** ANGUILLA. 11775, July 13 at 1237, DGS very distorted, modulation problem altho carrier seems OK; but also splatters 11765-11790; worse, at 1240, big blob of garbage covering 11900-11935 matching music pause on 11775, and then when resuming talk, only during modulation spikes. By 1247, 11775 and the spurs have gone off the air; let`s hope for good until repaired (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CANADA [and non]. Sporadic-E analog TVDX barely funxioning the evening of July 12 = UT July 13:
0141 on 2, tune-in with antenna S from Mexico earlier, but hearing the giveaway fluxuating het caused by the CKCO-TV-2 video transmitter in Wiarton, Ont., beating against some other station with a stable transmitter: so I rotate to NNE and do hear some English audio, also weak signals on 3, 4 and 6.
0144 on 2, Global network promo; I still have that strange local pulsing QRM when aimed that direxion on ch 2 only: 4 quick pulses repeating 7 times, pausing less than a minute, repeating.
0154 on 2, altho still aimed NNE, now I hear some Spanish! So rotate back to SSW, but by then not much Spanish to be heard. Anyhow, at least briefly there could have been double-hop DX between Mexico and Canada. Earlier on July 12, there were several such logs between New England and Mexico. As usual, I am too close to the middle of paths to benefit from double-hop.
0253 on 2, Canadian news northward, CCI but no longer the CKCO-2 variable het. Also algo on 4
0320 on 3, French audio, CCI
0358 on 2, occasional video with antenna NNE
0415 on 2, 3, peaking from NNW; ad in English on 3; algo on 4
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake July 13:
11500, poor at 1234; fair at 1252; good at 1338
12980, very poor at 1244; poor at 1333
13920, fair at 1254
14700, JBA at 1246, poor at 1256
15970, JBA at 1256
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. 7215, July 13 at 1342 music and then Japanese // better 7325. HFCC shows conflicting registrations this hour on 7215, CRI in Japanese, 500 kW, 73 degrees from Xian to southern Japan, plus CRI in Chinese, 500 kW, 190 degrees also from Xian for Malaysia and Sumatera! But the latter not heard. Aoki also lists them both. Running two 500 kW broadcasts on same frequency at same time from same site but in different direxions is certainly a way to conserve frequencies, but somehow I doubt it is really happening. Does anyone south- or westward from China hear Chinese on 7215 during this hour? While 7325 is 500 kW, 59 degrees from Jinhua to northern Japan and regular here every morning, also USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INDIA. 9690, July 13 at 1340, AIR GOS ``ending this news bulletin``, with signature hum on this frequency. With some effort it would have been readable, as the 1330-1500 transmission is beginning to show again; much better signal than 9870 VBS, and no signal from 9425 National Channel, all supposedly from Bengaluru (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MADAGASCAR. 17690, July 13 at 1259, tune-in to rock music, fair signal; 1300 3+1 timesignal with last one prolonged, and a few notes of the R. Japan IS, then open carrier until finally off at 1303:20*. This was overrun from NHK in French relay at 1230-1300, 250 kW, 305 degrees from Talata and also USward, commonly heard here
15730, July 13 at 1325, poor in HOA language, 1327 dramatic music bits and then HOA music only, adding YL vocalist until 1331 ``VOA`` sung ID jingle. It`s Somali via Madagascar, 250 kW due north at 1300-1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. Continuing the sporadic E analog TV DX opening from last report, July 12, UT:
1701 on 6, still XETV Tijuana; during this hour it`s `The 700 Club`. Notwithstanding item at 1718 about safe rooms in Tulsa OK, not the late lamented KOTV, but part of 700 Club.
With MUF this hi, it is time to start monitoring FM. Already at 1706 I was getting a bit of Spanish on 90.7, but did not develop further. Onward to USA [q.v.] logs from Southern California.
Analog Es TV DX July 13, UT:
1353 on 2, tune-in to Spanish with antenna SSW, adstring including one for HDTV; then CCI from a station with much louder audio.
1357 on 4, talk show appears; 1358 lower-right bug shows name is AM, CDT as 8:58 and below that rotating temps for abbreviated cities all over country (current or forecast highs?).
1358 on 4, same-offset CCI to above, net-5 toons, Televisa credit/promo.
1359 on 2, becalos.mx PSA, another gobierno federal PSA mixed with ads
1403 on 2, loud-audio station has news about Suprema Corte ruling, then can see in lower-left the f bug for Foro TV net-4, and peaks SSE, so is relay by XHY-TV Mérida, Yucatán. Fadeout by 1420. Only occasional signs of video skip on lower channels next sesquihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 13620, July 13 at 0513, R. Dabanga good via MADAGASCAR, and once again with the continuous tone jammer also causing SAH (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SINGAPORE. 11685, July 13 at 1334 in S Asian language, poor and vs constant RTTY QRM circa 11688 also bothering Cuba 11690. Gone at next check 1348. Chex with HFCC as R. Japan in Bengali via Singapore, 1300-1345, 250 kW, 315 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also MADAGASCAR
** U S A. Sporadic E TV DX opening from BCN earlier on July 12 (see MEXICO, and previous report), led me to check FM – there are some lowband LPTVs and translators presumably still analog in Southern California, but I have yet to see any trace of them.
1730 on 87.75, English audio presumed from XETV overcome by Spanish, YL talking about depresión; 1740 YL Spanish ad about naturopathy practitioners. On the DX-398 with whip and headphones, stereo pilot and icon cut on and off as signal fades. No, it is not on 87.7 or any other frequency but centered on 87.75 (could be offset .74 or .76 – I can`t distinguish that closely, but listed below at 87.74).
This must be a `Franken FM` low-power TV station masquerading as a radio station, and using the FM-radio broadcast standards for stereo, not the different standards for former analog TV stereo audio, even tho it is on the audio frequency of analog TV channel 6.
Then another YL joins in discussion. Prices mentioned are in dólares, not pesos. 1749 mentions in passing what may be program (infomercial?) name, `Aprendiendo a pegar el tiempo`. Then several mentions of an address in Apple Valley, California, and phone numbers 760-912-5597, 760-403-7993, Grupo Guardianes de la Salud.
The first number leads to a general contractor in Victorville CA, Johnny Dutto, at 21530 Bear Valley Road Ste B. This resembles the address I heard, but did not copy it for sure. I don`t get a match on the second.
1752 mentions that this program is martes a 10 am -- = 17 UT. 1753 refers to ``todo el condado de Ventura``. 1756 mentions Saint George, Utah, as well as Ventura. (I had also noted the strange St. George connexion in a previous log.) 1800 YL continues in Spanish mentioning the English words ``new vision``. Fades in and out and no ID heard.
Apple Valley is close to Victorville in western San Bernardino county, north of that city on the way to Barstow on I-15. {Ventura is the next county to the west, not too far away, north of LA.}
The 87.75 Franken-FM station must be, as listed in the TV database of W9WI.com, KCIO-LP in Victorville, obviously no longer relaying KTBN-40 (the last item in every entry below, deleted; tho who knows what is on their video). There are four listings derived from FCC, from three different transmitter sites. I`ll go with the one showing licensed with 990 watts:
Victorville, CA KCIO-LP 0.990 0.00 - 34-36-44.00N 117-17-29.00W TX-APP
Victorville, CA KCIO-LP 0.499 0.00 - 34-15-19.00N 117-21-43.00W TX-CP
Victorville, CA KCIO-LP 0.990 0.00 - 34-40-10.00N 116-55-50.50W TX-LIC
Victorville, CA KCIO-LP 0.010 0.00 34-15-19.00N 117-21-43.00W LD-APP
More about it from FCC TV Query itself:
Offset is minus on the non-digital versions; that`s what the hyphen means. Also shows the LIC one has a null our way, with major lobe toward 240 degrees.
A December 2008 article about Franken FMs
http://www.rwonline.com/article/concerns-raised-about-39franken-fms39/4609
has a sidebar listing this:
KCIO(LP), Victorville, Calif.
Almavision Hispanic Network
http://www.almavisiontv/6.html
http://www.justin.tv/almavisonradio
But the first URL can`t be found now and the second one is about Miami. There is another one on 87.75 which I have DXed before, closer to Los Ángeles, KSFV, also in Spanish but Catholic, and might have mixed in some items confusing the above log.
This seems to be a real website but about the ch 6 ``87.7`` in Miami:
http://www.almavision.tv/
Meanwhile back to my other FM logs from this session:
1731 on 90.7, something by Es fading in on one of my more open frequencies; 1733 it`s a talk show about baseball, Dodgers, mentions it is also heard on KPFA (Berkeley) so this is KPFK in LA. 1737 show is called `Letters & Politix`, apparently. At 1743 noted in $tereo but no RDS. Still in at 1803 with some music, then out.
1738 on 88.1, talk about the San José Jazz Festival and sweepstakes to win tickets, by pledging to `your jazz station`, 1-800-767-3688. RDS shows KKJZ, static centered between spaces. 30 kW from Long Beach.
1746 on 88.5, soft rock music squeezed between locals. Probably KCSN Northridge. FM Atlas XXI shows it with only 370 watts. I had no idea it was that insignificant, having listened to it a lot online, before they got rid of most of their distinctive programing, but still with the `KCSN Opera House`, UT Mondays 0300, hosted by the clever Bill Toutant: http://www.kcsn.org/kcsnoperahouse.html
1754 on 92.9, adstring including Shakey`s, San Diego County Credit Union; 1759 Hemet Auto Mall; HD Radio ad! $ but no RDS. Out before any ID but I figured it would be easy to look up as a San Diego station --- but no. FCC query on 92.9 in CA finds the closest one to SD County is KXFG in Sun City, Riverside County, closed to Hemet; owned by CBS, so that would explain all the commercials. (The closest Mexican on 92.9 is XHFZO, XS 92.9 FM, Ensenada, B.C., 15,000 watts, per Cantú.)
Several scans up to 100 MHz did not turn up any other DX signals. Our local LP on 92.1, however, KAMG was running dead air but stereo pilot thruout this period from 1733, still at 1859 UT (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. 12100, July 13 at 0515, WTWW inaudible again and assumed off, whilst 12095 BBC was OK with report on Karzai. Still no signal on 12100 at 1245, but on at 1332, VG in Arabic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 6811 approx. July 13 at 1343, intermittent 2-way in SSB, but could never tune it in or ascertain language, because it was employing inverted speech, a mild but sufficient privacy/security measure for those not equipped to re-invert it. Occasional tones between transmissions (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###
