domenica 29 gennaio 2012

Glenn Hauser logs January 28-29, 2012

** ALBANIA. 7530, Sat Jan 27 at 2130 I thought to check how R. Tirana is doing, but figured it was too late after the English broadcast at 2100 --- but it was not. Still on the air with theme and opening Albanian, fair signal until cut off at 2130:12*. Altho there is no longer any SW transmission at 2130-2300, it seems one is still being fed to the Shijak site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 15160, researching the RA schedule to advise someone when best to hear it, I am surprised to find this missing from HFCC; had been a useful signal here in the 05-08 period when the MUF cooperate, and still in Aoki as 65 degree beam. So has this frequency been canceled? Jan 29 at 0626 there is a JBA signal which I can just barely // to 13630 also quite weak tonight. RFI also had English on 15160 at 06-07, but canceled all English SW broadcasts at yearend. Checking earlier B-11 HFCC files, no RA on 15160 there either, altho 15240 and many others were included, so 15160 must have been missed as it has certainly been on the air and still is, more favorable beam for us than weaker // 15240, 13690 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Jan 29, finally a few frequencies at once:
11500, fair at 1435
12230, good with flutter at 1450
12300, fair with flutter at 1449
12600, good with flutter at 1449
12980, good with flutter at 1449; no others 9-18 MHz by 1455
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. 6060, Jan 29 at 0636, RHC is missing from one of its four English frequencies on 49m; no loss; it`s the weakest one here anyway, opening channel for lo het presumably between SRDA Curitiba, Brasil and what else? A bit early for Russia or China, nothing else scheduled. Splatter from RHC 6050 helps to occupy 6060.

Sunday anomaly expected: Jan 29 at 1431, 9850 is missing; seems to be on all the other scheduled frequencies 9-15 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also VENEZUELA [non]

** MAURITANIA. 7245, Jan 29 at 0635, IGIM is on with singing, rather than the usual chanteur (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 39, KWTV-DT, Jan 29 at 1556 UT, Bob Schieffer on CBS` `Face the Nation` says ``back in just a minute`` as he revels in the full hour he has finally been granted, ``Battleground Florida`` primary special, and the show is to be one hour weekly from April, I think --- but not yet in OKC!

Just as I expected, KWTV won`t coöperate, retaining its usual real estate infomercial at 1600. Will they ever fall into line? BTW, KWTV has continuous (local) news, repeat after repeat on 9-2, where they could have put part 2 of FTN if not on 9-1, but they did not.

I`ve been meaning to follow up my report a few weeks ago that 27, KFOR had cancelled continuous weather on 4-2, to run Ant TV on both 4-2 and 4-3. A few days later, 4-3 was dropped, and now it`s just 4-2 with Antenna TV old movies (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 7310, Jan 29 at 0632, reliable RRI English broadcast with top news item being anti-government protests across Romania, calling for resignation of the president --- but bare bones, no details or background before on to next story. First I had heard of it, not exactly headlining US media. Here`s more about the situation:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/romania-protests_n_1228525.html
Just how objectively and thoroly is RRI covering this threat to the government that runs it? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9980, Jan 29 at 1511, Brother Scare via WWCR is mentioning he is on 9980 and 15190 --- wrong! Not on Sundays: 15190 via IRRS via Romania confirmed off the air after 1500 (but from next week there will be an extension to 1530 on Sundays, some other gospel huxter or him? And on Saturdays he does run to 1700 now despite Vatican Radio DRM at 1530). Not only is The Last Day Prophet of God wrong about how many days are left, he`s wrong about his own schedule. How can anyone with half a brain take this nutcase seriously? But he`s so good for the SW business (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SWAZILAND [and non]. 9585, Jan 29 at 1458, assertive speech in French continues right past 1500; listening a bit more closely, it`s a sermon. So this is TWR`s 1455-1525 broadcast toward Madagascar, per Aoki in French on Sat & Sun, Malagasy M-F.

Cross-checking in WRTH 2012, it shows French only on Sat, with Malagasy Sun-Fri, but not so. You still have to look under South Africa to find TWR Swaziland`s schedule mixed in with Meyerton and Benin MW 1566. Altho TWR Africa originated in Swaziland, Manzini has been demoted to a mere transmitter site with HQ in RSA.

BTW, whatever became of their plans for SW as well as MW from Benin? Shortwave was mentioned in DXLD 5-216:
http://www.worldofradio.com/dxld5216.txt

``TWR new station --- According to TWR the shortwave tower is
up and the transmitter building mostly complete. But judging by prayer
requests there is quite a lot still to do before broadcasts on MW
start! "Please pray for the Higher Authority of Audio-visual Communications (HAAC) and the Department of Communications in Benin to issue the medium wave and shortwave radio licenses. This is needed to put the Benin station on the air (via Steve Whitt, Dec 16, 2005, MWC via DXLD)`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non?]. 7385, more strangeness on this frequency, Jan 28 at 2200, BBCWS opening expanded `From Our Own Correspondent` with teaser including an item I had heard earlier in week on the 9-minute version, 2201 news, but then chopped off the air at 2203*. This is still unaccounted for in latest HFCC of Jan 27: only BBC time on 7385 is 02-04, one hour each from Seychelles and Ascension. And nothing anywhere scheduled before or after 2200. A few days ago I had heard Vatican IS on 7385 until 2100*, also unscheduled. What`s going on here, and from where?

I looked around for another BBC frequency to hear FOOC, found one at 2206, 9915 Ascension, but that had another stream, interview about solar therapy, so not FOOC.

9745, Jan 29 until 1429, `The Fifth Floor` heard part of discussion among other BBC language personnel, Russian, Arabic and Vietnamese, such as the difficulty of translating English idioms, ``bugbears``, cliché quiz. Others of the (only 27 left) languages to be featured next week. Here`s the programme pagge with audio link for one episodde labeled as 25 minutes, but that`s impossible as there are only 23 minutes between 1406 and 1429; and a schedulle not including 1406 Sundays, since who cares when it`s on the stream broadcast via Singapore?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00n1xwh
If you click on the ``see all broadcasts`` link you still see the same page with only 4 times on an unspecified stream. BBCWS after all these years has not figured out how to manage its totally unnecessary fragmented scheduling. I later listened to the whole show on demand, and the above 3 language people only appeared in the last segment, so it`s not a language-by-language rotation; nor any sign of how many episodes there have been or will be (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9990, Sat Jan 28 after 2200, nothing from WTWW-2, so the transmitter test has been postponed again. Altho I did not check 5085 after 2400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 9955, Sat Jan 28 at 2207 I find WRMI on the air since it`s a weekend, and in the clear with sufficient signal so I settle in to listen to `Media Network Plus`. ``Our propagation guru`` Dan Hensley is explaining the recent CME and its effects to Keith Perron, such as TV breaking up due to bombardment of satellite. As they were discussing further outages, 9955 dumped off the air at 2209:55 and was still gone 4 minutes later when I upgave.

9955 still missing Sun Jan 29 at 1510, when presumed Tibetan was heard well enough but with pulse jamming, i.e. RFA via TINIAN during this hour only, no sign of WRMI. 1623 check, hoping WORLD OF RADIO would be audible at 1630, but only lite pulse jamming occupied the space. The DentroCuban Jamming Command used to leave the 15-17 UT block in English alone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1601 monitoring: if back on the air, Sunday 1830 on WRMI 9955, and Monday 1230 when probably jammed. Last, best chance is UT Monday 0330v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1860, Sunday Jan 29 0642, WA0RCR is just barely modulated with presumed usual ham radio news broadcast; multiple CW QRM upon the carrier was much louder, due to a contest? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA [non]. 1559 UT Sunday Jan 29, checking the `Aló, Presidente` frequencies of RNV via CUBA: yes, El Hugazo is rampant on all five: 13750 best by far, declining quality on 15370, 17750, 13680, 11690 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)