domenica 5 giugno 2011

Glenn Hauser logs June 4-5, 2011

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, no LRA36 on a weekend, of course, but there wasn`t any LRA36 either on Tue-Fri May 31-June 3. From his contact in Argentina, Robert Scaglione explains as of June 3: ``Only FM these days; they have again troubles with power generators`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 16546-USB, June 5 at 0555, VMC sign-on(?), full list of frequencies, 2201, 4426, 6507, 8176, 12365, 16546; then for sibling station VMW: 2056, 4149, 6230, 8113, 12362, 16528. Was expecting weather info to ensue, but then just silence (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 15400, good June 5 at 1218 as I tune in, ID in English as HCJB Global Voice Australia, postal address only, P O Box 691, Melbourne, then gospel rock. They went out of their way to get the same box number as in Quito and Walterboro, or vice versa. HCJB program timings must be skewed, from the odd times IDs appear (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 11780, June 5 at 0605, RNA fair with Brazilian music. Signal not so bad, S9+18, and now I realize it is undermodulated, no longer loud, a sure sign of transmitter problems. It`s Sunday, so on the air all-night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake June 5 in subnormal conditions:
 7970, very poor at 1213
12270, poor-fair at 1222; very poor with flutter at 1248
13500, poor with flutter at 1221; very poor at 1248
13920, very poor with ute at 1248; probably earlier but not for sure
16100, JBA at 1358
16980, JBA at 1358
Other usuals were probably on but propagation just too bad (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 13820, June 5 at 1155, lite pulse jamming against an open carrier, maybe listed YFR via Kazakhstan, while R. Martí does not start 13820 until 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREECE. 15630, June 5 at 1204 poor open carrier must be V. of Greece, minus modulation, but musical by 1212 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN. 15555, June 5 at 1332, looking for Firedrake but instead heard poor signal with Qur`an chant, i.e. Arabic; what`s this? Of course, VIRI`s Japanese service at 1330-1430, 500 kW, 60 degrees via Kamalabad (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA [and non]. 7245, June 5 at 0609, poor signal but usual chants from R. Mauritanie, or rather, since it`s in Arabic, ID is given in WRTH as ``Huna Nouakchott, Idha`at al-Gumhuriyati al-Islamiyya al-Mauritaniya``, or IGIM for short. Our condolences to the Mauritanians who have to put up with theocracy as well as slavery. No GUINEA 7125 yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Sporadic-E MUF poked above 55 MHz again June 4 at 2333 UT, ch 2 mix of Spanish stations from the SSW to SW angle; 2358 a novela, with XHI-TV bug in upper right. Above the tiny call-letters is a script 2 in a slanted oval. UT June 5 at 0004 a promo with large letters on screen, ANTENIZATE, apparently a new coinage urging direct off-air reception capability. 0005, ZONA XHI-TV also arrayed across the full screen. This Ciudad Obregón, Sonora independent station was also in earlier that day as in previous report. It`s great to get something besides all the generic net relays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA [and non]. 15120, June 5 at 0600, VON detectable in English under mix of CRI theme music from Beijing site and presumed R. Free Asia via TINIAN, terrible 3 or 4-way collision despite no other signals audible below 15160 Australia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 51, KSBI OKC, astounded to see and hear an harmonious pop/country trio performing June 5 at 0135 UT, on a dark stage, almost limbo lit, with lower right bug as: OK52 in red outlined letters, above tiny KSBI AND YOU! slogan. Can it be a real local produxion? Overhead banner on stage occasionally visible mentions KSBI; reaxion shots of fans in an auditorium. Yes, schedule shows for 8-9 pm Saturdays, `The New Face Showcase`. Axually I was watching it via Suddenlink analog cable 16 in Enid. Then a duet; apparently local talent show, of which OKC has plenty in this genre. Not live; the commercial break transitions are too perfect (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** POLAND [non]. 11980, June 5 at 1200 fair signal in English I briefly hoped was PRES as scheduled, but soon dashed as the program topix were all about China in `Heartbeat`. Yes, CRI does it again, co-scheduling an English hour via Kunming, while Poland is 45 degrees from Woofferton, UK, maybe capable of overriding it in Scandinavia. No trace of it here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [non]. 11880, June 5 at 1232, REE`s `Amigos de la Onda Corta` is back on proper frequency via COSTA RICA after switching to 17850 last Sunday. After ``DX news`` which was really non-SW media news, lengthy interview with an starry-eyed enthusiast for digital broadcasting eventually totally replacing analog on MW, SW and FM. I listened to as much of that as I could take (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 15780, June 5 at 1203 poor signal with pop music, 1216 in Arabic news, so it`s R. Sawa, in fact the only station in HFCC on this frequency, since 20 April at 08-13, 100 kW, 132 degrees from Lampertheim, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Altho WaveScan did appear on WWCR for the first time, Saturday June 4 at 1630 on 12160, oh oh, that`s not WaveScan at 0225 UT Sunday on 4840, despite the June 1 schedule listed repeat at 0200.

Silly me, relying on the updated schedule on WWCR website, which also means that WORLD OF RADIO is NOT back at 0230. The gospel huxter in progress after citing Malachi 3:16 played taps theme for a break at 0230, 0231 First Amendment Radio promo, ads for Berkey water. 0234 taps again.

Anyway, reception is only fair-poor here with a lot of fading. Maybe next weeks the DX Block will return? We`ll have to listen to Ask WWCR on demand to hear if they have any explanation

[Later:] No, Ask #340 airing until June 17 at 0145 UT Sundays had only three topix: NASB will welcome everyone to the September 14 meeting of HFCC in Dallas for a tour of Continental Electronix; a reception report from Reunion, which really impressed them and fantasies of visiting there; and getting V. of Russia to move off 13850, which was severely QRMing WWCR/DGS 13845 in Europe. I doubt he cares anymore (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7415, since it`s UT Sunday, `QSO with Ted Randall` pushes WBCQ late into the night, still on with rock music at 0610 June 5, good signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 12100, June 5 at 0603, WTWW with Bible in English but only S9+5 with fading, not enough to overcome CODAR. At 1222, poor in Arabic; by 1412 no longer audible, I think off, but maybe propagational fade. Definitely off at 1621 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9265, June 5 at 1158, WINB ID at sign-off, usual hummy audio and unstable carrier; by 1201, ``Call to Worship`` was underway on 13570, not solid signal yet but soon building up (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. 13730, June 5 at 1158, R. Vaticana via CANADA in Spanish, quoting Pope past 1200 when lite CCI from Portugal starts underneath; 1210 still Spanish since this is a Sunday, instead of English. Now it`s vying with WINB for SSOB, tho before 1200, GUF 13640 would have won (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA [non]. Another Sunday, another week with no Hello from or to the President who will never relinquish power voluntarily: checked all 5 scheduled frequencies via Cuba at 1617 June 5 and only silence on 11690, 13680, 13750, 15370 and 17750.

However, at
http://www.alopresidente.gob.ve/ a `live` `Aló, Presidente` *is* in progress at 1620 UT, No. 375 for June 5, details:http://www.alopresidente.gob.ve/info/2/2122/inicia_%5Caluepresidente%5Cdesde_el.html
Annoyingly, if you navigate from one page to another on the website, the embedded webcast is interrupted and has to be restarted. His favorite color is red, no doubt in the Soviet tradition rather than the contemporary American political sense. Not only he but his audience are all wearing red shirts, which we would never have known via RHC.

So why isn`t RHC carrying it? Perhaps they gave up trying after a couple of months of no-shows.

And why does the website display time in UT-4 as 12:20 pm? Has Hugo decreed that his Bolivarian fiefdom go back to normal standard time instead of UT -4:30? Timeanddate.com still shows UT -4.5.

At 1630, El Hugazo said the program today would be short as he urged his guest to hurry up (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 17461, June 5 at 0552, S9+15 open carrier with some regular fades, occasional chirps. Nothing that strong inside the 16m BC band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 17480, June 5 at 1308, S9+10 carrier with continuous 1000 Hz tone, past 1322, 1330, and went off by 1347, maybe a minute or two earlier as it`s hard to maintain attention to such programming. 17480 is 5 kHz below the de-facto bottom of the expanded 17 MHz SWBC band, where nothing is scheduled. At 1358, 17485 had open carrier, 1400 cutting on Brother Scare hymn // unsynchronized 9385 WWRB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 17600, June 5 at 1635, music test (``Balkan``?), fair signal with nothing scheduled. Not // Greece 15630. First reported by Alan Roe, England, from 1440, with tone test earlier in that hour. May be related to the tone earlier on 17480, and the mystery music test on 15400 last Sunday.

In BDXC-UK, Peter Wilde identified some of the music as in Croatian, leading Dave Kenny to speculate it`s the transmitter-maker RIZ in Zagreb testing a new unit (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###