martedì 13 marzo 2012

Glenn Hauser logs March 11-12, 2012

** CHINA. Firedrake March 12:
11500, fair with flutter at 1316; no others 12-17 MHz
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 6855, March 12 at 0326, 5-digit Spanish YL numbers, with continuous whine which surges during pauses, suppressed when enumerating.

Dentro-Cuban jamming command is more out of whack than usual, not adjusting for DST in the USA.

Cuba was recently listed at timeanddate.com to go on DST a week later, March 18, but now
http://timeanddate.com/news/time/cuba-starts-dst-2012.html
reports that April 1 is the start date, until November 11; ``However, Cuban authorities have been known to alter DST dates on short notice.`` Whenever it happens, that will confuse RHC scheduling, and don`t expect the jamming to be any more accurate.

9885, March 12 at 1304, wall-of-noise jamming against nothing, since VOA Spanish has moved an hour earlier to 12-13, for the convenience of Washingtonians, hardly for that of any listeners abroad. Also no VOA Spanish signals on 13750 at 1318 or 15590 at 1321, presumably also finished by 1300.

Or canceled? Current HFCC registrations by IBB show the frequencies known to be VOA Spanish as expiring March 10, but no replacements one hour earlier after then, as normally the case. This should also affect the weeknight Spanish broadcast which has been at 0030-0200 UT Tue-Sat  on 12000, 9885, 5890, moving to 2330-0100, all of this needing confirmation. See also USA: WOR/WRMI.

As for RHC, today`s anomaly: 13670 is missing at 1407, while 13780 and the others are on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUAM. 11580, March 12 at 1403, something in Korean, hymn, i.e. KTWR as scheduled until 1500 on weekdays. WWCR might have blocked it, but not: see U S A (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUATEMALA. 4055, March 12 at 0323, R. Truth is in English asking for reports to P O Box 5, Chiquimula, and ``now enjoy our beautiful songs``. Sunday-night sign-off is circa 0400, and English is also earlier than usual 0500 block on weekdays. Clicking on programación at
http://www.radioverdad.org we are sidetracked to an iLivid .exe download device. I don`t want it! Why should we need this for a mere text schedule?? Is this deliberate by R. Verdad? Anyhow the Sunday (UT Monday) schedule as of © 2009 claims they are also on until 0600, but not so:

03:00 - 04:00 Himnos Espirituales (en Inglés)
04:00 - 04:15 Volviendo a Jesús (en Español)
04:15 - 05:00 Himnos Espirituales (Español)
05:00 - 05:30 Himnos Espirituales (Inglés)
05:30 - 05:45 Volviendo a Jesús (Inglés)
05:45 - 06:00 Himnos Espirituales (Inglés)
06:00 - 06:05 Clausura: Momento Cívico
Maybe their webcast stays on after SW goes off early? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ITALY [non]. 15190, March 12 at 1441, Brother Scare is very poor but still there via IRRS via ROMANIA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO [and non]. 580, March 12 at 0601 UT, ``La Rancherita del Aire`` full ID with an FM ending in .7, i.e. XEMU Piedras Negras, Coahuila, strong enough vs WIBW in the opposite direxion.

720, March 12 at 0235 UT, auroral conditions facilitate XEDE Saltillo, Coahuila to continue dominating frequency vs little if anything from WGN. Usual automated music format with time check, ``La Kaliente`` and temperature at every break. 780 also had an XE rather than WBBM; at 0240, 890 dominated by ``La Nueva Radio Cristiana``, i.e. cheater KVOZ Laredo. Is this OK with God?

830, March 12 at 0239 UT, Mexican music, rather than WCCO, too far up into the auroral zone; 0300 ID as Radio Capital, 25 mil watts, i.e. XEITE México DF which is supposed to cut to only 5 mil at night

1090, March 12 at 0245 UT, M&W in Spanish from SSW, 0247 discussing Real Madrid (do they really care about Spanish soccer in México?), 0259 break as ``Milenio Noticias``, ``Milenio Televisión`` no radio ID, but it`s XEAU Monterrey carrying this TV soundtrack, supposed to be 250 watts night, 5000 day. Heavy IBOC noise from KRLD 1080 avoided by tuning to 1088 (yes, toward KRLD, since the IBOC peaks around 13 kHz above and below the center channel). (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MYANMAR. 7110, March 12 at 1307, the most reliable yet most mysterious Myanmarianese signal is fairly strong with music, but more fluttery than usual. Since I have no further details, I add this from checking the globe: great circle path to Enid crosses Ulan Bator, tangents 77 degrees north over the Arctic Ocean NW of Alaska, and does not enter North America until near Tuktut Nogait National Park, NWT. This is an all-darkness path except for sunrise here 21 minutes earlier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. 15120, March 11 at 1903, zero signal from VON, aside VG REE 15125 via Costa Rica. Wonder if they will ever get their act together on a reliable schedule with new Abuja facility, which is to be inaugurated officially March 13?

Now with DST imposed, I am forced to monitor a real hour earlier before bedtime, i.e. around 05-06 instead of 06-07 UT. March 12 at 0519, VON 15120 is S9+15, the SSOB by far, way above VOA-15580, BBC-15400, RHC 15230, with news about Afghanistan in ``half hour news magazine``. With whine and overmodulation, wobbly carrier, but right on 15120.0, obviously the old Ikorodu transmitter. (Wolfgang Büschel has measured the new Abuja one, despite its improvement in all other ways, as off-frequency to the low side.) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NORTH AMERICA. 6925-USB, March 12 at 0326, pirate Red Mercury Labs, and since he announced e-mail of redmercurylabs @ yahoo.com I sent this report immediately:

``Hi Red, Ran across your signal for the first time. Inbooming to Enid OK, UT Monday March 12 at 0326 on 6925-USB. You were talking about being able to run 10 kW but only 100 watts now. Trimming your dipole to 1/8 inch. Wondering what would happen on Dec 21, 2012. E-mail address. Changed to a different power source. 0331 back to music, ``I`m Still Alive``.

On FRG-7 with 110 foot e-w longwire, I had to max attenuate (local) to avoid pumping. S9+15 peaks or so on meter without att. However, got weaker after the music, fading down. Did not hear you mention QSL, but if you do so, would appreciate one by e, or by p to

Glenn Hauser
P O Box 1684
Enid OK 73702

Tnx and 73, hope to hear you again.``

No reply yet and no bounce either. What`s wrong with Google searching now? even tho I put ``red mercury`` in proper quotes it displays nothing but all kinds of results on the words red and mercury individually. This has been reported a few times since last September, most recently by Brian Alexander 23 hours earlier when it was on 6935 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. 17595, March 12 at 1323 and later chex, REE is back on proper frequency instead of 17795 yesterday; only fair signal with conditions from Europe still much below normal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TUNISIA. 17735, March 11 at 1953, IWT is poorly audible with Arabic music, seems // JBA 12005; 1959 ID and talk, 2003 mixing in music (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1160, March 12 at 0250 UT, KSL is still getting IBOC QRM, but not from KFAQ 1170. The noise peaks E/W as if it were from 1170, but there isn`t any on 1180+, nor is there any strong signal on 1150 E/W which might cause it (KSAL dominates N/S). The noise seems to spread 3 kHz on both sides of 1160 itself. I continue to wonder if KSL`s own IBOC is way out of adjustment. Who cares in SLC, where they can hear it on FM? Barry`s roster of IBOC,
http://topazdesigns.com/iboc/station-list.html
shows nothing at all from 1150, and off both 1170s, KFAQ and WWVA (not that we would ever hear WWVA beyond Tulsa) (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1607 monitoring: UT Monday March 12 at 0525, 9955 WRMI has nothing but wall-of-noise jamming, when WOR should now have shifted to 0500-0530. Tnx a lot, Arnie! The stupid DentroCuban Jamming Command hasn`t shifted for DST, which puts Radio Libertad at 04-05 instead of 05-06, and anyway it was Never on Sundays, but only UT Tue-Sat. All Arnie has to do is check the WRMI program grid to find when he really needs to jam it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5085, March 12 at 0310, WTWW-2 Brother Scare very strong, and with weak crosstalk from some other program. Since I can still hear it with maximum attenuation, and off-tuning the preselector on the FRG-7, I don`t think it`s receiver-produced. No match with WTWW-3 on 5755, nor with WWCR on 4840 or 5935, so may axually come out of Walterboro feed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5446.5-USB, AFN Florida, UT Monday March 12 at 0544 I am hoping to hear Jim Hightower one UT hour earlier than he has been, but instead at 0544 `Our Ocean World` is ending, and then tips on picking out pineapples (should be yellow on the bottom). Checking the extensive AFN schedule at
http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/AFNRadio.aspx
we find a match under the 2100 US Pacific Time Mon-Thu batch, i.e.:
42:30 Our Ocean World
44:00 Food in a Flash

But these were heard in the 2200 PDT hour and it`s Sunday local! Seems the AFN schedule is out of whack even tho it`s presented in local time rather than UT. 0545 UT followed with something about Ipads, consumer advice? Not Huckabee as on the schedule to follow Food in a Flash.

And altho there is a separate block for Friday, there are NO listings for this 2100 PT hour on Sat or Sun! A previous search for Hightower could not find him at 0644-0646 UT weeknights when we had really been hearing him, nor any other time on AFN. MAYBE, Hightower will start showing at 0544 on UT Tue-Fri or -Sat? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 11580, as we have been reporting, WWCR-4 was testing this frequency for several weeks, M-F at 15-17 without ever putting it on their schedule. With DST now in effect, this might have changed to 14-16, except that would conflict with KTWR Guam in Korean until 15 on weekdays. No WWCR heard on 11580 March 12 before or after 1500. Not on 9980 either, but maybe opening an hour earlier now at 1600, unchecked.

They have now put up three transmitter schedules at
http://www.wwcr.com/transmitter-sched.html
the one just expired, the B-11 ``final leg DST``, and even the A-12 effective from March 25.

This shows they have already activated new 6875 for WWCR-1 during the shoulder-hours, 09-11 and 21-01 between 3215 and 15825 usages. And still nothing about 11580 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. VOA Spanish shifted, or canceled? See CUBA [and non]

** VATICAN. 5885, March 12 at 0312, something is here, very poor talk vs huge WWCR 5890; LSB helps a little. I was thinking there used to be an Argentine feeder here, so could it be Spanish? No, and it`s on AM anyway. 5885 used to be a major frequency of Vatican Radio, until they managed to inherit the preferable inband channel abandoned by Deutsche Welle, 6075.

Uplooked later, this is the only remnant of SMG on 5885, one semi-hour daily of IBB`s Afia Darfur service in Arabic/Sudanese, 250 kW, 146 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. 7198-LSB, March 12 at 0530 I am getting I2VRN, Roberto in northern Italy with good signal, contacting K5MVP in Mississippi and numerous other North Americans. This should be a good night for catching Vatican Garden`s much more powerful 10 kW transmitter on 7250 which is scheduled at 0540-0630 in French and English, aimed USward at 340 degrees, right??? Not a trace of even a carrier, at several chex from 0540 onward such as 0546, 0602. Is it really even on the air??

I2VRN: ROBERTO VERANI, VIA PAGLIARI BIVIO 6, I-26049 STAGNO, LOMBARDO, CREMONA, Italy per QRZ.com (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15435-, the carrier I have been hearing, hetting 15435 stations to the tune of B or B-flat, is still there later in the day, and apparently coming from a local still unID device, even when the computers are off. Never mind (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)