martedì 21 gennaio 2014

Glenn Hauser logs January 21, 2014

** BOTSWANA. 13830, Jan 21 at 0625, poor signal in French, 0629 VOA theme and sign-off. It`s 100 kW, 350 degrees from Selebi-Phikwe a.k.a. Moeping Hill, at 0530-0630 M-F per Aoki. At first it sounded like there were ICDs (intermittent carrier dropouts), but upon closer listening, these were spikes, presumably from a local device (neighbor`s electric fence?), overriding this and other weak signals on the band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 11780, Jan 21 at 0620, RNA is playing ``Cielito Lindo`` in Brazuguese version, also // 6180. Just tuned over from 9420/7475 Greece, q.v., another mostly-music station we enjoy, a hard choice between them. 0655 ID with slogan ``Nacional da Amazônia --- voz mais perto de você``. It`s notable that 11780 is always the 25m SSOB in the nightmiddle, and even the OSOB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 11740, Jan 21 at 0058, checking for AIR Sinhala service via GOA, q.v., usual occupant, the music I hear, fair with flutter, is followed by talk in Chinese! And no sign of another signal. Aoki shows it`s CNR2, at 2055-0100, 100 kW, 286 degrees from Lingshi 725 site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 13850, Jan 21 at 0118, CNR1 good with flutter, why? Aoki shows only *jammer reason to be here is to block a 100-watt nuisance transmitter on Taiwan from Sound of Hope, any time between 2130 and 1430 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EAST TURKISTAN. 7205, Jan 21 at 0109, talk in central Asian language, poor with flutter. Aoki shows it can only be PBS Xinjiang in Uighur, 100 kW, 230 degrees from Urumqi at 2310-0300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ECUADOR. 6050, Jan 21 at 0102, strange chanting not recognizably Christian, fair signal from HCJB; 0104 non-Spanish announcement does not sound Quichua. Aoki sorts out the various other Vozandes languages, showing Waodani at 0100-0130 M-F (more likely UT Tue-Sat), Also on the schedule at certain other times are Chapala at 2130-2200 M-F, Shuar at 2330-2400 M-F, Cofan at 0000-0030 daily; besides lots of Quechua [sic] and Spanish. All 10 kW on dual beams 18 and 172 degrees, i.e. roughly N/S, but not exactly opposite.

Altho all these languages could be considered ``domestic``, WRTH 2014 mixes the same schedules (including Waodani as allegedly UT M-F) with HCJB relays abroad in the International section on page 457; and referred to in the national section, page 187 with alternate spellings: Cofán, Kechwa, Cha`paala, while in the Int`l section it`s Cha palaa. WRTH has the 6050 site correctly as Mount Pichincha, while Aoki still shows it as Pifo, long dismantled and abandoned to air traffic. EiBi shows site ``c`` [meaning piCo piChinCha] and agrees with me that Waodani must be UT Tue-Sat, not M-F (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GOA [and non]. 11740, Jan 21 at 0058 check, instead of usual AIR Sinhala service, the music I`m hearing, fair with flutter, turns out to be CHINA! q.v. At 0113 after it`s off, only a JBA carrier from presumed AIR. On AIR // 11985 via Delhi-Khampur, there is also a JBA carrier at 0058 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also SRI LANKA

** GREECE. 9420, Jan 21 at 0615, Helliniki Radiophonia playing ``Always Look on the Bright Side of Life`` from Monty Python`s ``Life of Bryan`` --- except it`s sung in Greek! Whatever the serious problems with Greek broadcasting, the SW service continues to be very entertaining: you never know what kind of music you will hear next. Also // weaker 7475. Main competitor as a mostly-music station is RNA, Brazil: q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. Zach Dumas, ops manager of KCSC-FM Edmond called at 1522 UT Jan 21, in reply to my inquiry on their web contact form; also see my Jan 17 log item. Says crew is going out to its own tower today to work on problem; couldn`t do previously due to high winds, and should be back on air later today. Apparently combination of transmitter and antenna difficulty. Have had problem for about a week; was on backup for a while, accounting for the weak signal I was getting, but now off the air completely.

As for my complaint about inadequate signal in Enid, even when on full power and tower, Zach says they are working on a relay in Woodward, via tower used by KCCU/Cameron Univ out of Lawton, and that should help: not much, I told him, unless it`s high power, as the KGOU relay in Woodward, 88.1 KWOU with 23.5 kW at 224.1 m, is very marginal here. Told him we still need a *local* signal in Enid, translator at least. Once again, smaller towns further away get better signals than we do!

FCC FM Query shows: ``KZCU 240 A FM 95.9 MHz LIC WOODWARD OK US BLH-20001220AAZ - 82843 - 6. KW 100. m CAMERON UNIVERSITY``. Not clear whether he meant taking over this facility or merely adding their own to that tower on another frequency; none as yet in FCC FMQ even as an APP. Checking the KCCU site,
http://kccu.org/locations
no mention of Woodward or 95.9 now, so must be off, pending KCSC FM takeover. Woodward is further from Enid than OKC, and 6 kW power will be of no use in Enid, also adjacent to 95.7 local (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU. 5980, Jan 21 at 0057, R. Chaski with VP signal but enough to audiblize some music modulation, until cut off amid a hymn tune at 0104:08* which is 11 seconds later than last check 48 hours ago (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES. 9775, Jan 21 at 1352, open carrier, 1353 join in progress the perpetual prélude of love songs in English, YM crooner with ``I`m here for the long run``, preceding 1400 Radio Free Chosun in Korean.

Now confirmed: the Radio Veritas Asia, Palauig site is transmitting this at 1400-1600 on 20-degree beam which is also just right for North America far beyond North Korea, belying previous listings as via Tajikistan or Uzbekistan which could not achieve such a strong, reliable, usually unfluttered signal on an offbeam and trans-polar path to here (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9930, Jan 21 at 1513, WTWW-2 is back on with very strong BS as he is talking about all the US SW stations he`s on and plans to be on FM in Jerusalem. Also underneath hearing a very weak unsynchronized talker, probably BS too via T8WH PALAU where he`s also scheduled. Seems to stay there, even with max attenuation to minimize possibility of overload crosstalk from 9980 WWCR, or even 9955 WRMI, also with unsynchronized BS.

George McClintock explains why WTWW-2 was off for a while: ``Bad part (HC2000H) that prevented the #2 transmitter (Brother Stair) from tuning to the 2 different frequencies. Part replaced with gray color RCA HC2000H. George McClintock, WTWW, Jan 20, 2014``. He continues to accumulate even more backup parts for all three transmitters (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [and non]. 11780.0, UT Tue at 0114, REE is on now with a LAH against 11780.1 BRAZIL, caused by weekly Sephardic service about to start; can`t make out any IS as REE is quite weak by comparison; after 0115 some talk under the RNA music is detectable. Meanwhile alternate 11795 goes unoccupied (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SRI LANKA. 11905, Jan 21 at 0116, SLBC with S Asian vocal music, good with flutter; despite virtual absence of India on 11985 & 11740 today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TIBET [non]. 15520, Jan 21 at 1406, CNR1 jammer is atop V. of Tibet via MADAGASCAR, also audible. By 1407, VOT has shifted to 15515 leaving the jammer behind; by 1427 recheck, both have faded way down but still separate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY [and non]. 6000, Jan 21 at 0000, an accurate timesignal completes just before RHC English carrier cut on, and 12 seconds late under the carrier, another timesignal is audible. Previous experience is that TRT timesigs are accurate, but the other station would likely be CNR1 just signing off at 0100 from Beijing 572 site, also unlikely to be that far offtime. TRT is just opening a 2-hour Turkish broadcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 5975, Jan 21 at 1358, B-B-C- chimes on VP signal, which per HFCC and Aoki is due northeast from OMAN, about to start 2-hour broadcast in Dari, then Pashto (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. TP carrier search, Jan 21 at 1335 UT: JBA on 594, 693, 747, 828, all likely NHK altho no 774 at the moment. Today`s Enid sunrise: 1340 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 4875-LSB, Jan 21 at 0106, radiogram tones in digital mode, weak signal on LSB, not USB, probably a MARS net (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 1802 UT January 14