domenica 7 agosto 2011

Glenn Hauser logs August 6-7, 2011

** ALBANIA. 7425, UT Sunday Aug 7 at 0144, R. Tirana IS, 0145 complete English schedule gobbling up 2 minutes of this 12-minute broadcast. OMG, she is still saying the 1845 and 2000 transmissions are on 13640. Didn`t I confirm that they had changed the announcement to match reality of 13735 when that switch was made a few months ago? Everything is announced by YL Klara, who I have some trouble understanding, but much better than the Serb on IRS. 0147 `News from Albania` starting with something about China. 0152 talk about aquaculture; 0156 ``have a nice weekend, goodbye from Albania``, theme and cut off the air at 0157:20*. SINPO 45444, but readability would not rate more than a 3 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. 9490, Aug 7 at 0014, R. República via RMI via Sackville, CANADA, strong and steady signal well atop the wall-of-noise jamming, quoting Mahatma Gandhi, ID, and later in hour some kind of awards ceremony for Cuban exiles. Is Sat/Sun 23-02 Sun/Mon only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. If it`s DW, it can`t be from Germany, so whence are these two roughly equally fair signals only a reverb apart at 0011 August 7 with `Das Magazin`?

12070 is 250 kW, 280 degrees from RWANDA
12050 is 250 kW, 275 degrees from PORTUGAL

HFCC shows both with exactly the same partial CIRAF targets,
10N,10SE,11S,11NW,12N,12SW = Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, and South American coastal countries from Venezuela to Peru. Perhaps I missed it, but seems that Rwanda had not been deliberately targeted across the Atlantic, tho it obviously worx well. It already has plenty of antennas like the 280 originally intended for part of Africa. Sines, Portugal site was set up for Europe and Africa, but now it`s aiming west too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Sporadic E reached ch 2 from the south, August 6, UT:

1702 on 2, first signs of CCI; 1703 on 2, Azteca-7 bug UR with 32 degrees and 12:03 clock, mostly ads; two or three stations mixing but the A-7 dominant; at 1731 the 7 bug again with 33 degrees at 12:31 clock; 1740 still not exceeding channel 2; 1800 weakening; 1812 back stronger at 1:12 and 33 degrees: UL says EN VIVO and some other word below it; soccer ball bug in LR; interviewing fans in crowd. 1815 gone; 1823 back with net-7 promo. INFO 7 in LL, promo for it lunes a viernes a 5:55 am. Very likely XHTAU, Tampico.

1824 on 2, brief bit of English about Casey Anthony, very likely XHRIO, Matamoros, then right back to Azteca-7 fútbol interviews.

1845 on 3, MUF finally creeps up a bit to recognize a net-5 bug UR, but shortly later opening is done (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SERBIA [non]. It`s another Saturday night and nothing to watch on public TV since everything is pre-empted by an OETA begathon, so another good chance to check IRS on 9685, which a few weeks ago we caught with an unscheduled English broadcast at 0100 UT Sunday. Tune-in 0058 Aug 7 to music only, too late to hear if there was any English from 0030; 0100 frequencies announced in Serbian, and IS several times. 0101 YL starts talking, and I am at a loss for some time to decide whether she is speaking English or Serbian: her dixion, accent and mike presence make her virtually incomprehensible.

Maybe it`s news; at 0105 a pause with music and straining to copy with headphones, I do hear ``International Radio of Serbia, stay tuned, stay tuned, stay tuned`` a few more times. But I tune away frustrated at 0111. Back at 0115 there is music whose lyrix I don`t expect to understand anyway; 0119 another less incomprehensible YL announces about someone winning a music festival, and more music. 0128 an OM signs off giving frequencies only, not times! 0129 a few IS variations and off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. Heard a promo this morning reminding me of this weird show, `Desde el Infierno` (From Hell), so I made a point of intuning UT Sunday August 7 at 0015. 9535 was best, also audible on 11680, 9620 under Cuba, and weakened 15160. Spooky music, much of it Ligeti-esque and narration to give you nightmares (2-3 am locally). Here`s one program that might benefit from DRM, if it`s working, on 9625-9635 via Costa Rica.

The last 81 shows (except this and previous week`s) are audible via
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/desde-el-infierno/
so you can hear what I mean at your convenience. Explained as 0005 UT Sundays on REE,

Presentado por: Luis G. Chapinal --- "Desde el Infierno es un programa que procede de las entrañas de la oscuridad, donde encontramos criaturas malignas como vampiros y licántropos. En este espacio se revisan sombras cinematográficas y narraciones extraordinarias pertenecientes a los grandes creadores del género... Lovecraft. Poe, Stevenson, H.G. Wells"

0052 Sr. Chapinal starts wrapping it up until next week with e-mail address but the music continued until 0056 program promos. BTW, I was on indoor antenna this evening due to threat of thunder tho little was heard electronically or sonically (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WWCR has finally updated its transmitter schedule,
http://www.wwcr.com/transmitter-sched.html
dated effective from August 6 --- or has it? Still shows WWCR-4 as 24 hours on 5890 or 9980, contrary to latest `Ask WWCR` explanation, and we have found 9980 off the air before 1400, and Saturday August 6 it was off before 2100, altho on weekdays it had been running until 2100 with something other than Brother Scare in the final hour.

The program schedule, however, backdated August 1, does show current usage of WWCR-4:
Brother Scare:  daily 0500-1100 on 5890 (except UT Sunday from 0400)
                daily 1400-2000 on 9980 (except Sunday until 2100)
Other programs: 9980 Mon-Fri 2000-2100, Tue-Sat 0100-0200
                5890 UT Sunday 0230-0400

We were checking the site to reconfirm that the signal on 7465, August 7 at 0017, open carrier except for a big squeal, was indeed WWCR-1, scheduled until 0100, and then 7520 for an hour at 01-02 before starting 3215 at 02. The 7520 station before 01 with poor signal and gospel huxter in English is WYFR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. After listening to R. Tirana on 7425, I find that 7415 is on the air with WBCQ, UT Sunday August 7 at 0158; Allan Weiner and friend are discussing early color TV and how it works, TK41 cameras new cost $60,000, etc. Same continued past 0200 without a break. Probably was a playback of `Allan Weiner Worldwide` from Friday night. The last we heard, WBCQ was totally off the 7415 air Saturdays-UT Sundays and the online program schedule still shows nothing between UT Saturday and 1900 Sunday since `QSO with Ted Randall` pulled out. Brother Scare is still shown as 00-03 UT the other six nights a week. Only fair signal in summer storm noise level; 9330 is always better (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###