giovedì 13 febbraio 2014

Glenn Hauser logs February 13, 2014

** AFGHANISTAN [non]. 11595, Feb 13 at 1448, SW Asian music, poor signal with deep fades, cut off at 1459* amid announcement. HFCC and Aoki shows this is VOA R. Ashna in Pashto 1430, then Dari 1500-1530, both 100 kW, 88 degrees from Biblis, GERMANY; but what happened to the second half? There should not have been any transmission break between the languages (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 6070, Feb 13 at 0631 check, CFRX is JBA vs Vatican 6075; at 1304, local news is poorly audible in noise level. I suppose the best window for CFRX will be 0500v-0627v, i.e. after Cuba goes off and before Vatican comes on, but I`ve yet to try it. Also presumably after Vatican from 0700, and before Cuba until 2400. So far, it seems to me that CFRX is much weaker than it had been before it vanished on Sept 5, per DXLD 13-37. So is it running less than one kW now and/or with inferior antenna?

Ken Zichi in Williamston MI, replied earlier: ``Hi Glenn -- I'm in their daytime groundwave 'footprint' here in Michigan, and indeed they have been audible (better than at night) during the day -- it appears they are on 24/7 -- at least they are there whenever I've checked yesterday and today. Apparently whatever was broken in their SW transmitter is now fixed. At night they suffer from EXTREME QRM from Cuba and sometimes 'skip over my head' so reception is actually better during the day than at night here. 73 //Ken Zichi``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 9385-9445, Feb 13 at 1433, extremely distorted FM spurs from CNR1 programming thruout this range but peaking circa 9410-9430, compensating for loss of spurs from WWRB; see U S A (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 5025, Feb 13 at 0633, R. Rebelde is off again; and another anomaly: 5040, RHC is in Spanish instead of English, while the still overkill 6 MHz quartet are all English: best on 6000, 6165, weakest on 6060, least modulation on 6100 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY. 13655, Feb 13 at 1512, poor signal in S Asian song. Aoki shows AWR in Punjabi, then Hindi at 1500-1530, 250 kW due east from Nauen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also AFGANISTAN [non]

** OKLAHOMA. 1210, Feb 13 at 1341 UT, ad for Macy`s, so what`s this? Surely not KGYN, no Macy`s in little Guymon OK --- yes, it is KGYN, since next ad is local for mace! KGYN has been behaving itself lately, not really audible at night with null toward NYC. Official FCC February SR/SS are 1330/0030 UT; March, 1300/0045. It`s also audible weakly on daytime groundwave (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. RF 31, KXOK-LD, Enid`s only TV station, continues to be SNAFU. For a few days over the weekend Feb 8-9ish, main channel 31.1, PSIP TVOK, was transmitting ``no signal``, meaning the input (from Ponca City?) was lost and no one was around to fix it. Suddenlink cable 15 has no choice but to show that too, picking up the 31 signal from only two blox away. But don`t blame Suddenlink for this.

Since then, instead of Retro TV network, including right now 1800-1830+ UT Feb 13, I keep seeing Episode 848 about Pryor, of `Discover Oklahoma`, dated 10/2/10 --- as per the billboards between segments, and minutes of black, obviously an old recording in format not intended for broadcast as is, without commercial inserts. This travelog, hardly distinguishable from an infomercial, is syndicated to numerous OK TV stations. I guess it`s the default filler at KXOK: what a poor excuse for a TV station!

Most of the time, including latest check Feb 13 around 1800, 31.2 is constant full screen color bars and silence (can`t complain too much since no other source for those any more), but supposed to be M - FOX as on the PSIP ID. And 31.3 is black screen and silence, tho still labeled Azteca. Once in a while, one or the other of the subchannels will come to life with Spanish programming, but not in quite a while. This situation has been going on for months, if not years! And I`ve never seen any advertising or listings that the two Spanish services are allegedly on the air in Enid, which is just as well, considering their extreme unreliability. But is someone paying for this non-carriage??

PLUS, same thing on RF 32, the duplicative lower-powered highly direxional intercity relay from the same site downtown Enid site aimed toward the translator in Lamont. Often, such as 1800 UT Feb 13, 32 is too weak to decode, assuming that`s what the ``bad`` signal really is on the orange bar via the Zenith STB; or maybe it`s off and I`m getting a remnant of something else (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 11620, Feb 13 at 1510, RRI in Arabic, fair with long/short path echo. Altho 300 kW aimed 140 degrees from Galbeni, I think I am getting as much signal off the back, 320 degrees, which is close to USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. 21640, Thu Feb 13 at 1438, REE is axually on this frequency // 21610, both very poor but // 17595. 1515 both are better with echo, long-path? audible especially on 21640. As I reported, as late as Feb 10, Monday, they were still sticking to 21630 and colliding with BBC Ascension at 1400-1430.

Perhaps REE finally concluded 21640 was called for since published as such for every day, not just weekends, in the WRTH Update? So a red correxion update update may not be necessary on this. Could still be a fluke, and further chex called for (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1708 monitoring: confirmed first airing, UT Thursday Feb 13 at 0430 on WRMI 9955, fair signal; and second airing, Thursday Feb 13 at 1330:05 also WRMI 9955, generally atop pulse jamming, both following WRMI IDs by gh; and played to completion, followed at 1359:05 by `Scoreboard`. Other transmitter NWward carrier overrode for a while at 1356, and back on at 1358 boosting the propagation outlook. Next:

Thu 2201 on WTWW 9475
UT Fri 0426v on WWRB 3195
Sat 0730 & 1530 on HLR 7265-CUSB
UT Sun 0030 on WRMI 9495
UT Sun 0030 on WTWW 5085
UT Sun 0501 on WTWW 5830
UT Mon 0400v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5085 & 5830, Feb 13 at 1308, WTWW-2 and WTWW-1 are both off. At 1432, 9930 WTWW-2 is still off, but 9475 WTWW-1 and 12105 WTWW-3 are both on now. Wonder if only two funxional transmitters are being moved around to five different frequencies (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9370, Feb 13 at 1433 check, WWRB is back in whack after going bonkers yesterday with humbuzz and spurs, so Brother Scare is clear again and only on the proper frequency. Back to the spurs in the area from China, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1140, Feb 13 at 1348 UT I have been monitoring for anything in Spanish, with KRMP OKC nulled as much as possible, but it`s getting harder with earlier sunrises (today in Enid: 1321 UT). All I hear is another English, with KSOO [Sioux Falls SD] mentioned in passing.

However, Dave Hughes in Kansas City MO has kept checking 1140 and reported Feb 11:

``Hi Glenn, I tried 1140 on Saturday morning [Feb 8] (after oversleeping) and heard at 1429 UT "Neon Jazz with Al DeMeo" (I will be listening to that show again: great tunes). I am finding it difficult to check at 1400 UT due to job responsibilities.

This morning I checked from home at 1245 UT and found S9+10 ranchera music. At work 10 minutes later I can hear nothing on 1140. Correction, very weak music amidst all the computer, wireless camera and other noise. I'll try at 1400 UT if I can. DH`` and --

``I finally heard 1140 at 1400 UT! It was in Spanish until TOH and then switched to English (news followed by "the Power Hour"), In Spanish I heard commercials for a law firm in KC, Kansas among other local things. After hearing it sooo strong from my QTH this morning after sunrise I had a feeling it was not a Mexican. I can't find any reference to it being in Spanish overnight, though, and it sort of seems out of synch with the whole patriot thing (learn English or go home). Their website doesn't seem to be there any more but I found a live feed on
http://tunein.com/radio/KCXL-1140-s32214/
DH``

I`ve checked and rechecked the Univisión website, but nothing radial found about Kansas City: suspect it`s quite incomplete, concentrating only on more major (or full-time) markets. I think they have a lot more affiliates than shown there; furthermore, Univisión America branding seems to apply to a variety of different formats depending on the `needs` of each market. One of these days I may drag myself out of bed and get the KCXL webcast going before 1400 UT. Thanks to Dave for checking this out (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 1830 UT February 13