domenica 29 maggio 2011

Glenn Hauser logs May 29, 2011

** BRAZIL [and non]. 11780, looking for R. Nacional da Amazônia, UT Sunday May 29 at 0521, since normally they run all-night on Saturday-into-Sunday only, but no big signal as expected; however there was a JBA carrier, perhaps CNR8 as scheduled from Beijing. RNZI was good on 11725, so propagation from the southern hemisphere appeared to be OK. Wonder if RNA`s other transmitter has downbroken too? Still always absent from 6185, fortunately for XEPPM and its fans (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake May 29: conditions improved but not back to normal; WWV reports:
``Solar-terrestrial indices for 28 May follow.
Solar flux 101 and mid-latitude A-index 36.
The mid-latitude K-index at 1200 UTC on 29 May was 4 (50 nT).
Space weather for the past 24 hours has been minor.
Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level occurred.
Radio blackouts reaching the R1 level occurred.
Space weather for the next 24 hours is predicted to be moderate.
Geomagnetic storms reaching the G2 level are likely.
Radio blackouts reaching the R1 level are likely.``

15970, JBA at 1249
14950, fair at 1226, none higher by 1233; fair at 1250
13920, fair at 1211, not at 1250
12600, fair at 1220, fair at 1252
10970, fair-good at 1222, flutter; nothing on 7970; 10970 fair at 1254

13040, May 29 at 1218, surprised to hear not Firedrake here, but Chinese talk and vocal music, kids voices, about same level as 13920 FD, and 13040 is // 11990, i.e. CNR1 jamming. Could be punch-up error for one of the transmitters on 12040, where same could also be heard weakly. 13040 still on at 1252 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. 6030, May 29 at 1239, R. Martí still propagating, atop DentroCuban jamming, promo for program Saturdays and Sundays at 2 and 10 pm, [EDT = Sat & Sun 1800, UT Sun & Mon 0200], a `Revolución Musical`, including an out-of-context clip of Fidel declaring ``esto es lo que necesitamos en nuestro país``, har har. Its title is `Interferencia`, and here`s all about it:
http://www.martinoticias.com/programas/radio/120953594.html
I guess it`s part of R. Martí`s new, more relevant sound (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [non]. 17850, VG signal Sunday May 29 at 1233, REE via COSTA RICA with `Amigos de la Onda Corta` underway, not pre-empted this week, with station contact info for SW-or-not survey, then feature on radio musea. 1245 also audible poorly on // 9765, and even worse on 11815 vs NHK, with monthly propagation predixions for June, what to expect on each SW band in each hemisphere. I am not convinced there is much usefulness to this generalized approach. Does anyone axually tune only to the bands specified, not try the others?

Sought 11880 first, normally best frequency for this broadcast, but it was MIA. Per official schedule
http://www.rtve.es/contenidos/documentos/frecuencias032011.pdf
and usual practice, it`s absent on Saturdays only but this was Sunday; and 17850 supposedly does not start until 1500 on Sundays, 1600 on Saturdays, 1800 on weekdays! Perhaps a mixup or skewed by some ensuing Sunday sporting special (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 13620, May 29 at 0430, R. Dabanga via MADAGASCAR, opening with neat station song, and no tone jammer this time, but a brief Bronx-cheer, ute? 0522 still jamming-free. May well be due to propagation disruption from higher latitude further north whence jamming originate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** UKRAINE. DXLD yg discussion of RUI closing down what was left of its SW service, in the Ukrainian language even, led me to check their webcast
http://89.187.1.165/NRCU4
and there it is in English at 0330 UT Sunday May 29 amid the `Hello from Kiyev` mailbag just like we used to hear on 7440. One writer suggested that since SW propagation is no longer a factor, they put English at midday in North America so people can listen on computers while at work. RUI will seriously consider this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9825, May 29 at tune-in 0428 heard the last few notes of the `DXing with Cumbre` theme, so she still has at least one real SW airing, 0400 UT Sundays on WHRI; then on to other music fill.

7385, May 29 at 1242, WHRI with promo for their yearly broadcast of the Indianapolis 500, at 1500 UT today on 15180, then offering free Bible. The race did not axually start until 1600, when ABC-TV comes on. Beats me why anyone sighted would rather hear it than see and hear it, but confirmed on 15180 at 1622 check. 15180 is not registered with HFCC, tho I know we have heard WHRI on there occasionally, certainly not daily. Also beats me what this has to do with evangelism; just an Indiana thing for them (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 9855, UT Sunday May 29 at 0429, VOA closing `Science World` with program website; said is on Saturdays and Sundays but times not given. Fluttery signal, and 9855 gone at recheck a few minutes later. Consulting
http://blogs.voanews.com/science-world/ --- there are lots of neat stories, and schedule: ``Science World begins after the newscast on Friday at 2200, Saturday at 0300, 1100 and 1900 and Sunday at 0100, 0400, 0900, 1100 and 1200``. 9855 is via BOTSWANA, 0300-0430 at 350 degrees.

15590, VOA Spanish via Greenville, Sunday May 29 at 1228 ending `Top Ten USA`, 1230 into `Música Country` starting with No. 41, ``I Got You`` by Thompson Square. Apparently you don`t have to attain the top country ten to get VOA Spanish exposure. Does VOA Spanish every play any music in Spanish, even from the USA? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5109.8-CUSB, UT Sunday May 29 at 0449, S9+15 WBCQ with reference to
http://www.counterpunch.org and talking about Israelis, referring to a Dec 98 program. 0459, ``Last Roundup`` song, ``Git Along, Little Dogies``; 0500 WBCQ canned ID, and then ``Lilliburlero`` played twice! YL announces many times in a row, ``This is not the BBC, this is not the BBC!`` and more plays of LLBL, hee hee; 0503 standard WBCQ sign-off by Allan Weiner.

According to the WBCQ program guide,
http://schedule.wbcq.com/main.php?fn=sked&freq=5110
this frequency goes off at 0300 UT Sundays. Need to consult the more current Area 51 schedule,
http://www.worldmicroscope.com/
which shows `The Last Roundup` at 0300-0400 this week, rather than an hour later, to be followed by `The Hour of the Time` both of which were missed on Friday night due to storms and internet failure (however, were scheduled 01-03 UT Saturday May 14). So 5110 should have had Bill Cooper at 0400 this time instead of Roundup. The Area 51 schedule remains extremely flexible.

Looking at the week by week schedules of Area 51, we see that since May started, the Sunday evening DX shows have been moved one hour later without notice to us: UT Mondays: 0300 Pirates Week, 0330 International Radio Report, so our DX Program schedule has been duly updated:
http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. Whatever foreign languages had been scheduled on WYFR frequencies pre-May 21 continue to be missing, replaced by music, English. 15770, May 29 at 1229 promo for `Open Forum` which can be seen on KFTL TV channel 28, with an app available free for first 30 days. I assume this is not a real broadcast station, but just an online thingie. I still haven`t heard Harold Camping on SW at all in random tuning across numerous WYFR frequencies, so has he been demoted to this pay-service? Or could there be a show still named `Open Forum` but no longer with HC doing it?

The 1305 hour of `Sunday Night` on ABC and R. Australia, 9580 and 9590, had an interview with the editor of `Christianity Today`, striving for objectivity, first topic being Camping and how he was already a peripheral figure in the faith with his anti-church stance; onto circumcision may be banned in San Francisco and Santa Mónica; Oprah`s profession of faith finale (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 9955, Sunday May 29 at 1547, no WORLD OF RADIO from WRMI audible; instead, instrumental hymns, presumably ex-Russian YFR via TAIWAN, and much better than usual from there; so WRMI off the air? WOR on the WRMI webcast as usual. I asked Jeff White about this, and when there would be a new post-DX Partyline program schedule:

``Glenn: We're on the air. It must be propagation out your way. I think we're going to run the last DXPL for two weeks to make sure everyone hears that program and knows that it's ending. Jeff``.

I had already listened to that via WRMI webcast: the final DX report from JSWC gal, acknowledging other long-time contributors, snippets of interviews with previous hosts, and Allen`s voice seemed a bit emotional as he wrapped it up (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15795, still no signal from WWRB, May 29 at 1547 check, into its fourth day of silence; while neighbor 15825 WWCR inbooms. See also UNIDENTIFIED 5745 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. 13730, Sunday May 29 at 1212 open carrier -1215:00*. Lacking a Sunday program in English from VR, Sackville kept the transmitter on anyway; did modulation stop at 1200 after Spanish? Then I could still hear a much weaker carrier, i.e. DW via PORTUGAL if it still exist (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VENEZUELA [non]. And I do mean non! Yet another Sunday, May 29, without `Aló, Presidente`, all five RHC relay frequencies vacant at 1547, 17750, 15370, 13750, 13680 (except for something else), 11690. Checking the website, we find on
http://www.alopresidente.gob.ve/info/2/2100/%5Caluepresidente%5Cde_fiesta.html
that the show celebrated its twelfth anniversary last Sunday, when it was also not really broadcast, but no explanation found of what the excuse is this week, just the crawler at the upper right confirming that it will not be on May 29 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 5745, May 29 at 0448, very poor signal with music and talk aside much stronger WTWW 5755. Altho in other seasons this frequency is used by R. Martí and WYFR, for A-11 only WWRB is registered, but at 2200-0400 only. Don`t you believe that`s really in use, let alone for The Overcomer as in Aoki. What I heard may have been receiver overload from something else on 49m (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6899.3, May 29 at 0442, weak AM signal with undermodulated music, presumed pirate, eclipsed by intermittent Spanish 2-way SSB on the hi side mentioning Chihua2. Has the 42m band to itself after WYFR closes both 6875 and 6985 at 0445. Still at 0455, but about all I can hear is the steady beat amounting to 136 per minute; is it really with music?

UNIDENTIFIED. 7195.0, May 29 at 0437, surprised to hear big steady S9+20 AM signal with rock/soul music, good modulation, but cut off the air as another song started, never to return tho I kept a receiver on frequency past 0500. Could be a ham testing illegally, or some broadcaster initially punching up the wrong frequency. While it briefly lasted, better signal than just about anything else on 7 MHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###