venerdì 5 novembre 2010

Glenn Hauser logs November 4-5, 2010

** ALBANIA. 13640, R. Tirana, English to NAm, Nov 5 at *1526:20 with S9+12 open carrier, 1527:35 starting IS. Still QRM-free, nothing on 13635, and extremely weak carrier presumed India on 13645 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, no LRA36 carrier detectable Nov 5 at 1344, altho Turkey 15480 was very poorly audible; nor at 1425 when Turkey too was gone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Nov 5: none found 8-18 MHz by 1347 UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. RHC spurs Nov 5 at 1341: besides the common one on 13921, with whine plus a bit of distorted audio // 13680 and 13780, also a weaker one with whine of same pitch centered on 13949.9 or so. Once again I do not find any others like them lower on the 13 MHz band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. How`s the DentroCuban Jamming Command doing today Nov 5 vs R. Martí, et al.? At 1258, 5745 RM seems jammingless, 6030 jamming only with no RM, 5980 which is certainly jammed earlier, now just RM. 1259 again with incorrect frequency announcement for following hour ``en algunos instantes, 11930, 13820, 15330``. At 1300, 5980 went off but 5745 continued. At 1319, 7405 with jamming about equal to RM level.

At 1340, 9955 WRMI is jammed, but no jamming on 9965 which had been running against R. República. At 1431 I check for WOR 1537 on WRMI, as scheduled on Fridays (but next week, 1530), and can confirm it despite jamming lightened to pulsing, and still no jam on 9965. I was able to detect a very weak carrier on 9965.5, which is where Terry Krueger previously put R. República (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 13580, Nov 5 at 1522, hum and very distorted modulation, R. Cairo in Albanian, vying with WINB 13570, but Cairo is worse overall, tho carrier is less unstable; also lite CODAR swishing across 13580. Cairo is 250 kW at 330 degrees, so also USward far beyond Albania (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREECE. While Nov 4, ERT extended 7475 past 0600 with R. Filia service containing BBCWS relay in English, as in my previous report, not so on Nov 5. I was listening from 0557 with music, 0559 Greek announcement and ads, seemingly until 0603 when switched to news in Greek past 0607; and was still in Greek when I quit at 0614 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA [and non]. 9526-, VOI English confirmed Nov 5 before 1400 and afterwards in Indonesian, mostly music, always with IADs (intermittent audio dropouts), but VG signal, no QRM. Still on at 1505 with lite het from Kashgar 9525, still music only, mostly from xylophone family, but inserting IDs in English at 1507, 1521; 1525 ``Sound of Dignity``.

9680, RRI gamelan music, mixed with Chinese, Nov 5 at 1324. HFCC B10 has no explanation for this, showing at this hour on 9680 besides RRI at 75 degrees: NHK in Japanese at 270, KNLS in Russian at 300! For the real story we have to go to Aoki which freely includes info about Taiwan, which the ChiCom forbid HFCC to include:

R. Taiwan International, 300 kW, 352 degrees in Chinese at 1100-1700 and * meaning jammed. So that ruins 9680 both for Indonesia and KNLS, which per DXLD 10-44, is really using 9680 during this hour only in Chinese, not Russian! Apparently RRI and KNLS pay no attention to this reality (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN [non]. 15410, Persian pop music, Nov 5 at 1425, good with fades. Again this B-season a chance for us to enjoy R. Farda, scheduled 14-16, 300 kW, 95 degrees from Skelton UK, and preceded at 11-14 by 100 kW, 85 degrees from Biblis, Germany (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1640, KFXY Enid, I avoid not only because it blox three frequencies in the daytime, at least one at night, but because it`s nothing but gospel music and stupid ballgames; however, as I tuned across Nov 5 at 1253 UT, there was local news, including a week-old story about the latest sting of convenience store clerx arrested for selling beer to minors, a recurring problem here; soon outroed as ``CTB News in Ninety``, i.e. Chisholm Trail Broadcasting (also KCRC 1390), stix in a sesquiminute of edited local news (or olds) headlines here and there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OMAN. 15140, Nov 5 at 1432, JBA signal even tho reading S9 at peaks, presumably R. Sultanate of Oman, during newscast in its English hour, always a challenge to hear here despite 100 kW, 315 degrees from Thumrayt, for Europe and also USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** POLAND [non]. Mark Coady, Ont., Nov 4, replies to my previous report: ``Poland was heard on 9460 with a fair signal today near the end of its broadcast at 1350.`` I was thinking it was supposed to be in the 9.4s, but was looking thru current Aoki B10 for it without success; did find it as I said, listed on 11785 and 11905.

It appears that both those are wrong, since in the VTC B-10 schedule we see:
 9460 1300 1400 smtwtfs PRW    Moosbrunn   100 300 English EUR    LP
11860 1300 1400 smtwtfs PRW    Woofferton  125  45 English EUR    HR

Rechecking the Nov 4 edition of Aoki, yes, it claims PRES English at 13-14 is on 11785 and 11905 for B-10. Where did he get those? Also has PRES listings for 9460 and 11860, but at other hours. Maybe there was a timeshifting misunderstanding?

So Nov 5 around 1336 I check all these frequencies for PRES: 11905, nothing audible; 11860 nothing tho WYFR is splashing from 11855; 11785 nothing; 9460, our best bet, also nothing today, and suffering from 9479 WTWW overload (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 9855 // 9840, VOR in English to NAm again on these winter frequencies from DVR, last few nights not really making it, but fairly good Nov 5 at 0555 with classical music; 9840 slightly stronger. 9840 is 250 kW, 70 degrees from Pet/Kam at 04-07, while 9855 is 250 kW, 50 degrees from Vladivostok at 05-07.

Like B-09, R. Rossii is also on 9840 at 05-08, 250 kW, 260 degrees from Moscow, and capable of QRMing the other Russian broadcast, worsening further east in NAm; altho not noted tonight. Both VOR frequencies are designated for CIRAF zones 1, 2 and 6, i.e. western Canada and USA including Alaska, so who cares what happen in 7 and 8?

9800, Nov 5 at 1326, seems Russian buried in noise, flutter; higher pitched than the motorboating on 6075, so let`s call it ``airplaning`` as in a prop craft idling. Could be mistaken for jamming, but no reason for that. I think it`s another defective Russian transmitter, this one in Irkutsk, the only thing listed during this hour being VOR in Russian, 500 kW, 150 degrees, as HFCC and Aoki agree. One can only wonder if they are unaware of these problems at the transmitter sites? If not, they should be; if so, should be closed down unless and until fixed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAIPAN. 9725, another check of IBB for R. Svoboda Russian broadcast at 13-14, which has had serious transmitter problems: Nov 5 at 1324, the carrier is still unstable, and modulation is somewhat distorted, tho readable. Fortunately, not splattering beyond normal bandwidth (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 17745, Nov 5 at 1516, VG in Arabic mentioning referendum, ``S-R-S``, with self-imposed reverb damaging readability, surely that rather than long/short path echo very unlikely to propagate, but delay about the same.

Sudan Radio Service, 1500-1700, 250 kW, 114 degrees via Sines, PORTUGAL. It`s missing from EiBi B-10, but Aoki shows English mixed with Sudanese during the first half-hour.

The big day is 9 January 2011, unless put off again. More at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Sudanese_independence_referendum,_2011
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Checking out the WWV/H special hour 17-18 UT Nov 4, as promoted in announcements at 3-5 minutes past each hour, testing the ``emergency notification system``. I was monitoring WWVH on 15 MHz, and WWV on 10 MHz for a few minutes amid:

Time   WWVH   WWV
1720   tone   anmt
1721   tone   open
1722   tone   anmt
1723   tone   open
1724   anmt   anmt
1725   anmt   open
1726   open   anmt
1727   anmt   open

One is at a loss to figure out how this was coordinated (or not) on the two stations. The same wording announcement was played twice at a time on WWVH, but only once at a time on WWV (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Some of WWCR`s transmitters continue to be so over-driven with modulation (not sure if that is how to describe it correctly) that there is a continuous barrage of hash about 5 kHz above and below, even when the program modulation pauses. The situation is most noticeable here when we get maximum brunt of their super-powerful signals, such as:

5890 and 5935 were both this way at 0546 UT Nov 5. Previously, 5890 with BS was much worse than 5935 with DGS. It`s also the case on 9980 all day with BS, and on 7490 in the mornings with other programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9955, WORLD OF RADIO 1537 confirmed on first WRMI airing, Thursday Nov 4 at 2120 check, poor to fair on fadeups, and no jamming audible; while 9965 vs República was a Wall of Noise. Last times we checked during this airing, it was jammed making WRMI inaudible (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) More under CUBA [and non]

** U S A [and non]. 9885, VOA in English with entertainment news segment, at 0553 Nov 5, good signal. This is now the prime frequency for morning English to Africa at 0300-0700; also audible on 6080 here, and inaudible on 15580; plus 4930 and/or 4960 during part of the span.

It looks straightforward on the A-Z VOA language schedule, but in HFCC we see that 9885 comes from three different sites during this period: 0300-0430 350 degrees from Botswana; 0430-0600 124 degrees from São Tomé, 0600-0700 330 degrees from South Africa. So we were getting it off the back from Pinheira, and theoretically should have been even better after 0600 from Meyerton aimed USward.

17740, Nov 5 at 1416, huge steady S9+25 open carrier with some hum to 1417:30 off, back on a few sex later, 1423 fades in tone test to 1425* and back on for a few sex more of OC at *1427. This behaviour is typical of Greenville, setting up for much later broadcast on same frequency, i.e. Portuguese at 1700 (instead of backup Sackville, apparently).

9360, Nov 5 at 1436, rock music which I have not heard previously this week --- can it be VOA`s weekend-only Indonesian service? 1440, VOA jingle in English, more rock. Aoki shows it`s via Tinang, PHILIPPINES, Thu-Fri-Sat only at 14-15, 250 kW, 200 degrees. However, VOA A-Z schedule claims this ``Indonesian`` is daily // 11635 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 17775, have not noticed KVOH all week in daytime chex, and surely must be sporadic; but Nov 5 at 1459 it is on. At 1512, S9+25+ signal, allowing the spur on 17920 to reach a sizzling S6 with whine and // modulation, a salsa song about Jesús. Could also hear the weaker match on 17630 mixing with an open carrier adding up to S9. The latter should be CRI English, 85 degrees from 100 kW Mali, maybe just too undermodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 720, since I was still monitoring at 1415 UT Nov 5, a check to see if I can hear KDWN Las Vegas popping on at the proper November time for day-pattern switch: no, not yet (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1290, Nov 5 at 1359 UT I hear an ad for Four Corners Siding, and a 307-AC phone number more than once, but fades for ID; ~4 Hz SAH with something, probably our daytime dominator KWFS Wichita Falls.

So it has to be in AZ, NM, CO or UT, right? The only 1290 in those states is in faraway Tucson. And no, 307 is Wyoming! So KOWB Laramie, as in Cowboy altho NRC shows its current format as news/talk/sports. And Google confirms there is a Four Corners Siding in Laramie, as well as Cheyenne (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1300, Nov 5 at 1400 UT, ad for McCook, then Open Line with Rich Barnett; so KBRL in Nebraska now definitely logged (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1330, Nov 5 at 1401 UT, AP Radio News, in null of KNSS Wichita, including Conan O`Brien starts Monday night on TBS. Optional cutaway at 1402:30 is taken by this station, enough news, already! Advanced timecheck for 3 after 9, ad for Veteran`s Day performances Sat Nov 13 7 pm, Sunday Nov 14 10:50 am at First Baptist Church, Monahans; 1404, it`s 9:04 at KCKM, then weatherfemale from Channel 9 [KWES Midland, really RF9, no longer COL Monahans]. Signal is now peaking, and it`s the one which has to be nulled in order to hear KNSS. KCKM Monahans TX, 5 kW, with CP for 12 kW to bother KNSS even more. Calls derive from KCKN 1020 Roswell NM, of which KCKM is a subsidiary relaying it part time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1550, Nov 5 at 1251 UT as I was tuning across, heard ``New Mexico Talk Radio`` slogan and call sounded like KMBA, but it`s really KIVA as per NRC AM Log. Was atop lots of other signals on the FRG-7, with the usual SW antenna, E-W longwire. I shall not believe this was on night power of 27 watts instead of day power of 10000. NRC does not show KIVA as having a PSRA, altho November sunrise in Albuquerque is not until 1345 UT, as we well know when KKOB 770 switches to day pattern audiblizing itself eastward.

The calls KIVA have been all over the place in past years, seldom pertaining to a real Indian station. FCC callsign history shows 1550 has been KIVA since 05/18/2009, before that KQNM, and down the list KQEO. When I was living in Albuquerque, there was no local on 1550, so apparently the earlier calls applied to 920. Yes, history for present KSVA 920 shows before 01/23/1995 it was KQEO (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Checked 49m at 1508 Nov 5 for anything still audible: not even CFRX 6070 (which continues with good modulation all night), but something on 5965 was the OSOB. Aoki and HFCC show both CRI Beijing in Russian, 55 degrees, and RCI via Japan in Chinese, 290 degrees; probably the former, but what a collision there must be in East Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 10543-SSB, colloquial Spanish 2-way, engine noise keeping the vox on during pauses, Nov 5 at 1331; the other one has less engine noise but also keeps transmitting during pauses. Mentions ``la flota``. A third one without noise, but big reverb as if speaking from a cavernous compartment belowdex. Poachers? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15151.5-USB, could make out some SSB scratching on the hi side of weak Russian on 15150, Nov 5 at 1429, which is BBC via Rampisham; could tell it was in Spanish, but weak and nothing more (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###