martedì 20 dicembre 2011

Glenn Hauser logs December 19-20, 2011

** ALBANIA. 7420, UT Tue Dec 20 at 0226, open carrier, 0228 R. Tirana IS, 0230 sign-on English, barely audible with my domestic noise sources not suppressed, but enough to confirm back on air after missing 48 hours earlier. Drita Çiço explains:

``Last week Fllaka was off air due to blocking r/relay problem in Shijak or Fllaka r-st - as reported by Fllaka r-station. During the last days, Shijak is off air due to power interruption according to Shijak r-station. While TWR and CRI via Fllaka r-station are on air, with no interruption at all! - Radio Tirana Monitoring Center`` (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BHUTAN. 6035, looking for BBS after its re-appearance last week, Dec 20 at 1301, can only detect a VP signal with splash from China radio war on 6030; more likely Yunnan PBS. BBS also appeared on 5030 which others have heard, but not even a carrier there. Of course, that one has ACI from Cuba too. If we do hear anything on 5030, it won`t be Sarawak. Both frequencies have been sporadic so far, going off at unexpected times (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Dec 19, before 1900:
9455, very poor at 1850. Tnx to Leonard Rooney, PA for reminder of this which he was hearing already at 1600. Vs RFA Chinese via Saipan at 16-22, unheard
9355, poor at 1850. Also vs RFA Chinese via Saipan at 17-22, unheard

Firedrake Dec 20, before 1400:
12230, very poor with flutter at 1335; by 1352 it has built up to fair
NO others found from 7 to 19 MHz
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS [and non]. 17687-17712, Dec 20 at 1417, strong OTH radar pulsing, presumed from here, causing heavy QRM even to big broadcast signals RFI Guiana French in Spanish on 17690, BSKSA on 17705 --- and weaker CVC Zambia 17695 hasn`t a chance (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** FRANCE. 7220, Dec 20 at 0627, RFI English is still here instead of scheduled Hausa, now with news about KJI until abrupt cutoff at 0630* while much weaker // 9765 continues for the full hour in English. While TDF is SNAFU --- isn`t anyone paying attention at Issoudun? --- I`m not complaining as a semi-hour of good English reception is better than nothing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 9470, Dec 20 at 1319, AIR National Channel via Aligarh with IS, 1320 ``Vande Mataram`` and sign-on in Hindi. 9470 is usually inferior to // 9425 via Bengaluru, but this time 9470 is better altho with some CCI underneath, presumably VOR Moskva site in Russian as scheduled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH. 6100, Dec 20 at 1304, extremely emotional OM in Korean; wonder what he`s pretending to be so upset about? Also // 6400 at 1307 but an echo apart. Aoki lists these as different services: 6100 KCBS Pyongyang, 250 kW ND, and 6400 Pyongyang BS, 50 kW ND, but both from Kanggye site.

9335, Dec 20 at 1310, VOK English to NAm is making it today, altho bothered by WBCQ 9330 which favors the upper side. Continuous Juche jamming is also still mixing into the VOK broadcasts, but at a low level so we can still copy the content, as I tune in a long string of Korean syllables, probably names of other officials. One of KJI`s post-mortem honorifix is ``benevolent father of the people``, yeah right, the genocidal maniac. Glad I am not having breakfast yet, as a bit of this crap is pukeworthy.

Nothing audible yet on // 11710, but at 1400 it`s in with IS and French ID ``La Voix de la Corée``, also with Juche jamming mix underneath, which was also audible unimpeded on 9335 during its open-carrier break at 1357 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KURDISTAN [non]. 11530, Dec 20 at 1355, V. of Mesopotamia via UKRAINE, Kurdish talk instead of usual music, with lite het on hi side 11532 or so, suspected spur from WEWN 11550, 18 kHz away, altho this transmitter is normally their only one without spurs (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, Dec 20 at 0627, IGIM is on and chanting, free for another minute or two of ACI from 250 kW VATICAN 7250 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 36, Dec 20 at 1530 UT there is enough tropo enhancement (?) for KUOK to lock in DTV with Univisión programming, local commercials inserted, PSIP ID as KUOK. FCC TV Query searching on those calls hits 9 entries revealing the call consolidation by licensee Oklahoma Land Company, LLC (not even a Spanish name!):

The *real*, plain-old KUOK is still ch 35 in Woodward with 8 kW ERP, CP MOD for 1000 kW --- will they ever complete that? Huge power to cover sparsely-populated area in NW OK, while the real market is in the dense OKC area.

Ch 36 in OKC is really KUOK-CD, only 7.3 kW but with CP for 14.65 and application for 14.3 (haven`t checked whether site changes are also involved). At this time, there was no enhancement of still-analog ch 48 in OKC carrying same programming, which as I recently noted is no longer called KWDW, but KUOK too --- except that one is really KUOK-LP, with 18.1 kW, a CP for LD with 15 kW, and an APP for 10.6 kW as a ``TX` service, meaning same analog as currently, and a CP for LD (low-power digital) with 15 kW. Furthermore, the KUOK-CD call is also licensed for channel 59 (which I have never seen) in OKC, as a 20 kW TX analog service despite the -CD suffix.

While KUOK-CD 36 remained locked in as late as 1820, and aspect ratio changes are allowed, I reconfirmed that there is no 36-2, and the signal on 46 from KOCM, 50 kW DT Daystar in Norman was too poor to decode, altho it nominally has enough signal into Enid to get onto Suddenlink cable ch 95 unlike KUOK. Suddenlink provides Univisión but off the satellite, not KUOK (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES. 9555, Dec 20 at 1457, VOA Korean via Tinang-2 in well except for hum, so I decide to monitor how long it takes them to change to 9760, and what else happens. 9555 cuts off in mid-word before Korean is finished, at 1458:54*.

Then waiting for it to come up on 9760: cuts on late at *1500:24 with news in English already under way, cuts off again at 1500:54*, back on apparently to stay at *1501:07. So it took at least a sesquiminute to change frequencies, which would not be bad, if only VOA HQ would build in a programming pause so the English news would not have to be upcut! But that would make too much sense. Or not try to use the very same transmitter for adjacent broadcasts. The delay would be even worse if not for both Korean and English being on the same antenna, type 217 at 21 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 6074, Dec 20 at 1300, V/CQ marker on CW from 2MTL, presumed Russian army tactical somewhere in the Far East, is audible right after R. Rossii, Pet/Kam signs off 6075 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 17715, Dec 20 at 1332, surprised to find good signal from V. of Turkey in English news! Supposed to be on 12035, vacant. 1337 jingle and pause for ID, more news by YL, but 17715 cut off abruptly at 1342:41* as someone woke up in Emirler. Then I retune to proper channel 12035 and find a JBA carrier; by 1350 it has built up to very poor level, but recongnisable as VOT. I wish they would stay on 17715!

I figured that, as happens all too often with this negligent station, TRT must have failed to change frequency after previous hour broadcast on 17715 --- but it`s not scheduled on 17715 at any time! Instead German at 1230 on 17755 which we often hear well, much better than English in the mornings. So it was a double SNAFU, wrong frequency to start with, and stayed on the air overtime! The Emirler operators are just not paying attention. VOT was not the only station on wrong frequency this morning: see U S A WWCR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K. 3950-3955-3960, Dec 20 at 0638, DRM noise disrupting what would otherwise be a fully-occupied myriahertz of the American hamband. It`s BBC English per HFCC, 100 kW, 121 degrees from Skelton at 05-08 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Re previous report on R. Martí via WRMI 9955: Jeff White explains that the new morning hour at 12-13 M-F, `Tempranito y de Mañana`` is also a direct relay of Martí, part of their 4-hour morning magazine. The 23-24 UT `Cuba al Día` is delayed from RM at 2000 (or 2030, their website claims); the 0000 and 0400 UT times I had found for same title were for TV Martí, not Radio. There may be further changes on WRMI come January (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 17655, Monday Dec 19 at 1825 surprised to find VOA Portuguese on this unlisted frequency, VG signal, must be Greenville. Had been and still supposed to be 17650 per latest HFCC info, 1800-1830 being the M-F extension of the daily 17-18 broadcast plus 1630-1700 on Fridays.

Looks like ex-17650 to avoid collision with Saudi Arabia in Bambara, daily 1600-1800, 500 kW, 250 degrees from Riyadh, which must have been ongoing since B-11 began. Next day Dec 20 at 1740 check, 17655 still, not 17650. I guess the HFCC registrations will eventually catch up with this change.

15620, Dec 19 at 1826 big open carrier, het from 15619 spur of WEWN 15610; 1829 VOA sign-on, 1830 fragment of English programming, switching error before welcoming us to the VOA in French. This is the only semi-hour from Greenville on 15620, daily, with seven(!) other sites used during the day for various other IBB services (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 7465, Dec 20 at 1257 surprised to find strong gospel-huxtering going on here, a WWCR frequency but not scheduled after 1200. Have they revived the #4 transmitter which had been taking a break between 12 and 15? Just 25 kHz away, at *1259 WWCR-2 is signing on, and then both continue for hours and hours.

Turns out that 15825 is absent, so 7465 is really WWCR-1 which failed to QSY at 1200. 15825, if on, should have been detectable, propagating as 15610 WEWN at similar distance was audible, and even weak Galei Zahal, ISRAEL was in on 15850 at 1326. After 1300, 7465 is still on, while 7490 has usual Joyce Riley // 13845. (Ever notice how much the WEWN talkhost on `Catholic Connexion` at 14-15, Teresa Tomeo, sounds like her?)

At 1309 I can hear some co-channel under 7465. That would be R. Thailand in Japanese, also in Mandarin and Thai during this hour which without WWCR are easily audible here; at 15-16, VOA English via Tinang is also on 7465.

Operating two adjacent transmitters on two frequencies so close to each other increases the risk of radiating mixing products. At 1340 I look for those, and indeed I can hear both audios mixing weakly on 7515; while 7440 had too much ACI from 7445.

At 1401 and 1450, 7465 still continues with `Inspirations Across America` instead of on 15825. 7465 still on at 1502. And still on at 1645 check when it has weakened a lot and 7490 has already moved to 12160. Still detectable poorly at 1740. When will anyone at WWCR realize that they have failed to come up on their all-day frequency 15825? What about clients who are paying for the very different coverage area of 15825 and are not getting it? Rebate?

Strangely enough, WWCR website displays a revised transmission schedule effective Dec 19, but for #1 it still shows 15825!

``WWCR B11 Schedule December 19, 2011 to March 10, 2012
Transmitter #1 - 100 KW - 46 Degrees
7.465 1000 – 1200 (4:00am – 6:00am CT)
15.825 1200 – 2100 (6:00am – 3:00pm CT)
7.465 2100 – 2300 (3:00pm – 5:00pm CT)
3.195 2300 – 0200 (5:00pm – 8:00pm CT)
3.215 0200 – 1000 (8:00pm – 4:00am CT)``
I haven`t tried to figure out what change they think they have made (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 9390, Dec 20 at 1318, Harold Camping with Bible study, not rapture stuff. Seems we are hearing more of him lately on YFR, as the power struggle fluxuates? Aoki shows this one is 300 kW, 132 degrees from Almaty-Nikolayevka, KAZKAHSTAN at 13-14. And it is undermodulated, fluttery (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 7480, Dec 20 at 1256, oscillating tone jamming, but nothing scheduled here which would `need` that. 7480 does bear Open Radio North Korea, via Armenia but at far different time 21-22. FEBC Philippines starts at 1300, however, due west for an hour in SE Asian minolity languages, so maybe the jamming is really for that from Vietnam, in which case Aoki ought to a*terisk it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)