mercoledì 21 gennaio 2015

Glenn Hauser logs January 20-21, 2015

** ALBANIA [and non]. 7465, Jan 21 at 0026 check, R. Tirana, Albanian to N America is poor-fair and suffering from splash de 7455 WRMI. Seems we need to give wider berth to such QRMers; but when the B-14 season began, 7455 was not starting until 0100 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL [and non] 11780.1 approx., Jan 21 at 0036, RNA/RNB is still off-frequency, usually not a problem, but now there is a het from something weak on 11780.0 --- I bet it`s China, which is all over the place: yes, Aoki shows only CRI this hour in Chinese, 500 kW, 59 degrees from Jinhua 831 site. At least no spurs from RNA are audible now while 11780.1 is very good with flutter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. CNR1 jammers, early UT January 21:

9200, Jan 21 at 0028, CNR1 jammer presumed, very poor with hash

13890, Jan 21 at 0042, CNR1 jammer, very good with flutter. Of all the others logged next few minutes, only 15385 is synchro with 13890

13920, Jan 21 at 0042, CNR1 jammer, good with flutter, about 2 seconds ahead of 13890. Except for 15385, all the rest are synch with 13920

14500, Jan 21 at 0044, CNR1 jammer, very good

14870, Jan 21 at 0044, CNR1 jammer, fair

15385, Jan 21 at 0045, CNR1 jammer, very good with flutter, // 13890

15800, Jan 21 at 0047, CNR1 jammer, fair with flutter, almost // 13920

16160, Jan 21 at 0047, CNR1 jammer, poor with flutter, echo from 13920

16920, Jan 21 at 0048, CNR1 jammer, very poor

16980, Jan 21 at 0048, CNR1 jammer, fair

17200, Jan 21 at 0049, CNR1 jammer, good

Risking wearing out the 5-kHz step-up button the old DX-398, I`ve scanned completely from 13550 to 19000, and also checked 19900-20000, but nothing further (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 6100, Jan 21 at 0018, soft romantic music, fair with flutter, sounds Portuguese. Aoki indicates most likely it`s the CRI Portuguese service, 500 kW, 318 degrees direct from Beijing 572 site, way off target here, but along the grayline. Note that to hit Brasil from Beijing across the darkside they have to aim toward the northwest. Only thing else at this hour is North Korea (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 7315, Jan 21 at 0021, WHRI has VG signal despite beaming south from SC, but something else is audible under it. Aoki shows nothing but CNR2, 150 kW ND from Xi`an 594 site until 0100 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also BRAZIL

** CUBA. Stray pulse jammers presumed from Cuba proliferate: Jan 21 at 0024 on 7430 and 7440, but not synchronized. The 7430 one has been there for a long time. Jan 21 at 0034, another pair around 10030 and 10040, the latter one running faster (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 9965+, Jan 21 at 0033, R. Cairo, open carrier/dead air except for whine, on very good signal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 530, Jan 21 at 1940 UT I have driven down to the Visitors Center (with a number of mounted aircraft exhibits outside) at the north side of Vance AFB, and even here there is no `K530AM` to be heard. I am not pursuing this with the powers that be at Vance, since they may not have noticed it`s off, and I`d rather have it gone so R. Enciclopedia et al. are unimpeded. Indeed the electronic sign beside Southgate on the way to Vance gate, still flashes ``TUNE INTO / 530 AM`` along with hours of various gates.

On the way earlier at 1930 UT Jan 21, I make a point of driving along the next E-W street to the north, Rupe, where there are hi-voltage lines/de facto Beverage antennas? Which re-radiate MW signals along with the noise and used to mix with K530AM, but never identified. I park at one peak point and monitor 530 for a while. It doesn`t take long to recognize the main audio is just local KGWA // 960, with an ag report. Weaker audio I realize must be from our other local, KCRC 1390, since, guess what, 1390 minus 430 = 960 and 960 minus 430 = 530. In other words, a leapfrog between these two which are not at the same site, with the assistance of OG&E [local electric company, no gas except maybe partly to generate the juice].

While at the VC, since it`s a quiet location without overhead powerlines, I perform a quick MW bandscan, including:

590-640, splatter from KWPM Moore can now be detected also on the low side, QRMing Omaha 590, Kansas City 610, and probably on 580 too but WIBW is strong enough to block it (and audibilize the usual weak groundwave signal under, which must be remnant of 500-watt KRFE Lubbock TX. Other non-Oklahoma logs are filed under USA (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1120, Jan 21 at 1856 UT on caradio, KEOR is still open carrier/dead air (no BFO, but one can tell a carrier is there lowering the noise level compared to relatively vacant 1110, 1100, etc.) At 1946 UT recheck, trace of talk under, which is most likely KMOX already (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OMAN. 11650, Jan 21 at 0035, Arabic conversation with piano music background, undermodulated but good signal, presumed R. Sultanate of Oman (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU [and non]. 5980+, Jan 21 at 0019, two JBA carriers, one of which is very slightly on the hi side, and beating against each other. One of them does convey some traces of modulation. I`m DXing this hour with the intention of QRTing after the anticipated Chaski cutoff post-0100. So from 0104 I keep both the DX-398 and the PL-880 on 5980 to hear the beat stop as one of the carriers does go off at 0107:23*. So that`s R. Chaski, Urubamba, while the stay-onner is BBC via UAE. Last log of cutoff here was January 9 at 0106:09.5 [correcting typo which said 0105:09.5!], so here it is 12 days later, and 73.5 seconds later, averaging 6.125 seconds per, within the margin of error circa 6 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** THAILAND. 13745, Jan 21 at 0040, R. Thailand in English, good with flutter, classical music background to YL talk; signal characteristix resemble those on 13700 of unlisted BBCWS, also suspected the other SW site in Thailand. Yes! See UK [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TIBET. 6050, Jan 21 at 0018, JBA carrier, so surely HCJB must be off (and ELWA would be off after 0000). What else in Aoki? Nothing but CNR1 via Lhasa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 13700, Jan 21 at 0040, BBCWS very good with flutter, some news feature interview; nothing on 15200 tonight, both of which are/were new unlisted frequencies, and still not in
http://www.hfcc.org/data/schedbybrc.php?seas=B14&broadc=BBC
I do suspect THAILAND site, q.v.

15640, Jan 21 at 0046, BBCWS English // and synch with 13700, good with flutter. Aoki shows 15640 at 00-01 is 250 kW, 25 degrees from Nakhon Sawan, as of Jan 15, but only on Wed & Fri (and this is UT Wed), so another of those jumparounds depending on day of week, supposed to confuse Chicom jammers, but really confusing would-be listeners. 15200 is now in Aoki too as same parameters from THAILAND, but only on Sun/Tue/Sat. That leaves Mon & Thu to round out the week, so hunt for that in the 15s: There it is, 15755.

Now Aoki also has the days of week as of Jan 15 for the 13 MHz jumparounds, same parameters as the three on 15:
13700 on Mon/Wed/Sat; 13725 on Tue; 13635 on Sun/Thu/Fri
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5778.5-USB, ``Region 6 Shares Net`` with various MARS and other calls, first hearing AFA6EA /spelt/, later NCN035 /not spelt/, and 035 for short, who seems to be the NCS. He calls on various stations to in turn call for check-ins from their regions. At 0027, NF81DN /spelt/. There are really long pauses and I don`t think it`s just lack of propagation. Each station gets to say a few informal words about the weather, anticipating State of the Union, or whatever. One wanted to know what ``the other frequency`` is, and was given a phone number in the clear for someone to call to find out.

Ha, top Google hits on AFA6EA go to hex color combinations! Adding MARS to the search terms gets an xls roster including AFA6EA as the State MARS Director for Arkansas. Searching NCN035 gets nothing, but UDXF posts indicate some calls are NCS---. NF81DN nowhere either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1756 monitoring: confirmed UT Wed Jan 21 after 0401 on Global 24 via WRMI: at first webcast seemed silent, but audible turning volume way up. BTW, it seems via G24, the editing glitches in WOR are less noticeable, despite 112 kbps/44 kHz stream.
9395 has a JBA voice sounding like mine. Followed at 0430 by `Blues Radio International`, which I thought was just a one-time replacement last week for `Media Network Plus`. Next WORs:
Wed 0730 & 1530 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265-CUSB
Wed 1415 on WRMI 9955
Wed 2200 on WBCQ 7490v
Wed 2201 on Global 24 via WRMI 9395
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9975, Jan 20 at 0125, KVOH is open carrier/dead air, so I leave a receiver on it with volume up: finally joins modulation in progress at 0156, the usual sermonizing in English with consecutive translation to Spanish across the gender line. Next check 23+ hours later, Jan 21 at 0033, modulating already, presumably from *0000 tonite (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7520, Jan 20 at 0127 I notice that WWCR-4 is airing the gospel huxter who sounds like he`s got Tourette Syndrome --- talks normally for a few words, then screams incomprehensibly several times a minute. It is of course, as in the WWCR program schedule, Terry Blalock on the `Full Gospel [semi] Hour` at 0100-0130 Tue-Sat. TG it`s not really a full hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. From a full MW bandscan on caradio from the parking lot of the Visitors Center at Vance AFB, south of Enid:

530, Jan 20 at 1940 UT, no Vance any more, but trace of a weak talker, probably Kansas Turnpike Authority HAR.

870, Jan 20 at 1943 UT, SAH of 480/minute = 8 Hz between two very weak stations. One must be nearest groundwave, KFJZ Fort Worth, probably in Vietnamese, but the other? There are three other possibilities, so which one is 8 Hz from KFJZ? No place to look that up easily. I have noted this situation previously.

WWL New Orleans would be the obvious first choice, some 600 miles by groundwave over middlin` ground conductivity. 50 kW with a pattern pushing more of it north avoiding the Gulf waters. Somewhere in east TX someone could confirm whether WWL is the one 8 Hz from KFJZ.

KPRM Park Rapids MN, 40 kW ND in daytime (CP for 50, yet?) is a bit further, but has the northerly advantage in case winter skywave is involved a month after Solstice.

KAAN Bethany MO is only 930 watts but closest, over 300 miles beyond Kansas City.

1060: Jan 20 at 1945 UT, English, promo for EWTN.com 24 hours per day; makes a SAH of 72/minute = 1.2 Hz with something weaker. Altho I couldn`t find a station list directly from the EWTN homepage last time, by Googling I do now get
https://www.ewtn.com/radio/radioaffiliatemap/
but the link to a printable list is ``temporarily unavailable``. Anyhow, there are NO 1060 listings in OK (of course), nor adjacent states, nor second-adjacent states, each of which I click on: TX, NM, CO, KS, MO, AR, LA, AZ, UT, WY, NE, IA, IL, KY, TN, MS!! Can`t be KIJN Farwell TX since it`s Protestant, tho it may never utter that word.

NRC AM Log 2014-2015 has two EWTNs on 1060 but are far too far: MA and OH. So it must be a recent flip from something much closer. 1060 in Longmont CO could barely make it, and by golly that`s it:
http://www.krcnradio.com/
24h Catholic Radio Network since January 1, replacing business format. Of course, the RCC is one of the world`s largest and most profitable businesses. And the same old callsign almost fits.

1360, BTW, also EWTN has an audible heterodyne, which if not something local would mean one of our two neighboring EWTNs there is off-channel: KPHN El Dorado KS, and KDJW Amarillo TX (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 700, Jan 21 at 0101 UT, weak station in Spanish with WLW nulled while reporting on the bridge collapse and traffic snarls. SS I think mentions ``40 Principales`` which would lead to a Mexican top-40 group, but maybe misheard as then phone with 214- AC, so it`s merely The Metroplex, KHSE Wylie (Dallas) TX, 920 watts at night. No big deal to hear it day or night here, but it`s being reported back east getting past WLW. It must be (or have been) on day pattern with major lobe NE, rather than nite pattern westward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1510, Jan 21 at 0055 UT, same ad as heard underneath 1520 KOKC, then 1510 with CBS Sports Minute, loops NW/SE. Good signal on 1510, and
http://radio.cbssports.com/stations/ list displays on 1510 only KBED in Nederland (Beaumont) TX, and KGA Spokane WA, surely the former, altho KBED is supposedly a 5 kW direxional daytimer despite official January sunset at 2345 UT (Feb: 0000 UT); conveniently its pattern is USward, NNW/SSE.

As for 1520, CBS Sports displays two stations there too, KOLM in Rochester MN, and WHOW in Clinton IL. KOLM is the well-known cheater on 10 kW day power, causing heavy QRM to ailing KOKC now at 0056 UT January 21 and elsewhen (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 0454 UT January 21