sabato 13 aprile 2013

Glenn Hauser logs April 11-12, 2013

** AUSTRALIA. 12065, April 12 at 1354, RA VG with `On This Day` in history, but skipping 1945y! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRIA. 15155, April 11 at 2048, ``How Great Thou Art`` hymn, heavy flutter, French talk but accented almost Creolish. HFCC reveals it`s AWR via Moosbrunn to Africa, during this semihour only.

BTW, replying to Joe Hanlon`s comment in DXLD 13-13, ``Indeed that's all it's registered for in A13 -- 6155 at 05-0615, per HFCC. I'd bet you that ORF will be off SW by the end of the year (Joe Hanlon, NJ, March 24, DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` --- Patrick Robic in Austria says:

``ORF will be on shortwave as long as the Moosbrunn transmitter site is on air. As Wolf Harranth explained some time ago in German language A-DX mailing list, an ORF transmission is the legal requirement for selling airtime to foreign customers. But ORF don´t pay for this transmission so you don´t have to expect more than a minimum schedule.
73, Patrick`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH. 15505, April 12 from *1358, BB IS is JBA today, but I can make out the timesignal ending 16 seconds early (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake April 12, before 1300:
11500, poor at 1251; none in the 10s
11970, good at 1257
13795, fair at 1249 (vs RFA Tibetan via Kuwait, unheard)
13980, poor at 1249 ; none in the 12s
14700, fair at 1247 with het
14980, fair at 1247
15900, very good at 1240, but only fair at 1247
16160, poor at 1244
16250, poor at 1244
16980, very poor at 1245 with flutter
17170, very poor at 1246
17250, very poor at 12446
17450, JBA? At 1244; not sure it is here as elsewhen
Again this totals at least 12 transmitters at once.

After 1400:
15570, poor at 1402 with het on lo side, which unusually even has some audio of its own, 15567? Then pitch shifts, like QSY to 15568? Not sure (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 6010, April 12 at 1227, something in English, which means CRI is far more likely than BBC, VOA or anything else natively in English. Yes: it`s // 9760 CRI. At this hour it`s mixing with Spanish, i.e. Radio Mil which I was trying to hear. At least XEOI is in the clear before 1200, and after whenever Colombia may fade out (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COSTA RICA. 5965, April 12 at 0522, REE relay in Castilian is back on proper frequency instead of 5995 last night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 6060, April 12 at 0054, RHC is in correct language, Spanish // 6100, unlike French 24 hours earlier.

15220 & 15240, April 12 at 0059, very weak spurs from RHC 15230, and no buzz at the moment. They are exactly 10 kHz offset, another significant accomplishment by the crack team at RadioCuba (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT [and non]. 13840 & 13860, April 12 at 0531, big filthy ratchety spur is heavily QRMing NHK French via MADAGASCAR on 13840, i.e. the R. Cairo 13850 transmitter, which is very distorted with humbuzz on fundamental and with equally awful spurblob on hi side. HFCC shows 13850 is on the air all the way from 02 to 07, 250 kW, 315 degrees from Abis to WEu and ENAm. NHK // 11730 is OK; see NEW ZEALAND (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 15770, April 12 at 1237, barely audible S Asian vocal and drum music with flutter, aside VOA Korean 15775. HFCC shows it`s AIR Telugu service until 1245, 250 kW, 132 degrees from Aligarh (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [non]. 11970, April 12 at 0527 checking how well NHK English via FRANCE is doing, sufficient signal bearing just dead air. This should be modulated right up to 0530 or at least 0529. How long was it dead? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also EGYPT, NZ

** KUWAIT. 15540, April 11 at 2047 tuning in sufficient signal from R. Kuwait so I stay with it to confirm whether or not they are still breaking for a biminute of news headlines in English at 2050 --- No. Rock music keeps playing until 2058 sign-off announcement, quick NA, accurate timesignal at 2100 compared to WWV, a bit of Arabic. Then checked intentional Arabic to deep N America on 17550, and today it`s JBA but presumably staying on another two sesquihours anyway (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 1000, April 12 at 0602 UT, orchestral NA from a station where it`s local midnite; 0603 ID for Juárez and 12:03 timecheck, on to music. I.e. XEFV, La Rancherita. KTOK OKC [q.v.] had suspended modulation at hourtop, facilitating recapture of the Chihuahuan (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CHINA 6010; UNID 1570

** NEW ZEALAND [and non]. 15720, April 12 at 0533, surprised to encounter RNZI here with golf news, good signal like Australia tonight also on 19m, but after 0459, RNZI is supposed to be on 11725, where there is nothing --- until 0535 when 15720 has vanished and 11725 has cut on very late. Until then NHK French via FRANCE on 11730 had no ACI, unlike the terrible Egyptian mess on 13840, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. 15120, April 12 at 0534, VON is there, but too poor to copy. Often inaudible; should improve on average as spring progresses for the 0445v- English broadcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1000, April 12 at 0602 UT, here`s yet another Okie broadcasting dead air late at night during what should have been news on the hour: KTOK, OKC. During which I hear Juárez without having to null out KTOK, see MEXICO. At 0606 KTOK resumes modulation with musical opening of C2CAM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) see also USA: 960

** OKLAHOMA. 1520, April 12 at 0616 UT, KOKC `Red-Eye Radio` anti-government rant (what else?) is rudely interrupted with annoying buzz/tones like EAS tests, but this is an Amber Alert, a governmental intrusion about a baby missing in Delaware County, OK, deep in the null of KOKC. Sure hope this helps retrieve it, but seriously doubt. Also there is an intriguing musical understation, but can`t null KOKC enough to pull anything thru (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1650, April 12 at 0059 UT, ad or PSA about Arkansas, ``Arklahoma`` ID, 0100 bong and CBS News, so KYHN Sallisaw has finally started real programming after almost a bimonth of ``program preview`` barker loop stunting since returning to the air. By end of news at 0105, Spanish religion from 10 kW Denver (in daytime until 0145), is taking over what was already a weak presumably nighttime 1 kW signal from KYHN; also circa 0052 it had sounded like Dennis Miller. KYHN official FCC SR/SS times in April: 1145/0045 UT; May: 1115/0115 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU. 5980, April 12 at 0053, R. Chaski is JBA and even some modulation making it despite noise on band now mostly from distant spring storms. Cutoff carrier at 0103:12.5* which makes it 5.5 sex later than last night, more or less. With a clear sky at sunset my streetlite doesn`t fire up until 0111 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 5930, April 12 at 1230, good big band jazz music, 1231 Russian announcement, Friday night from R. Rossii, Petropavlovsk/Kamchatskiy; // much weaker 5940 Magadan, both of which quit at 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAIPAN. 17855, April 12 at 0536, poor signal in Chinese, i.e. Radio Free Asia, 100 kW, 310 degrees at 03-07 --- first time heard this year. Summer hi-latitude, hi-band paths are starting to open up in the nightmiddle. Even 13m can do so as Solstice approaches (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SARAWAK [non]. 15420, April 12 at 1240, presumed Iban speech from R. Free Sarawak, poor with flutter, still here and nothing on 15430.

At 0130 UT April 12,
http://radiofreesarawak.org/ forwarded to another page which headed:

    ``1900-2100 Local
    1100-1300 UTC
Radio Free Sarawak
    SW 15430 kHz [sic]
    Tel 082-237191

Our website is currently under a DDOS attack. Please visit our Soundcloud page
http://soundcloud.com/radiofreesarawak
where you can listen to our recent shows if the site is slow or not responding.``

And below that is a link to a previous program, not today`s:
``7 April 2013 Fear not BN the devil!``

At 1648 UT April 12 now it says: ``Our site has been under heavy DDOS attack over the last 48 hours. We will be very, very soon. [sic] Thank you for your patience and understanding`` and still showing wrong frequency 15430 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGESET)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1664 monitoring: confirmed on WTWW-1 9479, Thursday April 11 at 2100+. Also confirmed on WWRB 3195 (but not 5050), UT Friday April 12 at 0330 after non-pipe organ music fill. Next: UT Saturday 0130v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB; Saturday 0630 & 1430 on HLR 7265-CUSB (Thomas Völkner confirms this was back on the air Wednesday April 10); Saturday 1500 on WRMI 9955; Saturday 1730 on WRN via SiriusXM 120, penultimately; Saturday 2330v on WTWW-2 9930; UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW-1 5830; Sunday 2315v on WTWW-2 9930 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15610, April 11 at 2047, absolutely no signal from WEWN. While it is at the awkward distance of one megameter, so sometimes it inbooms, but usually weak mostly skipping over, there should at least be a trace of backscatter if on the air at all. 15825 WWCR at similar distance is audible. BTW, those attending the NASB meeting in May hosted by WEWN should press them to fix their transmitters, get rid of all those spurs and squeals!! Or at least kick the senders if they get a chance on the tour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5085, April 12 at 0057, WTWW-2 is on with music, in keeping with expanded airtime but exact schedule unknown and/or flexible. Presumably also on 9930 for a while before 0000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 960, April 12 at 0501 UT, instead of ABC news, the understation during KGWA Fox-hole of hummy dead air is carrying a silly ballgame, presumably base; so I have to suspend my distaste and try to ID it: players named Andy Chávez, Ross, Gutiérrez, Bzrzensky (sp?), then mentions Mariners in passing, i.e. Seattle, which explains why the game is still running past midnight Central. But surely I am getting a closer opponent`s network, likely the Rangers of Texas.

Of course I figured it was KGKL, San Angelo, as I have been hearing it normally sportless, and confirmed here as on that team`s net:
http://mlb.mlb.com/tex/download/y2013/radio_network.pdf
This info is provided solely for the purpose of DX identification, and does not constitute an endorsement by gh of SBGs being broadcast.

BTW, ABC news could be heard weakly under, and that would be KMA, which has been eclipsed lately by KGKL running ND at night. With KGWA precisely nulled as much as possible, a fast SAH is also in play, not sure between which of the three stations.

Game must have been over by 0559, when just before 0600 in a KGWA-pause, I again hear the KGKL ``Concho Valley`` ID. KGWA Enid is carrying the Business Talk Radio Network overnight, ending the Gabe Wisdom hour now, and their disclaimer runs until a few sex before 0600, leaving no time for a KGWA ID of its own before Fox ``news`` on the hour. Fine with me (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1060, April 12 at 0611 UT, alabanzas and then jingle in Spanish as ``I-J-N``, i.e. KIJN Farwell TX on the NM border, 10 kW daytimer blatantly cheating as always; but God is obviously on their side, or at least In-Jesus`-Name (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1330, KCKM: received an unsolicited e-mail verie April 12:

``Glenn, I noticed in your DX log that you received KCKM in early April, just minutes before we dropped power. Our recent upgrade to 12,000 watts non-directional day combined with our 1/2 wave tower has made KCKM a great catch in the final minutes of daytime power. Congratulations! Attached is our coverage map.

And one more thing, we will be switching to C-QUAM AM Stereo on 1330 kHz by the end of the year. A lot of my contemporaries think I'm insane and that's OK. It's about time other AM broadcasters revisit AM Stereo.  

Bob Souza, Managing Partner
KCKM 1330 - 12,000 Watts
PO Box 990 - 1200 S Stockton
Monahans, TX 79756
Ofc: 432 943-2588  Fax: 432 943-4540
http://www.kckm1330.com
KCKMlogo``

The map shows a circle with daytime primary coverage as far as Lamesa [whatever happened to the seventh harmonic of their NDB on 120m?], secondary coverage beyond Brownfield but not quite to Lubbock, and also out westward to Artesia and Guadalupe Mountains NP. I replied:

``Bob, Great to hear from you. It`s always nice to get an unsolicited verification (very rarely). Do you have a QSL card? If so I could send you another report directly. I often hear KCKM around sunrise, overcoming Wichita. Actually, the log you must have seen was at 1252 UT = 7:52 am CDT, so after you went to day power at 7:30 am, I believe. I don`t listen much in the evenings. Glad to hear of your AM stereo plans. Regards, Glenn Hauser, Enid`` --- And Bob Souza replies:

``Glen[n], I'm always getting confused when trying to convert UTC to local time. Yes, we would have been 12,000 watts at the time of your reception.

Unfortunately, we do not have QSL cards. In recent times, many of the 50,000 watt stations have eliminated that practice too. When I was at 940 kHz in Fresno, CA, we sent verification letters. Mostly to New Zealand, Australia & Japan. 

I bought this place 6 years ago. It was licensed for 5000 watts but was running 2200 watts. It was off-the-air and about to surrender the license to the FCC. What a mess! But, I could see the potential.

Two years ago, I discovered KOYL in Odessa was gone for good. They were at 1310 kHz. That allowed me to upgrade to 12,000 watts. Sadly, a lot of stand-alone AM's in smaller communities are gone.

It cost a lot to rebuild this facility. It was a labor of love as I'm not sure I'll be able to recover this investment.

If you belong to any DX clubs, I'd be happy to run 12,000 watts after midnight if they're interested`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)