment. 0315 has been the only airing of DX Partyline on WWCR. No word yet on what times, if any will replace WOR at 0330 or DXPL at 0315. Meanwhile, the Sat 1700 airing of WOR 1543 confirmed Dec 18 on 12160; and Friday 2030 on 7465 was also very good (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 1320, checking out the low het I am getting against KCLI Clinton OK indicating the other station is off-frequency: Dec 17 at 1827 UT, 5 minutes before low noon, I try the DX-398 in the yard. With KCLI nulled, and BFO I do hear a different-pitched carrier and much weaker.

This makes KWHN Fort Smith AR most likely as the source, since KLWN in Lawrence KS is close to opposite from KCLI and would not be audible in KCLI null; further, KLWN is only 500 watts, and KWHN is 5000. Both are non-direxional in daytime (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###