venerdì 28 settembre 2012

Glenn Hauser logs September 26-27, 2012

** BANGLADESH. 15105, Sept 27 at 1238, poor signal from BB in English, but at least it`s on today; 1259 very poor at ``end of transmission``, usual brief tone and off 1300* and background noise gone too. Yet again no sign of the Nepali broadcast on 15105 at 1328 check.

15505, *1356.4 open carrier, tone peaking at S9+12, 1358.4 start BB IS, plays 5 times (thrice a minute), timesignal now 8 seconds late past 1400:00 and opening Urdu; hum still surges during pauses (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 27, before 0300, a time I seldom check:
15900, very poor with flutter

Before 1300:
12670, very poor at 1252
12980, good at 1252
14700, very good at 1250; none in the 13s
15555, good at 1240
15795, mixed with CNR1 jamming and AIR Chinese at 1248
16920, very good at 1240
16980, fair at 1240
17100, poor at 1242
17250, fair at 1242
18200, fair at 1244 with flutter

Before 1400:
15560, poor at 1343, het on lo side
15900, fair at 1341
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9790, Sept 27 at 0303, no signal from CRI relay in English normally huge, while it is as usual on other huge relay, Spain 9690. Uncovered weak signal from something else on 9790, i.e. per HFCC, FEBA Dari 45 degrees from UAE at 0230-0315. Still no CRI 9790 at 0312, but at 0350 check it is finally on. Refund please in hard currency, dólares, not cubapesos.

6010, another missing frequency, Sept 27 at 0322; RHC English only on 6050

11760, Sept 27 at 1910, RHC dead air, then cut on undermodulated English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. R. Cairo check Sept 27 at 0304: 9315 English in open carrier, or maybe just barely modulated. 9315 Arabic the usual extreme loud distortion. 9965 Arabic very suppressed modulation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUIANA FRENCH [and non]. 11995, Sept 27 at 0258, RTI relay is concluding with full Spanish schedule. At 0301 I find the open carrier with hum is on, atop a weaker signal; the same thing usually heard in the 04-06 period. More evidence that it is from the same GUF transmitter, except I tuned away and was checking something else at 0300. Still need to monitor the RTI carrier carefully and continuously to find if same is really prolonged into the hummer. BTW, there was lite ACI from Cuban pulse jammer on 12000, long after VOA finished (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN. 11660, Sept 27 at 0253, Qur`an, poor with flutter. HFCC shows it`s IRIB Arabic, 0230-0530, 500 kW, 289 degrees from Zahedan.

21650, Sept 27 at 1245, Moog music, Chinese announcement, poor, i.e. VIRI, 12-13, 500 kW, 65 degrees from Kamalabad. So I also check:

21670, which is much weaker, Sept 27 at 1245, i.e. VIRI`s Malaysian service at 1230-1330, 500 kW, 107 degrees from Sirjan, per HFCC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 15540, Sept 27 at 1912, R. Kuwait holding up today with very good signal, slow rolling fades denoting what a dynamic medium international shortwave is, yet perfectly readable. YL is talking about an IT conference in Kuwait, with stingers. 1915 introduces ``latest financial updates`` but cut off, invoke a stinger; 1916 opening program `Wheel of Progress`, the first and only one of its kind.

Seems like a miscue, maybe restarting a file played earlier. Talks about the 2010-2014 development plan; refers to the prime minister as ``his highness``, no doubt a royal, not a civilian. ID as ``93.3 RKFM and 963 for international listeners``, no mention of SW; address for program is wop.kuwait @ gmail.com Spelt, including KUWAIT to be sure no one uses a Q.

But it`s over already at 1920, back to western pop songs. 1930, ``Radio Kuwait presents --- (fanfare) --- `Theatre in Kuwait`, a survey of the history thereof, but not very far back, first about a play ``Kuwait in the Year 2000``; 1940 outro as a daily program to be continued tomorrow, credits, and back to rock music. Few other small countries are still putting so much effort into SW propaganda (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 800, Sept 27 at 1207 UT, no problem surpassing KQCV OKC when nulled, ``XEROK, Radio Cañón, la estación más potente del norte de México, 50,000 watts``, then opening newscast called ``Calibre 800``, over and over, ``el mejor noticiero de la radio``. Not sure about that name, maybe contraxion of ``canal libre``? which this hardly is, any more.

As for the name ``Cañón``, not in the sense of canyon, a deep depression in the landscape, but in the sense of blasting in like a cannon. Surely there are some other 50 kW stations in northern Mexico; back when it was 150 kW the claim would have been true, unless XERF was then 250 kW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 880, Sept 27 at 1205 UT, crime news referring to Torreón and sister city Gómez Palacio, ergo per Cantú:
880 XETC Kiuu + FM 91.1 Torreón, Coah. 10,000 1,000

I am still curious where that strange non-Spanish name Kiuu comes from (and which I have yet to hear mentioned on the air). Google translate detects it as a Filipino word but can`t translate it from that. Google itself finds that Kiuu is also a place in Kenya; there is a Facebook.com/Kiuumexico which has just celebrated its first birthday. It has something to do with K-pop as in South Korean music. Related? But I don`t find any mention of XETC there.

Here`s website of the station along with FM 91.1:
http://www.kiuu.gremradio.com.mx/
Logo of a circle with a tail implies it is merely a way of misspelling the letter Q in English so it will be pronounced in Spanish as if it were English. Could be it is also masquerading as a US station with an unofficial K-call (like some Canadians do), so is there a real KIUU in the USA? Not on AM or FM, says FCC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 900, Sept 27 at 1218 UT, SEP and IFE PSAs, ``lo mejor de la música country, Hits ---`` (lightning crash), and then a C&W song in English; WSW. So it`s one of my regulars, as in Cantú:
900 XEDT Hits FM + FM 98.3 Cd. Cuauhtémoc, Chih. 5,000 1,500
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO. 15349.1, Sept 26 at 1957 check, IMM is still missing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 960, Sept 27 at 0500 UT, local KGWA Enid stops modulating right after TOH ID, and continues dead air for 5 minutes instead of any network news. I null and try again to hear something else: there are at least two weak signals, but also combating storm noise tonight. Will keep trying, but trouble is, I will probably hear nothing but network news from the understations before KGWA resumes at 0505, when I could be searching for Mexican national and state anthems at local midnight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 15510, Sept 27 at 1344, VOR Pashto/Dari service is audible almost every morning, but now it`s dead air; modulation eventually resumes. It`s 250 kW, 140 degrees from Samara at 12-14 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOMALILAND. 7120, Sept 27 at 0327 R. Hargeisa carrier is on; 0329 SSB ACI QRhaM, 0331 also SSB CCI QRhaM. Open carrier continues, 0334.7 starting HoA music. Another big storm south of here is raising the noise level, and by 0350 the S/N ratio is considerably worse; 0355 it`s close enough for thunder to reach us by compression waves, so disconnect the external antenna to avoid EMPs from the lightning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U A E. 21840, Sept 27 at 1244, very poor signal in French, usually inaudible, but conditions are up. An erstwhile DW frequency, but what`s the site now? Dhabbaya, says HFCC, 250 kW, 260 degrees at 12-13, modified from 255 degrees until May 5, still a #219 antenna, but no longer requiring any slewing. 21840 is also the highest SWBC frequency normally in use (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K. 9500, Sept 27 at 0319 VG in Farsi, stronger than Turkey 9515 to North America in English. It`s BBC, 250 kW, 90 degrees from Woofferton at 0230-0330. Later in the hour I found Farsi on 9505; did I misread the 9500 frequency? No: see USA [non] AWR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1636 monitoring: completed in time for first airing on WRMI 9955, UT Thursday Sept 27 at 0330: as usual, totally blocked by wall-of-noise jamming; tnx a lot, Arnie! Remaining airings on WMRI: Sat 0800, 1500, 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130.

On WTWW: Thu 2100 9479 [confirmed; WOR did not start until after ID, and special QSY announcement: 5745 ex-5755, including WOR UT Sunday 0400]
On WWRB: UT Fri 0330v on 5050 --- we hope! As missed last two weeks
[5050 was on the air 24 hours earlier with preacher]
On Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB: UT Saturday 0130v; reliable lately
On HLR: Sat 0630 on 7265, maybe also 1630 on 7265 like last week; Tuesday 0930 on 5980
On WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 15260, Sept 26 around 1930 as I was about to doze off for a nap compensating for staying up too late/getting up too early, I
stop on an unknown 19mb frequency for some nice background music, with flutter. Awakening just before 2000, I find it is 15260, as AWR Arabic is signing off, spelling out a website with English/Roman letters, and off at 2000*. HFCC shows 19-20, 100 kW, 215 degrees from Nauen, GERMANY.

9505, Sept 27 at 0350 in Persian, vs 9500 earlier in the hour, see UK. This one is AWR at 0330-0430, 300 kW, 100 degrees from Moosbrunn, AUSTRIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 860, Sept 27 at 1233 UT a polka catches my ear. Soon ad for something in Brazilton which apparently sponsors daily polka? And on into CBS News Update about sports. It`s KKOW Pittsburg KS, near Brazilton KS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 930, Sept 27 at 1218 UT just before sunrise here, I am getting closer to a definite ID of KHJ Los Ángeles in null of WKY OC: barely hear a ``La Ranchera`` jingle (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1090, Sept 27 at 1225 UT, pledge drive with phone 888-447-2425, for which you also get a prayer! Mentions ``Catholic radio``, has 5-day drives in spring and fall to pay most of expenses. Phone traces to KEXS Excelsior Springs MO (and apparently relayed on KPIO 1570 Loveland CO) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 1000, Sept 27 at 1222 UT, in KTOK OKC null, instead of the usual SS inhabitant from Ciudad Juárez, I am hearing a discussion in English of women and religion, making a slow SAH. NRC AM Log possibilities:

KKIM Albuquerque NM, Christian Talk Radio, non-direxional, 10 kW day but not if it is really running night power of 38 watts or psra of 12.2 watts!

KCEO Vista CA, EWTN, near San Diego, but it`s 2500/250 direxional south

WXTN Benton MS, GOS format, 5 kW daytimer, non-direxional. Seems a bit late for that eastward as the sun has just risen here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)