giovedì 4 febbraio 2010

Glenn Hauser logs February 3-4, 2010

** FRANCE [non]. While R. Martí was missing from 7365 at 0100 UT Feb 4, instead something very strong in Spanish on 7360, a real station, not a gospel huxter, which I assumed I could look up later --- but nothing listed. So I went back and monitored from 0115 to 0125. Interview about some art exhibit involving Iceland, but not until 0124 did they give me a clue, ``aquí en París``, which is just what I had figured, as RFI has Spanish at 0100-0130 on 5995, except that frequency is now missing.

So it`s Guiana French on 7360 replacing it, another February change by RFI. These February changes are normally planned at the beginning of the B-seasons, and published in asterisked RFI schedules, but I haven`t seen any this season; perhaps buried somewhere on the RFI website. Not here:
http://www.rfi.fr/actues/articles/073/article_100.asp
which still shows 5995, but has admittedly not been updated for almost a year! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. As I was checking Lavwalamerik on 5835 and 7590, Feb 4 around 0010, I also punched up 13725, which LVA uses at least until 2300, but instead heard a good signal with news in English. That`s BBCWS via Thailand, incidentally USward at 25 degrees, used during this one hour only, and not supposed to be overheard by Americans, targeted for China and North Korea. Hmmm, are there yet more English speakers, however imperfectly, in China than in North America? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Since I was not sure when new 5835 starts with Lavwadlamerik, I checked again Feb 3 before 2400 and not on yet; waited and waited past 0000 UT Feb 4 and it finally popped on at 0004.5, and 7590 also in use during this hour. A late join-in-progress like that is of course typical of Greenville.

What happened at 0100 UT Feb 4: A Fondo was on 9415 already at 0000; 7340 came up at 0102:30 or so; 11625 weakly audible by 0104.

LVA at 0100: 5835 continued; 5960 weaker with fast SAH and Chinese QRM; 7465 on shortly. 5960 QRM must be Urumqi, 100 kW non-direxional with PBS Xinjiang in Chinese from 2330 to 1800 except for the usual Tue & Thu 08-11 siesta, per Aoki, but should be fading out as the sun rises over East Turkistan.

R. Martí frequency 7365 had lite jamming on it but no trace of Martí, so I think this transmitter had shifted to one of the A Fondo channels. Not sure about 6030, still heavily jammed. 9825 also jammed but signals on this band weakened anyway.

Just as well to be off 7365, as there is now a very strong Spanish station on 7360, which I assumed I could look up later --- but nothing listed. See FRANCE [non].

What about WWCR, 7465 to avoid colliding with LVA at 0100? Tuned in at 0058, and announcement started, ``At this time, WW--`` but cut off the air before anything more could be said. Probably like last night, taking an hour off for ``technical adjustments``; at least, a few minutes later not to be found on 3240, 4755 or 4775, while 5070 was still running. 0215 check: WWCR ops normal on 3215, 5070, no 4 MHz frequency.

But at 0325 it was again on 4775 instead of 5070. The transmitter schedules page at the website has not been updated, but the homepage
http://www.wwcr.com/index.html says:

``WWCR's Transmitter #3 will broadcast on 4775 from 0300 to 1200 UT until further notice``

I did not realize the hours were that long: means that the Saturday night airing of WORLD OF RADIO, 0330 UT Sundays may well be on 4775 instead of 5070. Please spread the word. What`s wrong with 5070? No interference problems that I know of, and 295 kHz isn`t going to make much different versus falling nighttime MUFs.

WWCR 4775 blox reception in North America of, and perhaps interferes in their own areas, according to Aoki:
4770, Kaduna, Nigeria from 0430;
4775, AIR Imphal, India, from 1030;
4775, R. Tarma, Perú until 0600 and from 1000;
4775, TWR Swaziland, from 0340;
4780, Djibouti, from 0300 . . .

As I was checking 4775 on the portable, could not hear the mixing product on 7095, but is anyone else hearing 4775 audio mixing with 5935 audio there? Or on 7005, mix of 4775 and 5890? We`ll see what happens on the main rig after 0600, when we were hearing 7095 last night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Another check for KXTR, 1660, Kansas City KS, which was missing the afternoon of Feb 1: On the caradio at 2015 Feb 3 I am only hearing some talk station, but about half an hour later some classical music is making it thru, must be KXTR, but why is it so weak for 10 kW, non-direxional at the top of the band?

Nearby KYYS, Spanish on 1250 is much stronger by skywave already. I still think of it as a 5-kW regional as it was when WREN Topeka, but I must not, as it`s now 25 kW in the daytime, and with a large main lobe aimed 257 degrees. That`s considerably north of here, and we are on its edge but not in a null, so apparently its ERP Enidward is still more than 10 kW ND from KXTR --- but I still have doubts KXTR is running full power (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###