lunedì 11 ottobre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs October 10-11, 2010

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, unable to confirm LRA36 on the air Monday Oct 11 at 1343, nor UK on 15480 with very poor conditions, nothing much hi-latitude, tho Canada, Cuba and CR were OK on the band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. VL8 check Oct 11 at 1156: 2310 best with Strine talk, weaker 2325 and carrier detectable on 2485, vs hi line noise level here; plus T-storm noise from NE Texas bothering the lower bands.

Altho designed for players of lightning-prone silly ballgames, this is a handy NAm map to check for such current noise sources:
http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/golf/uslightningstrikes_large.html?from=mapofweek

1248 recheck, 2310 and 2325 are about level in talk, not 2485. At 1249, 2325 interrupted by ``running-water`` ute QRM. Don`t think I have heard this on 120m before; and now some audio on 2485.

RA was unusually weak on 9580, worse on 9590. On the contrary, David Hodgson in TN found both 2310 and 9580 stronger than usual, at 1200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 5075, Oct 11 at 1252 some talk audible, very poor, presumably V. of Pujiang, Shanghai, which per Ron Howard has just reactivated this winter frequency ex-9705, // 4950 and 3280 and the only broadcast station in the world on 5075. I have often noted at least a carrier on 3280. Aoki says they are all only 15 kW aimed 182 degrees from Shanghai.

Also had carriers on 5050, 5030, 5010, probably China/India, Malaysia, India; unchecked below 5000 at the moment, but hi noise level discourages (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. Firedrake Oct 11:
10500, JBA at 1219
No others heard in following bihour; hi-latitude E Asian conditions were degraded, tho Indonesia 9526- continued to inboom (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. Re my previous remark about DST ending here Oct. 1 as heard on 9305 past 0600 UT: it was not quite that simple. See:

EGYPTIANS TO CHANGE CLOCKS FOUR TIMES THIS YEAR  Published 21-Jul-2010

Daylight saving [sic] time (DST) will end in Egypt on Wednesday August 11, 2010. Egypt's Cabinet recently decided that the country's DST schedule for 2010 will end before the start of Ramadan. However, DST will resume in Egypt after the month of Ramadan on Friday, September 10, 2010. Egypt will be back from DST on Friday, October 1.
http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/egypt-ends-dst-2010.html

I suppose this pattern is likely to repeat in following years, as Ramadan precesses further and deeper into summer; and other Islamic-dominated DST countries may have to follow suit (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUATEMALA. 4055.0, caught Oct 11 at 1151 before fadeout, JBA music, and matches 6055.0 Nikkei. Brian Alexander confirms my previous log as being on-frequency, 4055.00 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 3325, Oct 11 at 1247 talk in Indonesian, poor, from RRI Palangkaraya, reconfirmed at least on the air at this hour, 12 minutes after sunrise here (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [and non]. MW TP conditions quite poor Oct 11, but some carriers detectable, at 1159: 747; at 1206-1210 two scans up and down found only 612, 774 and 855- (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Finding nothing much trans-Pacifically, turned MW attention to here just before sunrise 1235 UT Oct 11:

610, at 1201 Mexican NA, from the southwest, mixing with QRM, and when it finally finished at 1204, just about gone. Since this is normally played (as required?) at 6 am local, it should be coming from a station in the UT -6 = MDT/CST zone, but as far as I can tell, there are not any, just UT -7 and UT -5. Mexico`s DST observations, complicated by border-city variations to match USA, are explained here:
http://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/mexico-starts-dst-2010.html
Note that it ends Oct 31 in most of the country where observed, except border cities Nov 7 matching US.

870, at 1225 Oct 11, YL in Spanish announcing local meetings, family reunions, etc., into November dates, presumably XETAR.

990, again today it`s the unID Rosary station, Oct 11 at 1223; 1232 song, 1234 story of a single mother who found Jesus, reference (yes, in Spanish) to
http://www.fln.ca and Ernesto Pinto, i.e. Family Life Network in Winnipeg, which claims to send its stuff to 1100 Spanish-speaking radio stations including USA and Mexico, but does not list them. http://www.fln.ca/home/global_projects/spanish/

Unlike yesterday, this is hard to null, so I am now not certain it was coming from Chihuahua direxion rather than Farmersville (Villa Agricultor), Tejas.

1030, at 1231, ads in Spanish from the WSW, one of them ending with a .mx website. Most likely XEYC Juárez but also possible stations in Sonora, Sinaloa (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 770, KKOB, with station promos, Oct 11 at 1229 UT, fair signal mixing with an [``old``] Mexican. Unusual to hear this on night pattern with deep null toward New Jersey. Official sunrise in October is 1315 UT (November 1345, December 1400, January 1415, February 1400). Could this be the 230-watt non-direxional co-channel repeater in Santa Fe, which is on the air only while ABQ is on night pattern? This was just before our sunrise, possibly enhancing it.

Can`t be positive, as some signal no doubt leaks out from the North Valley. Years ago I contemplated trying to arrange a DX test from KKOB Santa Fe, i.e. by turning off Albuquerque for a brief period.

1070, at 1238 Oct 11 both KNX Los Angeles news and KLIO Wichita oldies were about equal and easily nullable about 110 degrees apart; in between, they produce fast SAH of some 15 Hz. One is considerably off-frequency, and I bet I know which:

Yes, in daytime groundwave conditions at 1545, on DX-398 10-kHz steps with BFO, several other stations in the 1000`s and 1100s agree that KLIO is on the hi side of its frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 17555, WYFR, Oct 11 at 1246 in English not // other English on 17795. Re my previous comment about closing 5950 and 5985 at 1245 in English, referring to 17555 and 17750: while 17750 is not on until 1700 (see VENEZUELA), 17555 is indeed in English, but only until 1300, then Portuguese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGSET)

** U S A [and non]. 7540, due west from Tinang, PHILIPPINES, poor with flutter, Oct 11 at 1404, VOA news in English, an echo apart from 17585 Greenville. Diverged at 1405 for Crossroads Asia and Music Mix (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA [non]. Altho as of 1549 UT Sunday Oct 10, the special frequencies for Aló, Presidente via CUBA [see previous report] were still carrying RHC // regular RHC channels, by next check 1807 UT, El Hugazo could be heard on 17750 (badly mixing with WYFR, currently scheduled 1700-2045 including 18-19 in Italian), and rather weak 12010; plus an echo apart on weaker 11690 with RTTY on lo side. Nothing on 13680, nor 13750, whose time must have run out by then. Non // regular RHC on 11760, et al. So I have no idea when he axually started, nor when he would have finished, but at least we know A,P was finally back on SW after at least one sesquimonth (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###