mercoledì 10 agosto 2011

Glenn Hauser logs August 8-10, 2011

All items after 2300 UT August 8 in this report were during 20+ hour AC outage caused by storm downing powerlines [see OKLAHOMA]. Receivers used on batteries, and antennas:
DX-398 and indoor random wire until 0050 UT August 9
DX-398 and short random wire outside on porch until 0210 UT
DX-398 and regular outside 100+foot random wire E-W until 1330 UT
FRG-7 and regular outside 100+foot random wire E-W after 1330
The local logs were on other convenient receivers not requiring external antennas; other MW on DX-398 with internal antenna.

Noise levels were lessened by silencing all the household devices and nearby powerlines; however, by 0205 UT we were hearing some line noise again and could see lights on in adjacent blox. The T-storm noise moved on quickly and was not much of a problem by then.

** ALBANIA. 7425, August 9 at 0140, English announcement and some classical music. 0142 a talk about climate. 0143 outro English broadcast, IS, 0145 theme and re-sign-on in English, again with wrong frequency 13640 instead of 13735 for 1845 and 2000 in complete English schedule, a frequency apparently off the air anyway at present.

R. Tirana is supposed to be off the air until 0145-0200 English transmission, but there it was, either turned on too early, or with additional repeat at 0130-0145? Previously have found the webcast filled with more plays of the English broadcasts between the SW ones. Checked next night, Aug 10 at 0135, 7425 not on.

13625, August 9 at 1427 past 1430, again no signal from R. Tirana. Wolfgang Büschel explained August 8:

``TX #1 is down since August 1st, connected mostly on antennas S-10 and S-15.

TX #2 can't be connected to the 13 MHz antenna "S-15" I guess; the Shijak antenna matrix is amateurish, I guess and not flexible to connect to all 15 antennas.

TX #2 is mostly connected to "S-01 and S-08" which are in use AT PRESENT`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 2310, 2325, 2485, Aug 9 at 1142 just two minutes before sunrise here was able to detect carriers at least from the VL8s, but no 2368.5; tnx to lowered noise level in power outage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST0

** BRAZIL. 15190, August 9 at 0054 classical music, same time as heard months ago from R. Inconfidência; temporary local low noise level tnx to power outage, but still a poor signal, and nothing audible for a minute or two, perhaps just low passage in music. 0059 clear Portuguese outro, ``obrigado``, more classical, mentions Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais, 0101 Segunda-feira, nossa senhora. 0150 still in with Brazilian talk, abraços, Clara Nunes cantando `Juízo Final`; 0156 singer sounds like Carlos Gardel. 0200 TC for ``onze horas, Inconfidência, chegando, noticias, p`ra você, --- Inconfidência Notícias``. 0347 still audible with music but much weaker; is it on all-night? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 11815, August 9 at 0342, RBC live announcer with ``boa madrugada de Terça-feira, até 5 horas da manhã``; weak but clear.

11925, August 9 at 0343, presumed R. Bandeirantes also audible aside 11920 Iran (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. RCI`s manager may have stated a policy of no longer emphasising immigration matters, but as I tuned across `The Link` sometime between 20 and 21 UT August 8 on 15235, 15330 and/or 17735, they were talking about the Punjabi community in Vancouver, or some such. Am not convinced (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA [non]. 15125, August 9 at 1515, fair signal with some jazz catches my ear, with YL singer, so VOA? No, into report by Lynn Desjardins on relations between Brasil and Canada. Well, well, another chance to hear RCI in English since it deleted a 1500 broadcast to the USA! Albeit rather indirectly, since 15-16 is scheduled as 500 kW, 212 degrees from Wulumuchi, EAST TURKISTAN to S Asia (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 4940, August 9 at 1150, fair signal with song in Chinese, the best 60m signal from Asia, i.e. V. of Strait, which 5 days and 22 minutes earlier was only a weak carrier and bits of modulation; tnx to lower noise level today with the power off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 17505, August 9 at 1205, poor signal seems Tagalog talking about Philippines; yes, CRI in Filipino per Aoki, 145 degrees from Xian. Not a signal one would expect here in the morning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENNING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake, August 9, before 1330:
16980, very good at 1322
15970, very poor at 1322
15425, good at 1318 plus buzz, more jamming?
15280, poor at 1318
14950, very good at 1323
14720, good at 1323
13970, very good at 1325
13795, good at 1324, unusual one; Aoki says RFA Tibetan via Kuwait
[this was not a full scan as too tedious on 5-kHz steps with DX-398; but checked the regular 12`s and none found, but:]
11500, some very poor talk, not FD at 1325; none in the 10`s
[after this I switched to the FRG-7 on its battery pack, 8 x D-cells best used by January 2007 but whew, still not leaking]

Before 1400:
14950, very good at 1345
14720, very good at 1343
13970, very good at 1345
13795, fair at 1345
12025, very poor at 1355 under CNR1 jamming but // 14950

Before 1430:
15780, very good at 1424
14720, fair at 1425; none in the 16`s, 13`s or 12`s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. Thanks to power outage here, several DentroCuban Jamming Command harmonics not normally audible could be heard August 9:

17670, Aug 9 at 0012, lite pulse jamming aside 17675 DRM from NZ, i.e. 5890 x 3 vs VOA Spanish; still at 0052. First time to hear this one

18090, Aug 9 at 0013, same as 17670 but a bit stronger, 6030 x 3 vs R. Martí; still at 0052

12060, Aug 9 at 0058, pulse jamming, some fades, 6030 x 2 vs R. Martí; still there at 1134

11960, August 9 at 1134, pulse jamming, 5980 x 2 vs R. Martí

11910, Aug 9 at 0058, pulse jamming like 12060, but this one is 5955 x 2 vs R. República 5954v; first time heard, I think (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. From 01 to 05 UT, RHC English is supposed to be on 6000 and 6050 only, but UT August 9 it was also on a better, clearer frequency, 11760, where we have also heard it occasionally after 0500 instead of 6010. 11760 remained on the air in English when checked at: 0103, 0205, 0240, 0338. Hey, Arnie, now you can turn off 6050 and let HCJB have their only SW frequency back. Ha: 24 hours later, August 10 at 0135 check, 11760 is back in Spanish. SNAFU.

13680, August 9 at 1347, RHC`s Pedro is interviewing Alejandrina, apparently new announcer in the Quechua service, who was drawn to Cuba where there is social justice [at the expense of freedom], married a Cuban and produced a Cubo-Peruvian child. Quechua service connects with listeners from Colombia to Chile; Pedro looks forward to better relations with Perú whose new president has been to Cuba thrice.

14880, August 9 at 1344, very poor signal from RHC, never heard here before: yes, // 13780, but not typo for the leapfrog of 13680 over that to 13880. 14880 = leapfrog of 15360 over 15120 another 240 kHz lower, so it and 15120 end by 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS. 15798-15820+, August 9 at 1321, OTH radar jamming, presumed from here aside WWCR 15825 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 9315, August 9 at 0215, undermodulated English news about Egypt, from R. Cairo. Meanwhile nearby 9305 was as usual horribly overmodulated and distorted in Arabic. At 0251, 9315 still in English, undermodulated about Algeria.

At 0248 found 6270 on air too, undermodulated plus hum/whine in Arabic. Incredibly, ending at 0257:33 was a 5+1 timesignal, Cairo news theme and news (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREECE [and non]. 9420, August 9 at 0031, Qur`an from IRAN, no sign of V of Greece. John Babbis says this frequency has been missing for some three days; transmitter down? They should have moved somewhere else if can`t get Iran off it for 13 hours a day, usurped 1630-0530 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUAM. 9560, August 9 at 1400, ID in English from KSDA, ``Adventist World Radio, the Voice of Hope; the following program is in [??] on 9560 kHz``; very poor signal, listed Chinese. Surprised by lack of het from Ethiopia and no R. Australia, but that closes at 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA [and non]. 4750, August 9 at 1145, at least two stations, with music and Indonesian talk atop; RRI Makassar, and Bangladesh or China (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9525-, August 9 at 1312 quick check, poor signal from VOI, yet with the recognizable voice of the RRI Banjarmasin guy, a Tuesday fixture; was much better during previous hour in Japanese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN [and non]. 11920, August 9 at 0342, VIRI in English with flutter, rather distorted modulation; 0357 recheck it was covered by ROMANIA, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also GREECE

** KOREA NORTH. 2850, August 9 at 1143 very poor with music; still some lite line noise level from the next block? Where power is on.

5895, August 9 at 1153, noise jamming, not the Cuban kind made up of pulses. Aoki has it but not any target: ``5895 0650-2400 KRE North Korean Jamming Noi 1-7`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. 17725, no signal at all August 9 at 1423 from VOAFTGJ, despite plenty of other 16mb signals in powerless low noise level (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MADAGASCAR. 17525, August 9 at 1505, something in Hausa mentioning Nigeria is cutting off and on air as I intune; 1506 stays on long enough to hear VOA jingle. Is 1500-1530, 250 kW, 305 degrees from Madagascar. (When there is a transmitter problem the ops should know about, I tend to file under the site rather than in this case USA [non]) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Bit of Es, CCI on channel 2 from the S to SSW, August 8 at 1724; at 1728 a promo for ``Oaxaca es Nuestra`` but probably federal government or Televisa promo broadcast nationwide, not necessarily directly from Oaxaca (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1520, Aug 8 at 2013 UT, tuning across KOKC to find dead air, for two minutes until resumed programming. Is no one paying attention at this once-great 50 kW clear-channel station? Then checked 1580, KOKB Blackwell, which last year would run dead air for days at a time, but it was modulating. 2017 more dead air on 1520 for at least 20 seconds until JIP a commercial.

780, Aug 8 at 2014-2015 UT, KSPI Stillwater vies with KOMA for the dead-air championship, but only lasted one minute from tune-in. These were several hours before storms really did knock out power in wide areas of OK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

A squall line with lots of lightning and winds up to 95 miles per hour blew thru Garfield Country August 8, toppling lots of powerline poles, and knocking out electricity to our place at 2304 UT. It was still out 20 hours later. We lost access to off-the-air and cable TV and internet, but battery radios allowed us to try to listen to local radio. Here`s what we found first on Enid frequencies:

Off the air: 103.1, 1390, 960
On air with open carrier only: 95.7, 107.1, 1640
Translators/low power:
Off the air: 88.3, 92.1
On the air: 89.1, 91.1, 93.3, 94.3, 98.5, 104.7, 105.5

At 2314, 89.1 was off allowing KMUW Wichita to be heard again.
100.7 had KPNC Ponca City with a storm warning, knocked off at 2312* as we listened.

Of the major local stations, there are two groups,
Chisholm Trail Broadcasting on 1390, 1640, 95.7 and 107.1
And Williams Broadcasting on 960, 103.1

Only KGWA 960 does local news ordinarily, so we kept monitoring for it primarily. At 2338 it was back on the air with country music instead of usual talk format, ID as KGWA and KOFM, even tho KOFM 103.1 was not really on the air and they don`t normally simulcast. A few minutes later news director `J. Curtis Huckleberry` appeared with news about the storm and power situation.

Into UT August 9 at 0008, a weak QRP signal was on 103.1, ID as KOFM, but with music, not simulcasting 960. Probably on exciter only.

KGWA continued local coverage, including winds hitting 95 miles per hour (not a tornado), OG&E says 5500 homes without power. 0020 UT went back to regular programming, Laura Ingraham, yuk.

Next check at 0032 UT:
960 off the air again; 1390 still off
Open carrier: 1640, 95.7, 107.1

0100 UT, KGWA still off. 0113 it`s back with L.I. 0119-0129 another storm update implying that was it until 7 am, 0129 back to L.I.

We are in the dark (literally and figuratively) all night, with no local sources of info, trying to keep cool with natural ventilation only after at 100+ degree day.

1144 UT August 9, 960 carrier is on; 1390 is back to regular ESPN programming. NEVER heard any local info on any of the CTB stations. 1640 still with open carrier (its transmitter site is considerably remote from Enid near Hennessey).

1200 UT, 95.7 KXLS with music, 1390 with ESPN, 1640 OC
960 still OC, 103.1 off

1208 check, 960 now with music segué. 1217 J-Curt finally comes on with recap of last night`s storm info; power outages reached 10,000, but claims most of it is back now thanks to great work of OG&E crews leaving only some highly isolated areas (like us) still powerless as well as the KGWA studio. Well, KGWA is obviously not powerless: they are on the air from studio and transmitter somehow, with some backup altho it obviously did not kick in immediately and stay in.

1325 I can tell that 103.1 has a weak carrier, KOFM exciter only back.

I am less than impressed with the preparedness of local broadcast media to cover emergencies such as this (it could have been much worse, a tornado). KGWA admitted that much of the info they had came from the local newspaper, which did appear on our lawn too with no problem. We read therein that OG&E crews stopped from 1 to 6 am to get some rest, while stuff melted in our freezers. While we were at the library in the afternoon starting to compile this report, power finally came back sometime between 2000 and 2200 UT (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1020, Aug 9 at 0314 UT, open carrier again obviously from semi-local KOKP Perry. Might have power outage somewhere along the program feed line from Stillwater, but long before the storm, August 7 before and after 1200 UT, we also caught them providing dead air to their listener (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PAPUA NEW GUINEA. 5960, August 9 at 1155 I have a very poor signal with some talk, which I would like to think is Tok Pisin, so maybe Radio Fly. A rare chance with power off here reducing noise level, but DentroCuban pulse jamming was bleeding all the way from 5980 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 11920, good August 9 at 0357 must have just come on covering up Iran which foolishly tries to broadcast English to North America at 0330-0430. RRI had a string of commercials, apparent domestic service relay, 0400 timesignal, ID and news in Romanian (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 9800, August 9 at 0027, VOR in English // stronger 9665 via Pridnestrovye, despite Club DX item quoted in DXLD 11-31 that it was one of several transmissions canceled August 1:

``9800 Krasnodar English  22-02 North and Central America
Source: Vadim Alekseyev, Club DX # 1057, VOR Russian Service (via
Aleksandr Diadischev, Ukraine, Aug 3, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)`` Or did the site merely change? There was some CCI, and 9800 was off at 0210 check.

6075, August 9 at 1159, VOR IS, 1200 opening Chinese, or rather re-opening, per Aoki before and after 1200 via Vladivostok (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA. 15285, August 9 at 0348 open carrier with buzz and flutter, no doubt BSKSA Riydah prior to 0400 Swahili service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 17745, August 9 at 1503, good signal in Arabish from Sudan Radio Service via Sines, PORTUGAL. Last week I remarked that we weren`t getting this any more, unlike the 0400-0500 on 11800 via UK --- but the reason we`re not is that in summer our daily routine means we are hardly ever monitoring after 1500, instead spending hours typing up the UT day`s earlier logs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 5950, Aug 9 at 0303, only open carrier via WYFR instead of RTI relay in English; still OC at 0336 or was there JBA modulation underneath, perhaps from something else; should have facilitated V. of Tigray Revolution, Ethiopia, but too much carrier even if unmodulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** THAILAND. 15275, Aug 9 at 0019, poor signal in English, from HSK9 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 15115, August 9 at 1316, discussing new technology in English, with CNR1 jamming, but the English must have been just a clip to be translated on the VOA Mandarin service, during this hour via THAILAND (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9370-, August 9 at 0030 poor signal in Chinese, one of the little-known broadcasts on WTJC in North Carolina. Off-frequency to the lo side as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 11580, Aug 9 at 0104, Spanish religion, WYFR as scheduled, and with squeal. Then checked 11520 WYFR Portuguese and it too was squealing, but not as much. Add another US station with this problem (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9860, Aug 9 at 0210, VG signal from WHRI with gospel huxter asserting ``we are all mind-controlled to a certain extent; they call it faith``, then ducking (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 13580, August 9 at 1353, WEWN`s squishy-spur transmitter is not only producing major ones at plus and minus 9 kHz, but minor ones at plus and minus 18 kHz, the latter on 13598 messing with a weak signal on 13600, i.e. per HFCC, CRI in Tamil via Kashgar, EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 680, Aug 9 at 0307 the Jim Bohannon theme is recognized, seems to be from NE/SW. His MOR 3-hour talk show is harder and harder to find on the air; used to be on 690 KGGF. Checked here after finding 720 WGN `Extension 720` had two Republican guests on the financial situation, as Milt Rosenberg does not pretend to be fair and balanced. Thought I would give him another try since TV is powerless.

So what is the 680 JIMBO affiliate? Our first guess from that direxion is KFEQ St Joseph MO, which really doesn`t provide an adequate signal here, day or night. Jimbo`s official website
http://www.jimbohannonshow.com/stationfinder?action=stateSearch&state=MO&programID=309
does not list by frequency, but searching by state, ``KFEQ-AM`` [sic] is on the list but at wrong time, starting at midnight, presumably meaning local CDT = 0500 UT, ``M-F``, surely meaning Tue-Sat. But KFEQ`s websitehttp://www.680kfeq.com/shows/view/?fShowId=9
confirms he is really on from 10 pm to 1 am
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5201.5, August 9 at 1404, SSB mentioning calls AAM6RD and AAM6RO, but nothing further heard, maybe closing net. As too often the case with hams and MARS, they don`t like to waste words with ``This is`` to make it clear the call immediately following is theirs rather than the contact!

Must be Army MARS and not too far away for daytime propagation. AAM6RD googles right to Texas Army MARS including a photo set including Ken belonging to the first call, viewed by only 19 since last November until me at
http://www.raftermranch.com/RafterMRanch/Ham%20Radio/texas_army_mars_ffd10.htm
with the streamer saying ``TEXAS ARMY MARS FFD-10 & WALLER COUNTY ARES SET LOCATION RAFTER M RANCH, HOCKLEY, TEXAS``, but not a very flattering portrait of Ken:http://www.raftermranch.com/RafterMRanch/Ham%20Radio/FFD10/AAR6BB-AAR6RD.jpg
Hockley in Waller County is just NW of Houston, not to be confused with Hockley County which is the next one west of Lubbock.

However, The net schedule at
https://www.txarmymars.org/resources/netschedule.php
Shows the only Region 6 net at 1401 UT Tuesday is for Oklahoma:
Tuesday 1401 UTC 0901 CDT OK KCE KCO, KDC AAM6OK TRAFFIC/TRAINING
with KCE the designator for the primary secret frequency = 5201.5? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15165, August 9 at 1214, DRM-like noise, or jamming? Per HFCC, EiBi and Aoki, the only thing at all on this very underutilized frequency is R. Liberty in Kyrgyz at 1200-1230; Aoki says site is Biblis, Germany; HFCC and EiBi say Tinang, Philippines --- quite a contrast, but it`s like IBB to make wild site switches hoping for an improvement (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 18832-SSB approx., August 9 at 1339, 2-way in Spanish, still at 1410 check (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)