lunedì 12 marzo 2012

Glenn Hauser logs March 9-10, 2012

** BRAZIL. 9675-, March 10 at 0633, Brazilian talk, mentioning glória de deus, canned ID for ``Rede Canção Nova de rádio``; good S9+20 signal but modulation somewhat muffled. Slightly on low side.

9819.56 approx., March 10 at 0635, R. Nove de Julho, with music making an A-pitch het with BFO on 9820.0.

A relatively good Brazilian nightmiddle on 31m, those two the best, but others audible on 9565 // 11765 with Miranda, 9645++ // 11925+ with Bandeirantes talk.

At 1015 after the non-Chicago MW DX session, 6180 RNA was still in with good signal, lite fading, in talk about the Amazon river, but inaudible on // 11780 with 25m quite dead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 530, while up for the Chicago-nontime, checked again for R. Enciclopedia: March 10 at 0827 UT, nothing heard, then 0832 some JBA music, much weaker than 570 Reloj; 0932 some EZL cinemusic, reached fair signal, so apparently it is still there at reduced power.

670, R. Rebelde, and its presumed relay outside Habana off-frequency 671 making constant het during WSCR downtime; the two null at the same point from here, conveniently. Nothing else but KBOI heard with DX test minutes. At 1002 with WSCR back on, Rebelde network was starting a new broadcast day originating remotely from Manzanillo (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ITALY [non]. 15190, Saturday March 10 at 1505, there is still a very poor signal here with normally-intoned talk, not frothy Brother Scare Sabbath as on 9385, 9980, 9990. BS dropped IRRS earlier this week, but apparently they are still running the transmitter in Romania with something else. Propagation is still quite attenuated. At 1550, still JBA carrier but no DRM from Vatican 1530-1600 detectable; or indistinguishable from general noise level.

I see that IRRS has finally updated their program schedule as of March 6, now showing for Saturday nothing on 15190, just ``13:45 Streaming News and features from our studio`` until 19:00 CET, i.e. 1245-1800 UT. On Sundays it belatedly does show:
``16:00 Streaming English UL - Universal Life`` until 16:30 CET, i.e. 1500-1530 UT, but without any frequency --- that too had been on 15190 the last few weeks, so will it be gone from SW too?

Checking each day of the week, NO SW frequencies at all are shown for Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu, except: 
Wednesday: ``09:00 Streaming + 11190 kHz Italian EGR - La Buona Novella`` i.e. 0800-0830 UT, obviously a typo for 11910!

And on Friday: ``16:00 Streaming + 11910 kHz Arabic EGR - Arab Women Today`` i.e. 1500-1515 UT, which has been on 15190: is that really moving to 11910??

Overcomer is not mentioned anywhere, any day on the IRRS schedule now. But its homepage
http://www.overcomerministry.org still includes as of March 10: ``FAR EAST 15190 13-15:00 UTC Daily`` which is unbelievable, as there are also obvious mistakes in the times for various US stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NIGERIA. 15120, March 9 at *1900 sharp, VON pops on the air no doubt from new Abuja transmitter. Tnx to tip from Chris Lewis in England yesterday, I had been monitoring from 1855, but zero signal on the frequency. Presumably had been running much weaker old Ikorodu transmitter as usual, which Chris heard overridden by the new one from 1857 March 8.

Propagation still severely degraded, as WWV reported at 1800:
``Solar-terrestrial indices for 08 March follow.
Solar flux 140 and estimated planetary A-index 24.
The estimated planetary K-index at 1800 UTC on 09 March was 5.

Space weather for the past 24 hours has been strong.
Geomagnetic storms reaching the G3 level occurred.
Solar radiation storms reaching the S3 level occurred.
Radio blackouts reaching the R2 level occurred.

Space weather for the next 24 hours is predicted to be moderate.
Geomagnetic storms reaching the G2 level are expected.
Solar radiation storms reaching the S2 level are expected.
Radio blackouts reaching the R2 level are expected.``

I heard an immediate YL announcement in English and music, but still very poor signal, and unlistenable. Should be much better once propagation recovers, altho probably not aimed USward but at this hour rather to Europe or parts of Africa. (Besides, this is the don`t-miss hour for NPR`s Talk of the Nation - Science Friday, this week about gorillas vs humans and other apes, sense of taste relation to smell, and exercise changing DNA in muscles.)

VON was weaker than adjacent 15125 REE/Costa Rica, and much weaker than 15110 REE direct. Also with a better signal from Africa was 15580, 100 kW, 350 degrees from VOA Botswana until 1930 switch to Bonaire.

Did recheck 15120 at 1930 and it was still too weak, but as far as I could tell modulation was OK, unlike on the old transmitter, altho we suspected the problem there originated at least partly in the studio. Expected it to be going until 2000, but already off/gone at 1956.

Checked 15120 again 24 hours later, March 10: no obvious cut-on at 1900, just a JBA carrier by 1903, but slightly on the low side. Fits with Wolfgang Büschel`s measurement of ``handprint is 15119.871 wandered to 15119.869 kHz at 1950 UT, March 9`` and today it seems to be varying very slightly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15180, March 9 at 2227, WHRI is on and splattering up to 22 kHz either side: not a good time to try to hear Brasil or Equatorial Guinea on 15190! WHR frequency schedule shows 15180 is Angel-6, M-F 16-24, Sat/Sun 14-24. However, we only hear it on Fridays. The vast majority of this time is imaginary, since it is unsold and they don`t waste the watts SW broadcasting the various WHR fill programs.

But Fri at 2200-2300 they axually sell the time to `Warning` with Jonathan [sic] Hansen. Looking thru the entire program schedule, it appears the only other times when they might need to turn on 15180 would be Sat 2215-2230 and Sun 1800-1830. FCC B-11 listings are a bit more realistic:
15180 2200 2300 WHRI 100 315 2,3 1234567 301011 250312
i.e. only during that one hour, but even that is excessive as it`s NOT on the air Mon-Thu, and not sure yet about Sat & Sun (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1607 monitoring: while last week the new time on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB turned out to be 0204 UT Saturday, this week March 10, the preceding live `Allan Weiner Worldwide` ran much later, so WOR did not start until 0222 on webcast, i.e. sometime during 0221 on SW, then confirmed with poor signal here, plus atmosferix. From next week due to the imposition of DST, this will vary after 0100 UT Saturdays, suddenly with an hour less of darkness on the path.

WRMI airings: confirmed on webcast of 9955, Saturday after 1600; also 1830, Sunday after DST changes at 0800, 1530, 1730, Monday 0500, 1130.

WTWW 5755: UT Sunday 0500 this week, 0400 from next week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. After the non-Chicago MW DX session, checked SW March 10 at 1012. Madrugada MUF had really fallen, abetted by geomag storms and K index of 3 at 0900, so even the Tennesseans were losing out here a megameter away: 3185 poor, (3215 already off), 4840 JBA, 5085 absent to maybe JBA, 5755, 5890 and 5935 very poor (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1660, March 10 at 1022, Mexican music making fast SAH with another station talking in English; 1024 super-hype voice actor (SHVA) with ``más música``, 1031 announcement giving an 801-area code phone, and romantic music, clinching this as KXOL Brigham City UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Here's a spectrogram I made of Glenn Hauser's recording of the KRPI DX test. As you can see, the morse code was alternating between a 1 kHz tone and a 1.5 kHz tone.
http://mesamike.org/radio/mwdx/pics/Huaser-KRPI_Test.PNG
(Mike Westfall, Los Alamos, NM, March 9, ABDX via DXLD)

** U S A [and non]. Here`s my log of the tri-station Chicago downtime monitoring March 10, all in UT. Times could be off by less than a minute, going only by the clock on the radio displaying no seconds. All logged on the DX-398 handheld with internal antenna only, inside, on AC power. All of this I write before reading what anyone else has reported.

670, 720 and 780 are all still going past 0800, but:

670:
WSCR is first to go off, by 0804 as I tune back after checking the other frequencies. Missed any courtesy announcement. This leaves the Cubans on 670 and 671 dominating the frequency, which are too close to opposite from Idaho to null for expected KBOI test; but at least the two Cubans do give a sharp null at the same point in case anything else show up. But nothing ever does.

0807, I hear 4 or 5 sweeps and some Morse code, but uncopied. Must be the KBOI test as scheduled anyway. Better at 0810-0811 unscheduled time, with 4 or 5 sweeps, code vs Cuba.

0837, I am all set for the only expected repeat of the DX test, and this time there is an obvious power up/non-direxional switch as promised, since the CMs suddenly have a big SAH and confront easily audible ``KBOI BOISE IDAHO`` in code twice, hi pitch, then lo pitch, plus two upward sweeps. A bit of unidentified music, then repeated same ID in hi, lo pitches, and concludes with five sweeps before disappearing by 0839.

Thanks, Bill Frahm for doing this and Scott Fybush for arranging it! I think I have heard KBOI in the distant past before their direxional pattern change, but ex-KBOI-TV channel 2 much more often. I get this recorded, a bit too loud, but no doubt about the ID following a bit of the music:
http://www.w4uvh.net/KBOIdx.rm

WSCR is the last of the three to come back on air, at 1002 just in time for a testosterone-supplement commercial.

720:
WGN goes off at 0806 after referring to their webcast, and Mexican music immediately takes over and dominates the frequency for most of the next two hours. Can`t null it completely, but at minimum signal angle, still can`t hear anything from KOTZ Kotzebue AK, supposed to run DX test at 0900-0930, checking frequently during this semihour. Except: at 0905 maybe some code, but more likely a momentary similar musical beat from the Mexican.

At first I think the Mexican is KSAH, San Antonio which I have blamed for spoiling WGN reception when I am trying to listen to `Extension 720` (we are close, but usually not close enough to what should be KSAH`s null toward Chicago); however, now it`s really XEDE, and no trace of KSAH. Most of their pieces are only 2 or 3 minutes long, with automated time and temp between each. As soon as music stops, TC by OM, just with the numbers such as at 0813, ``dos, doce``, next music already starts up making it hard to copy the rest of the break, but at 0844 it`s super-hype ``Kaliente`` and then YL with temp ``6 grados centígrados``, hearing that numerous times more such as 0824, 0842, 0912; after 0900 it has plunged to 5 degrees. XEDE runs full canned IDs with SFX near the hour and half hour, such as at 0858 and 0930 mentioning Saltillo, with their full address in Colonia Universitaria.

At times with XEDE fading a bit I can hear some talk in English in its null: 0819 political call-in; 0938-0946, best at 0942 with a phone number, SAH of 160/minute = 2 and 2/3 Hz, probably KDWN, Las Vegas NV. 

At 0951, WGN is first to resume but open carrier only, making heavy SAH of 200/minute with XEDE = 3 and 1/3 Hz (in Nov 2010 I had counted the KSAH SAH with WGN as 4 Hz); WGN starts modulating at 0959, but nulled, can still hear full ID for ``XEDE-AM, 8 mil watts de potencia ... 720 kHz ... Colonia Universitaria, Saltillo, Coahuila``. 8 kW? IRCA shows 5/0.25 kW; WRTH and Cantú do show 8/0.25. No way it was on nite power.

780:
At 0805, WBBM is second to go off, forwarding listeners to their FM 105.9, and promising to come right back on if there is any emergency. 780 is then mostly occupied by techno music, presumably XEWGR, Exa FM in Monclova, Coahuila, as recently logged with WBBM on; this is not as dominant as XEDE is on 720; at 0816, it has some CCI, maybe another Mexican; 0846 there is some JBA talk with XE nulled. 0909, XEWGR goes into a fade and some other YL is talking in Spanish, 0911, music fades back up to mix and overtake. By 0947, WBBM is first to come back with news. (It was the instigator of this outage, and its neighbors had to go off for safety reasons.) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 990, March 10 at 0852 UT, talkhost condemning Santorum for his religion-über-alles views, good dominant signal looping E-W or so (and no CBW N/S, but something Spanish), 0855 fade but caught ID as Phil Hendrie Show, who converses with himself. Affiliate list
http://www.philhendrieshow.com/stations/category/tennessee
has a fit for KWAM Memphis TN which is supposed to be 450 watts night, 10 kW day. I ruled out a few other possibilities without checking every single state for another 990 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6925+, March 10 at 0641, very weak AM pirate, sounds like Zydeco music, 0645 another song including ``Sweet Alice`` lyrix, fading out soon after, or off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)