venerdì 17 febbraio 2012

Glenn Hauser logs February 16-17-, 2012

** BRAZIL [and non]. 11925.2, Feb 17 at 0637, Portuguese discussion, at first very poor with slow fades to S9+12 peaks, surely R. Bandeirantes on its characteristic off-frequency. I don`t often hear this one in the nightmiddle even when 11815 RBC is audible, and wonder if Band is really on the air. Something on 9645+ probably its more reliable other transmitter, but too buried in cable box DTV bubble jamming to compare audio now.

After hearing 11925.2, looked for other Brazilians on 25m and found: 11815 mostly music RBC, 11765 exclaiming ``Deus é Amor``, an unjustified assumption. These Brasigs were much stronger than RNZI 11725 which is often #1 on 25m. At 0641, 11925 had lite ACI from remnant DentroCuban jamming pulses against nothing on 11930. At *0643 much stronger carrier than any of the others appeared on 11780, no doubt RNA with much more than 7.5 kW some sources allege, but then cut back off. Next check 0647 back on with morning musical programming underway. BTW, what are they going to do with the 5990 transmitter no longer needed for R. Senado? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 7220 and 7435, Feb 17 at 1358, REE IS can be detected as nonsensical prélude to CRI Nepali service from Kunming site on both; slightly stronger on 7220 but more QRM as to be expected amid the hamband (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EAST TURKISTAN [and non]. 9705, Feb 17 at 1510 Chinese with continuous noise, i.e. CRI via Kashgar. Surely the noise isn`t jamming unless the ChiCom are really SNAFU, maybe maladjusted transmitter of their own? DRM? None scheduled. Maybe maladjusted Saudi transmitter as also scheduled to collide here in `Turkistani`. I`m sure the ChiCom wouldn`t mind blocking broadcasts into E.T. like this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 9445, Feb 16 at 2145, enjoyed the music, outroed at 2159 as a vocal recital by Pandit somebody, AIR GOS ID and English news.

15045-15050-15055, Feb 17 at 1410, DRM noise from AIR Sinhala service via Khampur, after having defaulted (?) to AM 24 hours earlier. I knew it wouldn`t last.

9425, Feb 17 at 1431, AIR National Channel via Bengaluru, news in English with elexion returns comparing how Congress, BJP et al. parties did; after 1440 another program in English this Friday; fair with flutter.

15175, Feb 17 at 1503, open carrier with flutter, no doubt in preparation for the Gujarati service from GOA starting at 1515, tho  you`d never know it by consulting HFCC which AIR has abandoned. Don`t know if the carrier stayed on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN. 13790, Feb 17 at 1405, VIRI fair with Qur`an, Arabic ID, and into ``Also Sprach Zarathustra`` as theme to next program. Persia is of course the home of Zoroastrianism, now another religion hardly kosher in the Islamic Republic; what are they thinking?? Fiat lux (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ITALY [non]. 15190, Feb 17 at 1458:45 IRRS cuts off Brother Scare for sign-off announcement, but after a few sex of choral music, at 1459:45 sign-on announcement from ``Milano``, never mentioning true site Tiganeshti, ROMANIA. Right into Arabic song, W&M talk in Arabic. That`s because on Fridays only they have an additional show, `Arab Women Today`, as part of European Gospel Radio, which I don`t find mentioned anywhere on
http://www.egradio.org/ altho they still include defunct `DX Partyline`. That page goes on and on about their dedication to missionary work. Note the coverage map showing everywhere from the Mediterranean to the Tasman, but not the emanation from Romania.

BS reception has been poor lately on 15190, always with a multipath echo. There was no transmission break between sign-off and sign-on before 1500, but reception improved anyway as they have supposedly moved from 100 to 115 degree azimuth which should not make much difference here. AWT is only a quarter hour, and at 1514 IRRS sign-off again, offering a ``special numbered QSL card`` [so how many so far?], but already running overtime and cut off the air at 1515:10* before anything in the address but ``NEXUS-IRRS. . .`` could be spoken (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA NORTH [non]. 6135, Feb 17 at 1357, quick check reconfirms that Sea Breeze is again in English this Friday, good reception during the 1330 hour via JSR Tokyo/Yamata JAPAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA [and non]. 7245, Feb 17 at 0630, IGIM is not yet on; by 0657 check, 7245 has come on with urgent speech rather than chanting this Fribbath; see also VATICAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. 7275, Feb 17 at 0629 when Tunisia goes off, now there is uncovered a weaker barely modulated carrier, presumably FRCN Abuja, which had been inaudible the last few nights as I have been reporting. Unfortunately, one of my cable DTV boxes has decided to jam 7275 tonight, which doesn`t help at all to dig out any audio (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. Channel 48, the remnant analog low-power in OKC has changed identity again. Feb 17 at 1548 UT tnx to some morning tropo enhancement, I am surprised to find it is no longer duplicating Univisión as on DTV ``36-1`` = RF 29.2. Instead there is an old movie or drama with Anglo actors, probably dubbed. Transparent bug in the lower right of a large star with a circle in the middle and some wording I can`t read thru the snow. Outro credits consist of nothing but FIN, so don`t know what program that was, then into variety show with local ID in small letters lower left as KOCY 48 OKLAHOMA CITY!

FCC TV Query shows the call change was made Feb 9 after less than two sesquimonths as KUOK-LP:
Facility ID Number: 36850
Call Sign Begin Date
KOCY-LP  02/09/2012
KUOK-LP  11/22/2011
KWDW-LP  05/13/2005
K69EK    08/24/1987

Name of 1600+ variety show is `Don Cheto`, and includes the requisite little person to contrast with DC who is anything but little. LPs get a lot more screen time in Hispanic TV, lucky guys. Wikipedia:

``Don Cheto, known as "el hombre del vozarrón" ("the loud-voiced man"), is a Mexican entertainer and musician. He was born on September 21, 1962 in La Sauceda, Michoacán, México. He is the host of "El Show de Don Cheto" (The Don Cheto Show), an hour-long Spanish language variety show on Channel 62 in Los Ángeles, and shown also on sister stations owned by Lieberman Broadcasting. The show features a variety of games (including soccer and name-that-tune), a live band, a little person, and girls dancing in revealing outfits. Don Cheto's music albums include "Piporreando" and "El Hombre del vozarrón."``

Searching on Don Cheto led to where this is coming from, Estrella TV, and I also hear that mentioned in promos. Had not heard or seen it before, but Wikipedia has it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrella_TV
with affiliate list not including any in Oklahoma yet, and this about another program:

``Controversy --- In February 2011, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) filed a joint complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to an Estrella TV talk show, José Luis Sin Censura, due to repeated instances of verbal and physical abuse against LGBT and female guests.[15] More than 30 organisations have also responded in the demand for Liberman to take action in regards of the program.[16] According to GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios, "This show serves no role except to fuel a climate of intolerance and violence against our community. The FCC has an obligation to stand up against this offensive program, which has no place on our airwaves."[16] In response to the controversy, AT&T and Time Warner Cable withdrawn their advertising from the program.[14] In addition, WSVN Miami has opted to pre-empt José Luis Sin Censura, while KCTU-LD in Wichita, Kansas pulled
 the channel entirely in late 2010, with General Manager Ron Nutt citing that programming on Estrella TV in general "was so objectionable that, at one point or another, half of its viewership had called us with a complaint. They are going for sensationalism. If an English-language network put out this content, they would be asking for trouble." As of September 2011, the show has been officially canceled.[14]``

So looks like the Oklahoma Land Company has picked a real winner to add program variety to the OKC market. KOCY-LP is still 18.1 kW. And they still have an APP for an STA on ch 48 and a CP for LD 15 kW on ch 48. Bringing up all the ch 48 in OK from FCC TV Query I see that we may eventually lose access to KOCY as there is a NEW APP for Enid on 48 by DTV America Corp. with 10 kW!

Does Titan have listings for Estrella TV when displaying OKC on-air channels? Of course not! In fact ch 48 is not there at all. They also have KUOK on the wrong virtual channel, 35.1 instead of 36.1. Typical for Titan TV; I could point out other erroneous or outdated, misleading listings.

I was also watching KUOK with the Univisión program `hoy` on my DTV set, and noticed they were promoting Don Chedo during a break at 1654. 48 has just about faded out by 1800 UT as the humidity level drops.

As for the KOCY callsign, what could be better for Oklahoma City? Stupid radio shuffling abandoned that heritage, originally 1340 AM, then on 1560 for a while (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES. 9555 and 9760 from IBB Tinang: after the Feb 15 debacle when the ailing #2 transmitter here failed to modulate at all in Korean or English for at least a sesquihour, after having missed Feb 16, I check them out Feb 17: at 1421 on 9555, VOA Korean is modulated, altho as usual not up to par. This goes off at 1459* for the QSY to 9760. That comes on at *1500:37 joining VOA English news already in progress, followed by the usual breaks in transmission, e.g. 1500:54*, on and off and on *1501:17, to stay? No, another 10-second break at 1503:24*. Spe-cial Eng-lish starts at 1505, but by 1509 the modulation is gone, just open carrier and still so at 1514 when I quit (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 5085, Feb 17 at 0433, WTWW-2 continues with Brother Scare, and presumably all-night. Still there at 1355, and day frequency 9990 pops on at *1400 sharp, along with spur field. More at USA [and non].

Altho missing from the shortwave schedule page linked as an ftp, The Overcomer Ministry homepage includes new WTWW-2, as it displays this:

Shortwave Radio Stations
WWRB 3185 6 Pm-9Am Sun-Sat
WWCR 5890 1 Am-6Am Daily
WBCQ 7490 8 Pm-11Pm Daily
WWRB 9385 9 Am-6 Pm Sun-Sat
UK 9460 14-16:00 UTC Daily
500,000Watt 9835 19:00 UTC Daily
TESTING Feb20-21 15750 14:00-17:00UTC

WWCR 9980 10 Pm-4 Pm Daily
EUROPE 13810 15-16:00 UTC Daily
FAR EAST 15190 13-15:00 UTC Daily
WBCQ 15420 10 Am-Noon Saturday
AFRICA 17580 15-16:00 UTC Daily
WTWW NightTime 5085 DayTime 9990
TESTING Feb20-21 7590 18:00-21:00UTC

[sic] I will not even attempt to convert the times which are not UT, but maybe they are in EST, and probably wrong anyway.

And note the Feb 20-21 [Mon-Tue] tests from unknown site (s). 7590 is of course the Spaceline DRM Mix test from Bulgaria via Armenia, currently Saturdays only at 18-21. Please, pretty please, can we hear BS in DRM??? BTW, that Saturday broadcast still hasn`t made it into HFCC, just wooden registrations for Almaty in non-digital. 15750 not in HFCC either.

The 9835 500 kW of unspecified duration from 19 UT is in HFCC as Wertachtal until 20, 165 degrees (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, Feb 17 at 0550, RTI via WYFR is in proper language English this hour, and at 0648 in Spanish, also the scheduled language instead of English which played yesterday after 0600 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15825, Feb 16 at 2133, open carrier here, must be WWCR-1 which is supposed to switch at 2100 to 7465, but that is absent. Other transmitters are nominal on 13845, 9980 and 9350. 15825 goes off at 2134, back on, and off for good at 2136*, so I check 7465 again, which comes on in a few sex but also with OC only. Axually, there are traces of modulation around the edges on both, i.e. a bit more audible but still unreadable if you side-tune. At 2142 I notice that 7465 is off again. 2150 back with OC still past 2200. Did not check again until 2223 when a Spanish gospelhuxter was in progress. The WWCR website is not coming up at 1750 Feb 17 when I want to check which programs were replaced by dead air. I`ll add that info later. Ah, here it comes at 1815: Thursdays at 2100, `Into the Blue` which is a dispensable filler, as is 2200-2215 New Testament in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7811.0-USB [not 7811.5 as I once misreported], Feb 17 at 0644-0646 once again Jim Hightower commentary on AFN, so I am beginning to think it`s reliable for good. Also on // 5446.5-USB, both from Florida (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1604 monitoring: confirmed on WTWW 9479, Thursday Feb 16 at 2200, and on WBCQ 7490 at 2230; axually started early at 2229:20. Also on WWRB 3195, UT Friday Feb 17 at 0430. I was listening first on webcast, and noted a very respectful 135-second pause after the previous preacher said ``amen and amen``, but that`s because his show ended early instead of late. Later confirmed on 3195.

BTW, WWRB is still missing from its other frequency 5050, still occupied by big ute blob on the hi side; and I have not found any replacement by WWRB. It`s currently registered with FCC for 2390 at the same available hours as 5050, 2200-1300, but 45 degrees on 5050, and 340 on 2390 (same as 3185 BS); and also 5745 at 22-04, 90 degrees, but is not being heard on either of those. BTW2, 3195, our favorite WWRB frequency is not on the FCC list at all.

Further WOR airings: on WTWW 5755, UT Sunday 0500. On WRMI: Sat 0900, 1600, 1830, Sun 0900, 1630, 1830, Mon 1230. Also on WRN via SiriusXM 120, Sat & Sun 1830, Sun 0930 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 9996, Feb 17 at 1359 I am hearing the binary pulses from RWM Taldom, RUSSIA, and on 10000 the CW ID from BPM Lintong, CHINA, all mixed with WWVH`s semi-hourly voice ID from HAWAII, when *bam at *1400 sharp, WTWW-2 cuts on 9990 and blows them all away with Brother Scare music bleeding over.

At 1427, I also notice that 9965, R. Australia Chinese via PALAU, but mixing in some English, has a buzzy blob upon it from WTWW, i.e. spur minus 26 kHz approx. from 9990. There are never any such problems from the other WTWW transmitters on 5755, 9479 and 12105 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. 7250, Feb 17 at 0630, VR SMG inaudible, may be off again, as propagation has recovered from last night`s near-blackout. Were audible: 7335 Tunisia, and before 0629 also 7275; 7220 France just going off at 0630; 7310 Romania in English but not the big signal it used to enjoy. 7245 Mauritania q.v. not yet on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)