lunedì 21 maggio 2012

Glenn Hauser logs May 19-20, 2012

** BRAZIL. 6180, May 20 at 0511, RNA is off again, no loss, since 11780 is still on. UT Sunday had been the one day when both would run all-night. Now they both do every night, except when one is missing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. Another big sporadic-E opening, with the 6m ham band map from DX Sherlock showing lots of transcontinental paths, centred around Kansas City, May 19 at 2130, so I start watching channel 2 analog, with antenna first aimed south, and at 2143 start to see some video. At 2152, BELL MEDIA is seen on the screen, hardly Spanish or Mexican, so rotate to NNE where it`s probably coming from instead of Mexico all the time. Signals in and out with CCI, mostly out. 2210 some ad peaks about Top Grain.

2212 on 2, Family Guy, toon with dog seen on Fox in US (but also syndicated, I assume), peaks north, presumably a Canadian
2214 on 3, basketball game, with CCI
2225 on 5, basketball here too; not on 3 at same time if //

2240 on 2, Global newscast with brunette(!) YL anchor at center of screen, moved to viewer`s left when grafix appear. International stories. Constant small rectangular bug in LR, hard to make out, but perhaps weather warning map. Includes a lake which looks like Lake Winnipeg, or maybe smaller but similar Lake Manitoba depending on scale. Since this peaks north, I am confident it is one of my common catches, CKND2 in Manitoba. Later there was a story captioned from AB = Alberta.

2300, Es mostly gone; 2350 a brief resurgence, again May 20 UT at 0130, 0140 (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. More dead air, this time the scheduled VIETNAM relay via Sackville: 9555, May 20 at 0508 when they are usually playing some nice Vietnamese music, just open carrier except for a brief spurt of modulation at 0513, then continued dead until 0529:27* without even a BaBcoCk music IS. Previous frequency 6175 was OK before 0430.

More2 dead air, this time the VATICAN relay via Sackville on 13730, May 20 at 1158-1215:24*. There has been some question whether English at 1200 is every day or never on Sunday as in WRTH update. Well, Sackville kept the transmitter on anyway, just in case. Had the 1130 Spanish just ended as I intuned, or was it DA too? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 21480, May 20 at 0412, CCCCCI, i.e. ChiCom Chinese language co-channel interference mixing with another station, i.e. R. Free Asia in Mandarin via TINIAN. One of them cuts off at 0458* while the weaker one continues until 0500*. My guess is that RFA went off first, about to make a frequency change. At 0500, 21580 and stronger 21710 are now on, // but a few syllables out of synch, typical deliberate offset by Tinian to even out power consumption. // stronger 17855 via SAIPAN sibling even further out of synch (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake May 20, before 1300:
17250, JBA at 1237
16920, good at 1236
16700, very poor at 1237 with flutter
15970, very good at 1232
15940, very good at 1232
15900, very good at 1232
15545, poor at 1232 with additional noise jamming
14700, very poor at 1235
13970, very good at 1235
12230, poor at 1235
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. Ever a source of anomalies: 9790, May 20 at 0509, CRI relay transmitter via Habana is still on with dead air except for hum. Seems they never turn it off promptly at 0500. Still burning the kW at 0518 while Cubans go hungry.

6000, May 20 at 0512, more slipshod operation at RadioCuba, with RHC English still here instead of 6125 which is supposed to be on after 0500. Also on // 6010 and weaker 6050, 6060. Still the same at 0540!

11840, May 20 at 0516, RHC Spanish is still going after nominal 0500*, and still2 at 0529.

15340, May 20 at 1403, open carrier/dead air from RHC, still at 1409, finally comes on around 1417. All the other frequencies from 9 to 17 MHz were properly modulated (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA. 15190, May 20 at 1537, assertive gospel huxter in English on poor signal, presumed R. Africa at this hour with IRRS/Romania finished (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, May 20 at 0407, IGIM is on early/late in Arabic talk, squeezed between stronger 7240 DW Rwanda and 7250 Vatican, surely 250, not 10 kW as in HFCC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 6185, May 20 at 0406, XEPPM, poor signal in Spanish with SAH, CCI from presumed Vatican, unreadable. ACI not much of a problem, no Brasil on 6180, but something else, presumed DW RWANDA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MYANMAR [and non]. 7110, May 20 at 1208, bits of music still making it thru, but not much longer, and no way we will hear the 1430 English this far into the dayside until winter if it still exist then. SS SSB ham was right on frequency too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. Lots of dead air lately: including 6195, BONAIRE, May 20 at 0405, big S9+22 signal with no RNW Spanish modulation as scheduled. Remaining days are numbered, and they miss an opportunity! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 21510, May 19 at 2130, RRI amid the Spanish hour, good signal to S America, and can also hear some of those strange audio artifacts on the sidebands which used to bother their German service in the B-season (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [and non]. 11880, Sunday May 20 at 1315 I tune in to enjoy world-music show `Mundofonías` from REE COSTA RICA relay, but cut off the air at 1316, power failure? Much weaker // 11815 also missing, just NHK Japanese. 11880 back on at 1318, announcing a semi-Palestinian about to guitar bulerías; still no 11815 at 1320, and at 1321*, 11880 off again, *1325:30 on again. Direct signals were too weak on 21610, 21540 still mixed with Kuwait, and 17595 taking Sunday morning off. I give up; anyhow, at 1330 it`s time for new series of `Tracks Ahead` on OETA, and a breakfast of freshly-fallen apricots from our #1 tree, only a few of which are wormy. The `cot season is early this year (who needs Twitter?) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9990, May 19 after 1500, WTWW-2 was back on the air with Ted Randall at the Dayton Hamvention, but recheck at 1830 it was already off. Supposed to be at 15-19. However, 9479, WTWW-1 was now running Ted Randall at his usual time on Saturdays 18-20, so no need for both of them to be running. One more live broadcast is on his website, Sunday May 20 at 15-17 UT on 9990.

5755 was missing May 20 at 0400 instead of WORLD OF RADIO, and still missing before 1300, but day frequency 9479 was on at 1310 check.

Meanwhile, found big open carrier on 9990, May 20 at 1217, but no 5755 or 9479 or 12105. 9990 must be WTWW-2, but no show at 1536 when it was supposed to be on for one more live Ted Randall broadcast from Dayton at 15-17. Still nothing at final check 1653. These were also supposed to be on 9330 WBCQ, but if on, it was too weak to discern (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7490, May 20 at 0408, usual canned sign-off by Allan Weiner on WBCQ, but at odd time. The only Saturday show on 7490, `I Sing` from Rod Hembree`s evangelical network, is scheduled 1900-0400 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1617 monitoring: WBCQ 5110v-CUSB airing confirmed on webcast at nominal time UT Saturday May 19 at 0130-0159. WTWW 5755 airing missed, as off the air at 0400 UT Sunday May 20! And 5755 still off during the next hour. Meanwhile there was some utility hash circa 5760.

What else can one listen to instead? 9955, WRMI, Jeff White with `Wavescan` at 0409, fair with pulse jamming; 9825, WHRI, Chris, Lobdell, pirating with Cumbre, very good signal at 0409. Marie said no new DWC show this week, but not an evergreen either as a log was quoted from April 22.

Try again for WOR on WRMI, Sunday May 20 at 1532: nothing but a JBA carrier; hope it`s making it to the Caribbean/S America. Repeats at 1730, Monday 0500, 1130 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9955, May 20 at 1406, WRMI poor with Jeff White voicing `Wavescan` vs lite pulse jamming, and fast SAH. During this semihour only now, allowed to collide with KTWR Guam, per Aoki in Yui language on Sundays, other days Cantonese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15550-USB, WJHR has been missing. It`s at a distance where it doesn`t always propagate well to here, but even when nearby WEWN is inbooming on 15610/15615 with sporadic E help, not hearing anything on 15550 May 19. Also absent May 20 at 1532, 1654 when WEWN and WWCR 15825 were inbooming at similar distances (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9370, WTJC has been missing. For quite a while modulation level had been very low, but not distorted or squeezing out spurs. It`s definitely absent May 20 at chex: 0507, 1220, 1405, 1533. Comparing to WBCQ 9330: usually it`s well heard, but very poor at 1533 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7555, May 20 at 0510 check, WEWN is on with very good signal in Spanish; you never know whether it will be or not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 13570, May 20 at 1202, since it`s Sunday, WINB already on  this frequency with YL gospel huxter, constant carrier wobble (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7490, May 20 at 1213, WWCR-2 usual excellent signal with YL gospel huxter, but some other modulation too underneath her, soon verified as // DGS on WWCR-3, 13845. After all these years, WWCR still hasn`t isolated its transmitters and antennas one from another. Website now shows June 4 as the effective date for frequency schedule changes until August 31. The only difference is that WWCR-1 will stay on 6875 one hour longer before changing to 3215, at 0200 instead of 0100 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [ non]. 17605, May 20 at 1327, YFR Burmese again, very good signal, I find hard to believe is really 100 kW, 131 degrees via Tashkent, UZBEKISTAN as in HFCC, Aoki, EiBi. Aha, WRTH A-12 supplement shows this as KCH instead = PRIDNESTROVYE, which is somewhat more believable. Much stronger than e.g. 17705 Saudi, and nothing much from Iran 17550 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7210-LSB, May 20 at 1211, unmistakable voice of Nelson Roig, N1NR in Pennsylvania, no ID needed, as he remarx in Spanish that he was divorced 17 --- no, 19 years ago due to a ``reflexión de personalidades``. Perhaps his wife had enough of his anti-Castro ranting all the time, however justified (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15660 at 1925 UT May 19, very strong signal, two guys with African language, huge crowd roars, football? special, from where? Nothing listed at this hour in HFCC, Aoki or EiBi. Channel Africa does use 15660 at 15-16 in Swahili. BBC?

I posted this immediately on the dxldyg and several members began monitoring too. Mark Davies in Wales identified the game as the important Bayern Munich v Chelsea, at half time 1938. Jorge Freitas stayed with it, and also found the same game in English on BBC 15400, and in Arabic on 15640. He says 15660 went off without ID at 2153, but came back on in English at 2155, now definitely BBC with news at 2201; for how much longer?

I checked periodically: 15660 at 1957, thought I heard a mention of ``Radio Freedom`` and Nigeria. Went right past 2000, and 2100 with no discernible IDs. Seems soccer fans are constantly screaming, since goals are so rare. At 2129 mentioned Chelsea. Now at 2130 I could hear some lite humbuzz on 15660, a signature of ASCENSION. 15400 had been audible more poorly earlier as per Jorge Freitas tip, but not heard any more.

Wish I could recognize Somali easily, but we know BBC does a lot of sports in Somali earlier on Saturdays. Website makes a big deal of this game but nothing about 15660 or any SW to be found at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/somali/war/2012/05/120519_championship.shtml
Contrastingly, not much about it on the BBC Hausa site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)