** BOTSWANA. 15570, Jan 9 at *2059 open carrier as VOA is tuning up for continuation of African service in English, to avoid Bonaire already on 15580. *2100 Bots jumps to 15580 where it is supposed to be as modulation begins. But if they are going to turn on only one minute before the hour, the offset is hardly necessary as Bonaire is already off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 13670, Jan 11 at 1450, RHC is absent so no lowside het to CRI English 13675 via Sackville. 1531 frequency announcement on many other channels reconfirms that 13670 is supposed to be on until 1600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. [Re my previous report of Morse code underneath EWTN cable channel, during Joy of Music, filed as U S A]
Sounds like the automatic ID on the uplink. After that Captain Midnight thing years ago (where the guy hijacked the satellite transponder -- Playboy Channel if I recall properly) they established a requirement that uplinks identify themselves with tone-modulated Morse on an otherwise-unused analog audio subcarrier. IIRC the callsigns are an E followed by a 5-digit number.
I thought this went by the wayside when all the uplinks went digital, but I suppose there are a few straggler analog uplinks left (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Doug, Tnx for that idea. Maybe that`s part of the explanation, but this was going on continuously over many minutes, and am pretty sure it was not an E##### repeated over and over but a lot more variety, like some kind of encrypted or maybe weather data message. So an unused analog audio subcarrier could bleed thru in an uplink (or transponder) to a used one? I`ll need to listen to EWTN some more (Glenn to Doug, via DXLD)
You've raised enough curiosity to get me to check further. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Transmitter_Identification_System
and
http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/281-automatic-transmitter-identification-atis-19848592
- It *is* supposed to run continuously (unlike the Morse IDs on translators). This subcarrier is used ONLY for the ID.
- The callsign is not the only part of the ID. It also needs to include the phone number of the uplink and a 10-digit serial number.
It's on a 7.1 MHz subcarrier. Common audio subcarriers for analog satellite were 5.8, 6.2, and 6.8 MHz. IIRC, 5.8 was for mono, 6.2 for stereo left, and 6.8 for stereo right. Usually. There were exceptions. I'm sure Bob Cooper knows!
The fact that the audio is noisy & distorted (while the video is OK?) suggests at least one of the audio subcarrier decoders is off-frequency. If the 6.8 subcarrier decoder is off-frequency I think it's quite likely it could decode the 7.1 Morse ID (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Occasional further chex of EWTN have lacked the code, so apparently they adjusted it (Glenn Hauser, January 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. 15525, Jan 11 at 1536, pious Qur`an quotation in English, 1537 VIRI welcoming us to ``tonight`s edition brought to you live from Tehran, Iran``, program summary, first `News & Views`, then `Contemporary Scholars of Iran`, then something about `Iranian Women`. 1538 hokey news theme, the three headlines being: 1) Pres. A. said something; 2) Iranian scientist martyred by car bomb; 3) Gitmo prisoners on 3-day hunger strike.
Nice to near VIRI without the heavy QRM they subject themselves to on both ``V. of Justice`` frequencies to NAm, 7200 and 7365 at 0330. Reception unusually good, only slight fading; in fact, I don`t often hear this at all. Nothing audible on // 13785 aside huge RHC 13780 signal.
But at 1545, 15525 suddenly drops off; I wonder what happened? It`s still there but much weaker, while 15535 Dabanga is unchanged. 15525 registered as 105 degrees from Kamalabad, meaning off-the-back would be 285. Maybe they were aiming the wrong way at the beginning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 7580, Jan 10 at 0650, 1 kHz tone thought might turn out to be something interesting, like Star-Star, but 0700 8-note IS of VOK, Japanese ID and NA. This service runs all the way until 1250, while Xing-Xing from Taiwan is on 7580 at 0600-0630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5985, Tue Jan 10 at 1415, distraught woman in Japanese with piano accompaniment, no doubt an abductee survivor or relative, on Shiokaze from JSR Tokyo/Yamata, JAPAN. Only lite het from QRMyanmar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH. 6550, Jan 11 at 0633, very poor signal with choral music, i.e. new women`s service of MND clandestine to the North. Was not audible a semihour earlier for the 0600-0640 broadcast, so I was wondering if it still exist. Could not find on // 6435 amid ute QRM. Nor was there much yet from the Korean radio war on 6518 and 6600, since all these signals are getting further into daytime as the Korean sunset inchons later and later. Currently in Soul it`s already at 0834 UT, a full bihour later, so lucky to get anything propagating from this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, Jan 10 at 2150, IGIM presumed with YL speech, heard some French words, maybe mixed with Arabish; an unusual time for me to log this rather than around 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 830, Jan 11 at 1357 UT, conversation mentions Radio Zócalo, San Antonio, head-coach, overcoming WCCO. Must be 5 kW XEIK, Piedras Negras, Coahuila, where there are close commercial and cultural ties to the nearest big US city. 1358, ID as R. Zócalo on Súper Estelar 107.9, local ads for Piedras Negras, ``ciudad con futuro``. Cantú confirms the Súper Estelar on 107.9 is XHPC in Piedras Negras (Black Rocks).
860, Jan 11 at 1403 UT, ``primera edición de Noticias 8-60``, mentions Ciudad Juárez. Feared it would just be a generic news program name, not pinnable, but Cantú shows that`s the name of the entire station in CiJz, if reversed: 860, XEZOL, 860 Noticias, Cd. Juárez, Chih., 1,000 500. Just about losing out to K`KOW by now, moo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9830, Jan 10 at 0618, RNW Dutch is back on third frequency in the 9.8s, // unsynchronized 9865 and 9895. Last times I checked, 9830 was missing from Wertachtal, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Channel A-48 is the last remaining analog TV signal normally visible here, KUOK-LP OKC, 18.1 kW, but Jan 10 at 1555 UT after getting a tropo-enhanced KWOU 88.1 Woodward relaying KGOU 106.3 with Diane Rehm show, I turn the TV antenna westward to look for Woodward DTV on 34 and 35 --- but they are not `good` enough to decode.
Manually checking further channels, I find OETA coming thru on 48, which can only be K48KE, Buffalo OK, 11.8 kW relay of KWET-12. It`s marginal, in & out, helped a little by aiming further northwest right at it. Buffalo is over 100 miles away, about 60% further than KUOK-LP ex-KWDW. I had a similar log Aug 17 as in DXLD 11-33. Tropo maps today showed nothing noteworthy in either area (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Channel A-27, KFOR-TV OKC, I noticed a few days ago in the Titan TV program listings, showed Antenna TV on both 4.2 and 4.3, I assumed a mistake. But Jan 11 a 1551, I find that is indeed the case, as the continuous weather on 4-2 has been dropped! At 1600 UT, Ant-Tv is showing ``The Buddy Holly Story``, which starts off with a DJ at KDAV-1310 Lubbock. I didn`t mind rewatching the whole thing.
Titan listings still label 4.2 as KFOR-WX but also ATV, which is obviously(?) contradictory. PSIP IDs from KFOR on both do say Ant-Tv. This is also obviously a waste of spectrum; I assume the weather contract ran out at yearend, and something else will eventually replace it on 4-2, maybe NBC`s new sports channel? They ought to put MSNBC on spare DTV subchannels! Aspect Radio Cannot Be Changed, so some of the local commercials on Ant-Tv are in squeeze-o-vision (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 780, Wed Jan 11 at 1420 UT, KSPI (plus spurs 776 and 784) instead of stupid sports talk is broadcasting Stillwater City Commission/Council meeting, live? At 8:20 am?? Currently discussing regulations about parking at boarding houses, fascinating stuff (not). Refers to visuals, so hopefully also on local cable TV; speakers not identified either by any commentator, but they managed to be on-mike, unlike Enid`s version as cablecast by Pegasys (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 9690, Jan 11 at 0620, YL singing with guitar, sounds like Brazilian tune, but not in Portuguese. Must have been Romanian, for // 7265, and 0622 French announcement from RRI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 15535, Jan 11 at 1535, R. Dabanga atop continuous 1000-Hz tone jammer, by or on behalf of the Sudanese regime. Dabanga is 500 kW, 150 degrees from Wertachtal, GERMANY, daily at 1530-1627 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15385.4, Jan 9 at 1915, KJES is also missing from its 19-21 UT broadcast which can inboom here when on, another frequency too far off the FCC is likely to Notice if they come back on it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. KJES offers nothing in the way of New Mexico culture, which I assure you, is not made up of robokids, beyond The Lord`s Ranch, so as Albuquerque sunrise approaches I intune 770, awaiting KKOB to pop onto daytime non-direxional pattern:
There it is, Jan 11 at 1415 as Bob Clark is lamenting how NM is misunderstood elsewhere --- as a just dull wasteland near Arizona. Albuquerque has even been confused with `Alcapulco`; after all, both have beaches, tho ABQ`s is on the Rio Grande:
http://www.cabq.gov/biopark/tingley
Now a PR firm in Austin, Texas has been hired to publicize NM better; they should know how? Then YL sidekick with traffic report. Fading at 1420, but back up at 1425 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 830, Jan 11 at 1427 UT, country gospel music, ID as Family Life Radio, in null of what`s left of WCCO or XEIK. Therefore it`s KFLT Tucson AZ, 50 kW day power already, tho official local sunrise in January is not until 1430 and there is no info about any PSRA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7490, Jan 10 at 0646, WBCQ is still on with Overcomer Ministry, psycophant caller at the moment mentioning hearing BS on WNCE, WWBA, WCKY as well as SW. This feed was about 8 seconds behind WWRB 3185 and 10 sex behind WWCR 5890, and still going past 0700. Failed to turn off at usual time of 0400 (Plus Financial Survival at 04-05)? Did not notice it the next night in bandscanning tho I neglected to look for it specifically. Could be a make-good for some TOM hours previously missed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15739-SSB, Jan 11 at 1535, 2-way in Spanish, reminding us that perhaps by strange coincidence, there are currently no significant broadcast signals to be heard between 15610 WEWN and 15825 WWCR --- making WWCR very isolated from the mainstream, just as it is by its far-right politico-religious programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 13670, Jan 11 at 1450, RHC is absent so no lowside het to CRI English 13675 via Sackville. 1531 frequency announcement on many other channels reconfirms that 13670 is supposed to be on until 1600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INTERNATIONAL VACUUM. [Re my previous report of Morse code underneath EWTN cable channel, during Joy of Music, filed as U S A]
Sounds like the automatic ID on the uplink. After that Captain Midnight thing years ago (where the guy hijacked the satellite transponder -- Playboy Channel if I recall properly) they established a requirement that uplinks identify themselves with tone-modulated Morse on an otherwise-unused analog audio subcarrier. IIRC the callsigns are an E followed by a 5-digit number.
I thought this went by the wayside when all the uplinks went digital, but I suppose there are a few straggler analog uplinks left (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Doug, Tnx for that idea. Maybe that`s part of the explanation, but this was going on continuously over many minutes, and am pretty sure it was not an E##### repeated over and over but a lot more variety, like some kind of encrypted or maybe weather data message. So an unused analog audio subcarrier could bleed thru in an uplink (or transponder) to a used one? I`ll need to listen to EWTN some more (Glenn to Doug, via DXLD)
You've raised enough curiosity to get me to check further. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Transmitter_Identification_System
and
http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/281-automatic-transmitter-identification-atis-19848592
- It *is* supposed to run continuously (unlike the Morse IDs on translators). This subcarrier is used ONLY for the ID.
- The callsign is not the only part of the ID. It also needs to include the phone number of the uplink and a 10-digit serial number.
It's on a 7.1 MHz subcarrier. Common audio subcarriers for analog satellite were 5.8, 6.2, and 6.8 MHz. IIRC, 5.8 was for mono, 6.2 for stereo left, and 6.8 for stereo right. Usually. There were exceptions. I'm sure Bob Cooper knows!
The fact that the audio is noisy & distorted (while the video is OK?) suggests at least one of the audio subcarrier decoders is off-frequency. If the 6.8 subcarrier decoder is off-frequency I think it's quite likely it could decode the 7.1 Morse ID (Doug Smith W9WI, Pleasant View, TN EM66, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
Occasional further chex of EWTN have lacked the code, so apparently they adjusted it (Glenn Hauser, January 11, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** IRAN. 15525, Jan 11 at 1536, pious Qur`an quotation in English, 1537 VIRI welcoming us to ``tonight`s edition brought to you live from Tehran, Iran``, program summary, first `News & Views`, then `Contemporary Scholars of Iran`, then something about `Iranian Women`. 1538 hokey news theme, the three headlines being: 1) Pres. A. said something; 2) Iranian scientist martyred by car bomb; 3) Gitmo prisoners on 3-day hunger strike.
Nice to near VIRI without the heavy QRM they subject themselves to on both ``V. of Justice`` frequencies to NAm, 7200 and 7365 at 0330. Reception unusually good, only slight fading; in fact, I don`t often hear this at all. Nothing audible on // 13785 aside huge RHC 13780 signal.
But at 1545, 15525 suddenly drops off; I wonder what happened? It`s still there but much weaker, while 15535 Dabanga is unchanged. 15525 registered as 105 degrees from Kamalabad, meaning off-the-back would be 285. Maybe they were aiming the wrong way at the beginning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH. 7580, Jan 10 at 0650, 1 kHz tone thought might turn out to be something interesting, like Star-Star, but 0700 8-note IS of VOK, Japanese ID and NA. This service runs all the way until 1250, while Xing-Xing from Taiwan is on 7580 at 0600-0630 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 5985, Tue Jan 10 at 1415, distraught woman in Japanese with piano accompaniment, no doubt an abductee survivor or relative, on Shiokaze from JSR Tokyo/Yamata, JAPAN. Only lite het from QRMyanmar (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA SOUTH. 6550, Jan 11 at 0633, very poor signal with choral music, i.e. new women`s service of MND clandestine to the North. Was not audible a semihour earlier for the 0600-0640 broadcast, so I was wondering if it still exist. Could not find on // 6435 amid ute QRM. Nor was there much yet from the Korean radio war on 6518 and 6600, since all these signals are getting further into daytime as the Korean sunset inchons later and later. Currently in Soul it`s already at 0834 UT, a full bihour later, so lucky to get anything propagating from this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA. 7245, Jan 10 at 2150, IGIM presumed with YL speech, heard some French words, maybe mixed with Arabish; an unusual time for me to log this rather than around 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 830, Jan 11 at 1357 UT, conversation mentions Radio Zócalo, San Antonio, head-coach, overcoming WCCO. Must be 5 kW XEIK, Piedras Negras, Coahuila, where there are close commercial and cultural ties to the nearest big US city. 1358, ID as R. Zócalo on Súper Estelar 107.9, local ads for Piedras Negras, ``ciudad con futuro``. Cantú confirms the Súper Estelar on 107.9 is XHPC in Piedras Negras (Black Rocks).
860, Jan 11 at 1403 UT, ``primera edición de Noticias 8-60``, mentions Ciudad Juárez. Feared it would just be a generic news program name, not pinnable, but Cantú shows that`s the name of the entire station in CiJz, if reversed: 860, XEZOL, 860 Noticias, Cd. Juárez, Chih., 1,000 500. Just about losing out to K`KOW by now, moo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** NETHERLANDS [non]. 9830, Jan 10 at 0618, RNW Dutch is back on third frequency in the 9.8s, // unsynchronized 9865 and 9895. Last times I checked, 9830 was missing from Wertachtal, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Channel A-48 is the last remaining analog TV signal normally visible here, KUOK-LP OKC, 18.1 kW, but Jan 10 at 1555 UT after getting a tropo-enhanced KWOU 88.1 Woodward relaying KGOU 106.3 with Diane Rehm show, I turn the TV antenna westward to look for Woodward DTV on 34 and 35 --- but they are not `good` enough to decode.
Manually checking further channels, I find OETA coming thru on 48, which can only be K48KE, Buffalo OK, 11.8 kW relay of KWET-12. It`s marginal, in & out, helped a little by aiming further northwest right at it. Buffalo is over 100 miles away, about 60% further than KUOK-LP ex-KWDW. I had a similar log Aug 17 as in DXLD 11-33. Tropo maps today showed nothing noteworthy in either area (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Channel A-27, KFOR-TV OKC, I noticed a few days ago in the Titan TV program listings, showed Antenna TV on both 4.2 and 4.3, I assumed a mistake. But Jan 11 a 1551, I find that is indeed the case, as the continuous weather on 4-2 has been dropped! At 1600 UT, Ant-Tv is showing ``The Buddy Holly Story``, which starts off with a DJ at KDAV-1310 Lubbock. I didn`t mind rewatching the whole thing.
Titan listings still label 4.2 as KFOR-WX but also ATV, which is obviously(?) contradictory. PSIP IDs from KFOR on both do say Ant-Tv. This is also obviously a waste of spectrum; I assume the weather contract ran out at yearend, and something else will eventually replace it on 4-2, maybe NBC`s new sports channel? They ought to put MSNBC on spare DTV subchannels! Aspect Radio Cannot Be Changed, so some of the local commercials on Ant-Tv are in squeeze-o-vision (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 780, Wed Jan 11 at 1420 UT, KSPI (plus spurs 776 and 784) instead of stupid sports talk is broadcasting Stillwater City Commission/Council meeting, live? At 8:20 am?? Currently discussing regulations about parking at boarding houses, fascinating stuff (not). Refers to visuals, so hopefully also on local cable TV; speakers not identified either by any commentator, but they managed to be on-mike, unlike Enid`s version as cablecast by Pegasys (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ROMANIA. 9690, Jan 11 at 0620, YL singing with guitar, sounds like Brazilian tune, but not in Portuguese. Must have been Romanian, for // 7265, and 0622 French announcement from RRI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SUDAN [non]. 15535, Jan 11 at 1535, R. Dabanga atop continuous 1000-Hz tone jammer, by or on behalf of the Sudanese regime. Dabanga is 500 kW, 150 degrees from Wertachtal, GERMANY, daily at 1530-1627 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15385.4, Jan 9 at 1915, KJES is also missing from its 19-21 UT broadcast which can inboom here when on, another frequency too far off the FCC is likely to Notice if they come back on it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. KJES offers nothing in the way of New Mexico culture, which I assure you, is not made up of robokids, beyond The Lord`s Ranch, so as Albuquerque sunrise approaches I intune 770, awaiting KKOB to pop onto daytime non-direxional pattern:
There it is, Jan 11 at 1415 as Bob Clark is lamenting how NM is misunderstood elsewhere --- as a just dull wasteland near Arizona. Albuquerque has even been confused with `Alcapulco`; after all, both have beaches, tho ABQ`s is on the Rio Grande:
http://www.cabq.gov/biopark/tingley
Now a PR firm in Austin, Texas has been hired to publicize NM better; they should know how? Then YL sidekick with traffic report. Fading at 1420, but back up at 1425 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 830, Jan 11 at 1427 UT, country gospel music, ID as Family Life Radio, in null of what`s left of WCCO or XEIK. Therefore it`s KFLT Tucson AZ, 50 kW day power already, tho official local sunrise in January is not until 1430 and there is no info about any PSRA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7490, Jan 10 at 0646, WBCQ is still on with Overcomer Ministry, psycophant caller at the moment mentioning hearing BS on WNCE, WWBA, WCKY as well as SW. This feed was about 8 seconds behind WWRB 3185 and 10 sex behind WWCR 5890, and still going past 0700. Failed to turn off at usual time of 0400 (Plus Financial Survival at 04-05)? Did not notice it the next night in bandscanning tho I neglected to look for it specifically. Could be a make-good for some TOM hours previously missed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 15739-SSB, Jan 11 at 1535, 2-way in Spanish, reminding us that perhaps by strange coincidence, there are currently no significant broadcast signals to be heard between 15610 WEWN and 15825 WWCR --- making WWCR very isolated from the mainstream, just as it is by its far-right politico-religious programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
