sabato 25 settembre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs September 24-25, 2010

** ALASKA. Since I heard it yesterday, tried again Sept 25 for KNLS on 7355 during scheduled English hour, but could not detect it around 1250. Like I said, conditions have to be just right; and/or is it perhaps sporadic, not really on the air every day?

I also wonder about their choice of 11870 for another English broadcast at 10-11, in the middle of the Arctic night across a darkness path to east Asia. That high a frequency certainly not propagating here, and unlikely either to there. In B-10 they have nothing planned above 10 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ALBANIA. 13640, Sept 24 at 2014 I encounter Balkan music, must be R. Tirana, but is it the English external service as scheduled, or default relay of the Albanian domestic service? Quickly resolved at 2015 by announcement in English, Profile of someone born in Shkodor, but modulation too low to follow. S9+20 signal but could turn the volume almost all the way up without blasting my ears on the phones (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ANGUILLA [and non]. 11775, tuned into C.B. at 2010 Sept 24 to compare it with the undermodulation from Cuba [q.v.] on 11760, but heard instead applause; or was it? Went on so long, at least a minute, that I was beginning to think it was noise from an open satellite-feed circuit, but it finally stopped, and at 2011 PMS resumed speaking with good normal modulation level eclipsing that from ``Ed Newman``. She must have said something really terrific to set off that much clapping from her psychophants; assuming it was authentic.

As I tuned by 11775, Sept 25 at 1324, dead air. It could have been a dekasecond pregnant pause while Dead Gene Scott was originally puffing on his cigar, inaudibly on the radio, but it went on and on for three minutes until finally he cut back on at 1327, just after I had also tuned to 13845 WWCR and found it equally silent until cutting on at the same time, just an echo apart, so outage was at the uplink; 13845 DGS currently scheduled 12-15 on Sats & Suns, not weekdays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 6160, Sept 25 at 1142, interview by OM announcer with a regional British accent, so it is CRI? With a YL about the Israel/Palestine border and human rights violations. 1146 revealed as from bbcworldservice.com. Therefore, this is part of the CBC Overnight relays via CKZU Vancouver (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA [and non]. 7325, RCI, Sept 25 at 1110 in Arabic with ID in passing, about equal mix with CRI in Japanese, both of them USward, but RCI never has figured out there could be a collision, as this has been going on for several seasons. I assume there have been few complaints from RCI`s minuscule audience of Arabic-understanding SWLs in the USA who want to hear about Canadian immigration matters at 4, 5, 6, or 7 in the morning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 6175, CNR1, Sept 25 at 1138 in clear, lacking usual het on lo side from Malaysia, and Chinese on 6175 // 6125, and // 6150 way atop RHC and another station, i.e. R. Taiwan International, as the middle CNR1 is really a jammer. 6150 also had a big carrier, something else? Maybe Cuba being undermodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9965, heavy wall-of-noise against nothing (?) from the DentroCuban Jamming Command is still running in the daytime starting at *1358+. But I have yet to catch when it ends. Sept 24 at 2008 it`s still roaring, and I meant to retune before 2100 for another check, but not today. I did remember at 2158 and by then 9965 jamming was off, uncovered a very weak carrier, only T8WH PALAU listed, tho VOR via ARMENIA collides with it after 2200.

Heavy jamming now at 2158 is focused on 9955 instead, despite the fact that in latest schedule WRMI has NO exile programming on Fridays between 21 and 23 (tho there is some scattered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays). I fear WOR is getting this treatment at 2100 on Thursdays, 2230 on Tuesdays. The DCJC cannot be bothered to match its schedule, with the WRMI schedule, program-for-program, varying by day of week. Axually, I DO expect them to.

11760, RHC English hour made it thru the burocratic tangle onto the air Sept 24, at 2010, instead of oft-substituting Spanish, but undermodulated and made worse by the soft-spoken ``Ed Newman`` who never raises his voice, outshouted by neighbor on 11775; see ANGUILLA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: WRMI

** GUATEMALA. 4055, R. Verdad, Sept 25 at 1100 still not on; seems they are sometimes starting a bit late. Recheck at 1119, now it`s on with organ music mixed with talk, intonation sounds English rather than Spanish but can`t make out a word to be sure, in mushy audio difficult to tune on USB with no carrier. 1126 definitely some Spanish, and ``I`ve Been Workin` on the Railroad`` in gospelized rendition, theme for ``El Tren del Evangelio`` show. By 1159 the signal was just about gone after local sunrise there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [and non]. John Wilkins` capture in Colorado before sunrise of NHK on MW 774 prompted me to try for this one again, as last year it also made it to OK. Sept 25 at 1152 UT I do detect a carrier on 774 from the NW, which is surely JOUB, Akita-2, 500 kW.

Close to KSPI Stillwater OK, with its spurs on 774 and 786, we have to be careful! But the Sept sign-on for this daytimer is 1215 UT and it has no PSSA, per NRC AM Log; in October it will be *1230.

On the DX-398 set to 9 kHz, I stepped thru the entire MW band with BFO on and could only detect one other TP carrier, on 1098, which everyone assumes is V7AB, Majuro, MARSHALL ISLANDS, 25 kW, leaving its carrier on all-night after 1130 sign-off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. Am beginning to wonder if the North American services of R. Kuwait are ever going to be well-heard again as they were for much of the summer. Was standing by on 17550 Sept 24 before 2030 as VOA-French, VG via Bonaire was about to close, but in its absence there was only a JBA carrier from Kuwait`s Arabic to C&W NAm. Then checking Kuwait`s English to Eu & NAm on 15540, only slightly better to very poor level and still insufficient, unusable. We can only hope for an October-bump. AFAIK, they plan to use the same frequencies in B-10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MALAYSIA [and non]. 6175, no het against CNR1, Sept 25 at 1138, so VOM must be off; especially since the much weaker transmitter on 6049.6 managed to het HCJB in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO [and non]. 6185, XEPPM, Sept 25 at 1047 loud and clear with ``México, México`` paeansong, much better than RNV/Cuba 6180, and at this hour no QRM from Brasília. R. Educación still going with more music at 1102 past nominal summer sign-off; at 1136 check, with NHK Russian inbooming on 6185 far beyond its target, no trace of XE underneath, so presumably did go off in meantime (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1580, KOKB Blackwell has managed to modulate whenever checked in the daytime this week; are the long hours of open carrier a past-thing? We`ll see, this weekend. (It is modulating at 1628 Sat Sept 25). Back Sept 24 at 2055 UT they were promoting four different high-school football games Friday night at 7:15 CDT, not only on 1580, 1020 KOKP Perry, 105.1 KOSB Stillwater, but also on 99.3 KLOR Ponca City --- so is it now Quadruple-Play Radio? Website is still
http://www.tripleplaysportsradio.com/ but a player for KLOR has been added. Not clear whether that station is now owned by TPSR or some other deal (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also JAPAN [and non]

** OKLAHOMA. Bill Hepburn`s tropo maps showed enhancement to the east on the morning of Sept 25, and so there was. Rechecked at 1418 UT, the public TV station KRSC in Claremore OK, RF 36:
DTV 35-1 is labeled KRSC-SD, while
DTV 35-2 is labeled KRSC-HD. At 1418 both were running animation, hardly needing HD. Strangely, both are set so ``the aspect ratio cannot be changed``. The SD has letterboxing, the HD does not. Is something screwy here? (I do not have any real HD display capability.)

Still in at 1559, with a ``My Source`` promo. So isolated here, I had assumed that campaign was exclusive to competing OETA. Is it on every PBS station?

Several of the Tulsa UHF DTVs were in plus KOED RF 11, but no signal bar at all on RF 45, KOTV. Some signals from Wichita too at almost right angles, but no RF 45 signal bar from that direxion either, KSNW. I am beginning to suspect that both these do put in strong enough signals, at the same time, canceling each other out as far as the DTV converter is concerned. See also USA for a non-OK log.

BTW, KWTV OKC, as of Sept 25, is STILL running the NO PROGRAMMING slide on RF9 as it has been the entire month of September, as OldKWTV, while its programming continues on RF39 (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY [and non]. 15450, VOT, Saturday Sept 25 at 1250, YL is reading reception reports, i.e. the so-called DX Corner, so this is an on-week for the fortnightly show, ending at 1257; at exactly the same time, KBS World Radio was also reading reception reports as it does every week on Worldwide Friendship via CANADA on 9650 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WEWN`s scheduled downtime was over at least an hour earlier than the anticipated 21 UT Friday; ran across 12050 Spanish already back at 2011 Sept 24, VG signal, but guess what --- it`s still squealing! Previously diagnosed as card(s) in the modulator needing replacing. // 13830 was also back on, but weaker with splatter from 13820 DentroCuban Jamming Command extending up to 13845 WWCR. At 2016 I could barely hear WEWN`s third transmitter, 15610 in English with poor propagation, too weak to reconfirm it`s still putting out +/- 10 kHz spurs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 17775, KVOH, 2018 tune-in Sept 24 but just S9+22 open carrier, then occasionally interrupted by program audio bursting on for a few sex each, screaming gospel huxter in Spanish, then back to blessèd silence making up the great majority of airtime. Even if one wanted to, it would have been impossible to follow what he was trying to preach. Meanwhile there was only a trace of the spur on 17920. Recheck at 2115, singing and preaching most of the time but with some breaks; 2123 silence for another semi-minute; 2137 modulation still on and off. Why is it so challenging for so many SW stations to just do the minimal job of modulating a carrier? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15825, checking WWCR for its first airing of WORLD OF RADIO 1531, Friday Sept 24 at 2030 on 15825 --- very poor, fading signal here in skip-zone, but made out a familiar voice mentioning ``15476`` so probably yours truly. Also reconfirmed next airing Sat 1600 on 12160; rest are UT Sun 0230 on 4840, 0630 on 3215.

3255, WWCR again here instead of 3215, Sept 25 at 0414 check and this time with modulation, some preacher, presumably 3215 scheduled Fulcher, letting us overhear his prayer for a president that would appoint anti-RoeWade, anti-gay, etc., SCOTUS justices.

It seems that WWCR plans to use 3255 in B-10 between 22 and 02, give or take an hour depending on DST, so this may be a trial run, during only one different hour? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 9955, WRMI chex: Sept 25 at 1112, good signal, no jamming, with Andean music, ergo Aires Andinos show, at one of its several scheduled times, 1100-1130 Saturdays. By 1359, pulse-jamming was marring religious kidshow, outroed with website, as Your Story Hour. That`s one of the AWR flock of shows with a long history, but WRMI schedule shows Living the Bible for Sat 1330-1400. Perhaps YSH is a subset within it.

After WRMI ID, WORLD OF RADIO 1531 confirmed at new time, Sat from 1400:33, still with jamming pulses. Tnx a lot, our false friend in Havana! Much heavier jamming against nothing (?) on 9965 had just ramped up at 1358:20. Next WOR airings on WRMI are Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1730 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Some regional tropo, Sept 25 at 1410 UT, as predicted by Bill Hepburn`s maps: but nothing further than RF21, DTV 40-1 KHSB-DT with bug ei over ABC in the upper right. That`s Fort Smith AR, barely out of OK, but needs some tropo to come in at all. I tried several times to get a 40-2 to come up, but there wasn`t any. Both rabbitears and W9WI.com list CW for that (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA [non]. 6060, RNV via CUBA, Sept 25 at 1108 YL with `news` in English, far too literally translated from Spanish that it`s laughable. Not only that, but it`s in newspaper-style rather than radio-style. These propagandists still have a lot to learn. Anyhow, so this is one of the transmissions that is partly in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###