giovedì 16 febbraio 2012

Glenn Hauser logs February 16, 2012

** ANTARCTICA. 15476, Feb 16 at 1435, perfunctory check since it`s Thursday, still no signal from LRA36, nor at some tuneby times before 1400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 9580, Feb 16 at 1147, R. Australia with promo for a special on the anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Darwin, to air this coming Sunday [Feb 19] at ``11 am Bangkok time``. That would be 0400 UT = 1330 Darwin time, 1300 Tokyo time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 4885, Feb 16 at 0609, just as I intune, full ID for R. Clube do Pará, poor signal, but remains the most reliable, if not the only 60m Brazilian audible here overnight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. Feb 16 before sunrise, the MUF is way down especially for northerly paths: at 0642, can`t hear CFRX on 6070. I can hear it weakly at 1127. At 1150, 9865 Vatican via Sackville is a JBA carrier instead of inbooming, much weaker than the QRDRM from RNZI 9865-9875 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Feb 16:
15775, poor at 1319, still going at 1355
15485, very poor at 1321, het on 15483. Gone at 1355. No others found before 1400.

Current Aoki shows nothing at all on 15485 at any time, but likely today`s landing spot for jumparound V. of Tibet, which he does show at various times on 15437, 15447, 15457, 15513, 15533, 15537, 15548, 15558, via the nimble-fingered Tajiks, plus 13 and 17 MHz channels

Likewise, 15775 officially has nothing but VOA São Tomé to Zimbabwe at 1700-1830, but it`s within Aoki`s jumparound range for Sound of Hope, also via Tajikistan, 15715-15795 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COLOMBIA. 6010, Feb 16 at 1132 as I tune in, full ID for HJDH, and no sign of XEOI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. Several MW frequencies are in well with somewhat auroral conditions, Feb 16 around 0630 UT, such as 590, 670, 710, and on 570 I am hearing the R. Reloj tix and `RR` Morse Code once a minute, but not the continuous newstalk in Spanish which ought to be louder. Do they sometimes take a rest and just run the clock? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 6000, Feb 16 at 1202, Bárbara Betancourt is opening RHC `Despertar con Cuba` talking about a cold front (which sometimes penetrate that far south). Much stronger on // 6140 and 6150, all of which are on for this first hour only. I had just listened to the sign-on frequency announcement on 6150 which included 6150 and 6140 but not 6000; what do they know? 6140 and 6150 carriers were warming up as early as 1150 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUATEMALA. 4055, Feb 16 at 0607, TGAV is in the kidchoral national anthem at sign-off, but still missing in the mornings. No signal when checked at 1135, 1158, 1214 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 15050, Feb 16 at 1323, S Asian music in AM from AIR Sinhala service. Did their DRM transmitter at Delhi/Khampur break down, push the wrong button, or relent to tantalize us with nice music audible to anyone with an ordinary receiver? Are the songs necessarily in Sinhala, or Hindi, et al.? I`ll easily take the flutter and fading way over digital dropouts or more likely no decoding at all for this 13-15 broadcast, where I often hear the DRM noise without logging it. 1335 goes from music to talk, 1352 check, more music which used to occupy most of the bihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 3995, Feb 16 at 1313, I am looking for RRI Kendari, but only a JBA carrier with SSB QRM. Not a good day for Indonesians, but this one has just been reactivated after many months with no Indos at all on 75m, first reported by David Sharp, NSW: ``3995.01 RRI Kendari, 1240, very strong with local vocals, Indo man at 1244, then more music. Nearly overmodulating on peaks. 14 Feb``

Then checking
http://rri.jpn.org where Atsunori Ishida found it back starting Feb 13 after 11 months off since March 13, 2011:

``Feb 13, 3995 kHz RRI: -1258-1600* with poor on February 13. No signal at 1205. Indonesian pops at around 1300. "RRI Pro 1" Jingle at 1458. Telephone-talk-back at 1502-1524. Love Ambon with OM closing announcement at 1558-1600.

``3995 kHz RRI-Kendari: *2050-2130- with poor on February 13. Opening chime at 2050. Opening theme with OM opening announcement at 2057.  Since March 13, 2011.

Feb 14: -1000-1557* LA. LN at 1029. JN at 1159. *2052 Opening chime. Opening theme at 2059.

Feb 15: -1000-1556 c/off LN at 1029. *2053 Opening chime. Opening theme at 2057`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9525-, Feb 16 at 1434, JBA carrier slightly on the low side, presumed VOI still on its alternate frequency to 9526- (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. With conditions somewhat auroral, SW degraded, it`s worth checking MW Feb 16 in the nightmiddle altho CBW and WCCO are still in:

720, Feb 16 at 0625 UT, temp 15 centrigrados, ID as ``La Kaliente`` as WGN is easily nulled. IRCA Mexican Log shows this slogan only for XEDE Saltillo, Coahuila. Radio stations always spell it with a K-, hotly defying proper Spanish orthography.

750, Feb 16 at 0626 UT, strong open carrier with WSB nulled, i.e. southwards, suspiciously Mexican, but which?

770, Feb 16 at 0627, ID for XERFR, 970, Radio Fórmula, i.e. the key station of the network in the DF, where they are clueless that the local frequency is inapplicable on countless affiliates. This one must be XEACH, Monterrey NL.

Next session pre-sunrise, Feb 16:

710, Feb 16 at 1227 song ``Quiero que me llames tú`` (I want you to call me), with tuba band, or she will also accept texts, 1228 ID as ``XEDP, La Ranchera de Cuauhtémoc``, very good and dominant signal one would easily guess is 50 kW instead of listed 7.

750, Feb 16 at 1232 UT, ID for ``La Huasteca`` with an FM something.5, AM 750, then mentioning Veracruz, Monterrey. But this is XETI, Tempoal, Veracruz, 10000/250 watts per IRCA. Cantú shows FM is 90.5.

What means this name, anyway? It`s not just about Veracruz as there are a couple other stations using Huasteca, on 710 in Tamaulipas and 770 in SLP. It`s that very region inhabited by the Huastecans around the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps also referring to their musical style.

900, Feb 16 at 1236 UT, ``88.9 Noticias`` breaking for YL spouting program promo entirely too rapidly for something coming up on Saturday at noon and Sunday at 10 am, then Mexico City traffic (must cover only the very worst accidents in such a megalopolis), `trivia de hoy` segment. Dominant signal, loops SSW, but doubt it`s XEW itself which used to own the frequency. At 1239 I could hear the XEW chimes go by way underneath this mentioning
http://www.889noticias.mx
This certainly originates in Mexico City, on XHM 88.9 by that name, but it`s with Grupo ACIR. Which 900 would be carrying it? Must be OK Noticias, XEOK in Monterrey NL, which Cantú has with that network, altho the 889 website above lacks any affiliate list.

940, Feb 16 at 1301 UT, partial ID mentions Saltillo, Coahuila, grupo sounds like Geni-Radio. Presumably relay by the only Coahuilan on 940, XEYJ, Melchor Múzquiz per Cantú, Nueva Rosita per IRCA, Sabinas per WRTH! But can`t make a connexion with Saltillo in the listings, whence Cantú shows there is a state government network on a bunch of FM stations, Radio Gente.

1030, Feb 16 at 1252 UT, world news headlines by YL with a gunshot or explosion effect between each one, outro as Daniela, 1256 Grupo Fórmula ID, federal PSAs on behalf of the Presidencia which accomplishes great things. 1258, Fórmula 970 program promo, so XEYC Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua again, from WSW.

1040, Feb 16 at 1305 UT, among several Mexican national anthems this one runs the longest, finally sign-on/ID as from Chihuahua, sounded like XEHI, but IRCA says XEHES and so does Cantú:
1040 XEHES Romántica + FM 95.9 Chihuahua, Chih. 5,000 250
and into música romántica en inglés.

1090, Feb 16 at 1245 UT, casual speaker acknowledges his mail from listeners as of Feb 15, mentions UNAM and Universidad Iberoamericana, loops N/S. Suspect it is XEAU Monterrey which runs soundtrack of Milenio TV.

BTW, Jim Thomas, WTFDA found this article: ``For anyone that uses the Mexico FM TV website,
http://www.mexicoradiotv.com
here's an interesting story about Fred Cantú. Fred, of course, is the webmaster and researcher of his website that tracks and organizes everything in Mexico that is AM, FM and TV.``

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/kelso/entries/2012/02/09/_beloved_austin_tv_news.html

It seems Fred, a beloved Austin TX TV anchor (in English), had to work for a while at Home Depot before KEYE rehired him. And every single comment appended is positive, a record? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 6185, Feb 16 at 0617, XEPPM barely has a SAH from VATICAN which collides until 0620, as Eurosigs are propped out; as I tune in, ID however for R. Francia Internacional, as R. Educación is still relaying their Spanish service at 0603-0633 weeknights, defying RFI`s deletion of its own shortwaves in Spanish (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MYANMAR. 7110, Feb 16 at 1153, poor fluttery signal with talk, but mostly music later, from Rakhine station. Ron Howard in California was listening at exactly the same time: ``7110, Myanma Radio, 1149-1206, Feb 16. A Distance Learning Service segment in vernacular and partially in English with a language lesson`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU [and non]. I am unavoidably awake again Feb 16 during the Aroma Café window, so begrudgingly turn on the radio finally at 1124:50, to hear immediately an ID for ``Aroma Café`` and 6:26 timecheck, with the SAH of about 10 Hz, which now must be from the CRI carrier which just came on, but it`s much weaker than usual with hi latitude paths attenuated. After some Andean(?) music, 1129 more announcements, 1130 mixing with the CRI theme. JOZ on 6055 is barely audible, while HCJB is good on 6050. By 1142, CRI is only slightly stronger than ACR as they continue to mix. At 1155 CRI is upwrapping Tagalog, by pronouncing its frequencies in English, ``12.110 MHz`` among others (WRTH shows ``Filipino`` at 1130-1200 on 12110, 12070, 7410, 6060, 1341, plus more at 1200 and 1430). Off at 1157* reuncovering ACR still audible weaker but in the clear (Glenn Hasuer, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 17530 and 15460, Feb 16 at 1326, RRI German service with his peculiar accent, now clearly modulated without the ringing artifacts I have often reported (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SLOVAKIA [non]. 9955, Thu Feb 16 at 1430, R. Eslovaquia Internacional opening the 15 de febrero broadcast in Spanish via WRMI; no jamming, and barely far enough away from WTWW 9990. So it`s 3:30 pm already in Bratislava and they are still running yesterday`s broadcast on their only de facto shortwave frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9990, Feb 16 at 1741, Brother Scare is on big WTWW-2 signal now, presumably all day at least 14-24, then 5085 all night. He`s ahead of himself by 27 seconds on neighboring 9980 WWCR which starts at 1700. Such duplication would seem to be slightly excessive, even for BS? Maybe it`s a face-off to pick which station will give him best results in the long run. Next up, 10000 WWV is a very poor third, with only one twentieth the power of those two combined. More under USA: WTWW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 6875, Feb 16 at 0609, oh oh, RTI relay via WYFR is now in English! This hour had finally reverted to scheduled Spanish on Feb 10 after three+ months in the wrong language, German. The computers must be acting up again at WYFR. What next? Some or all of the other RTI relays may also be in wrong languages.

Propagation disturbed, so this time 6875 was not inbooming but sufficient. Does RTI keep up with what frequencies they are axually on? Of course not! This schedule
http://english.rti.org.tw/info.aspx?pid=63377200539E3F94
however was apparently changed on Dec 11, how so? Nor does it even show which ones are relays and from where.

As I intuned, they were giving website
http://english.rti.org.tw and concluding news with weather and one `Today In History` item, the début of YouTube. 0611 Andrew Ryan introduced the rest of the hour, to contain `Time Traveler`, `Jade Bells & Bamboo Pipes`, but first, `Here In Taiwan` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1604: first broadcast at 0430 UT Thursday Feb 16 confirmed on WRMI webcast, but 9955 totally jammed; tnx a lot, Arnie! Further 9955 times are: Sat 0900, 1600, 1830, Sun 0900, 1630, 1830, Mon 1230. The weekend broadcasts may be audible. Also:

WTWW: Thursday 2200 on 9479, UT Sunday 0500 on 5755.
WBCQ: Thursday 2230 on 7490
WWRB: UT Friday 0430v on 3195
WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1830, Sunday 0930
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. 2500, Feb 16 at 0618, WWV propagation minute says SF=105, A=22,
K@06=0! No spaceweather storms observed in the past 24 hours nor predicted in the next 24. (The next one by e-mail for 0900 is the same except K up to 1.) Hello! Conditions are quite depressed, hi latitude paths missing or very attenuated. Something is going on. The usual signals from Eurafrica are missing on 7 MHz, not even Tunisia 7275 and 7335; WEWN very poor on 7555, and nothing else.

On 6 MHz, 6070 CFRX is inaudible, while 6075 Vatican is only fair at 0642. See also MEXICO, CANADA, PERU.

9 MHz is almost dead, the only significant signal at 0614 being Bonaire on 9865, and it`s very poor instead of inbooming. 

On 11 MHz, the OSOB at 0615 is NZ on 11725, good enough, being trans-equatorial, along with its DRM companion on 13730, while Australia is weaker, poor to fair on 13630 > 13690, 15160 > 15240 and nothing else on those bands (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Looks like WTWW-2 has decided to go with Brother Stair after testing him on Feb 13-14. 5085, Feb 16 at 0605, there he is with good modulation and signal, // but not synchronized with 3185 WWRB, 5890 WWCR. Can`t get enough BS!! By next check 1136, MUF is way down and signal is very poor on 5085 (as is WWCR 4840; other Vols 5755, 5935 are not quite so weak).

At 1400 I try the WTWW-2 daytime frequency 9990, and there it is, now extremely strong with BS; may have just cut on, like 9479 and 12105 do at 1400. There is noise and splatter out to 9970 and 10055 at least, desensitizing the range so what signal there is of WWV 10000 is unreadable. Without measuring, 9990 seems even stronger than 9479. At 1429 I find a noisy blob peaking around 9964, others around 9977, 10003, i.e. at x13 kHz multiples offset from 9990, the same problem they had at the outset. George has shown me a spectrum analyzer shot that the spurs are now within tolerance of minus 55 dB, i.e. only a few watts, but the fundamental is super-strong here so I hear them. He also suspects my receiver is at fault, so are others not getting any such spurs?

FCC has still not put up a second version of the original B11 schedule dated 27 Oct at
http://transition.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/B11FCC01.TXT

FCC does not make distinxions between multiple transmitters at any station but we know these apply to WTWW-2, and still shows the former frequency 5080:
5080   0000 1100  WTWW  100   180  11-15  1234567   301011 250312
9990   1100 2400  WTWW  100   180  11-15  1234567   301011 250312

0000 is likely the changeover time from 9990 to 5085 as per recent tests, but I expect the change from 5085 to 9990 is later than 1100.
The signal is so huge here that you`d never imagine it`s on the rhombic aimed due south instead of due west.

Neither the Overcomer Ministry nor the WTWW.us website schedules show this usage yet. I compared the WTWW feed to that on WWRB 9385, and found WTWW brings you Brother Scare first! By 29 seconds. I expect WWRB is taking an internet feed; audio is better too on WTWW. More at SOUTH CAROLINA [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9330-CUSB, Feb 16 at 1212 poor signal with open carrier, no doubt WBCQ; next check 1316 it`s modulating with Bible study from GFRN/R211 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 17510, Feb 16 at 1325, ``Blessèd Assurance`` fair signal on pan flute, segué to orchestral ``Mighty Fortress``, so it`s YFR relay, listed as Bengali via Wertachtal, GERMANY (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 9530, Feb 16 at 1145, continuous 1 kHz tone (not a het, as peaked at 9529 and 9531), and same at 1152 on 9460. 9530 is supposed to have VOA Chinese via Tinang before and after 1200, so maybe this is part of the ChiCom jamming. 9460 is scheduled with CRI English to start at 1200 via EAST TURKISTAN, per Aoki, also with VOR Irkutsk before 1200 per HFCC. Maybe from none of these. At 1210, now there`s a tone on 9450, mixing with some talk, where nothing but VOR Russian via Irkutsk is listed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)