** AUSTRALIA. 9580, Tuesday Aug 21 at 1322, R. Australia, interviewing head of US National Archives, David Ferriero, about how they decide what to preserve from presidential administrations, more and more stuff thanks to the digital age. RA programs frequently interview Americans, and we are indebted to the Aussies for doing so, a surrogate American station, lacking much any more from VOA and little of a serious objective nature from private US SW stations. Schedule shows this was `Talking Point`, but the RA website won`t link to individual programs properly, and it`s not on the list of ABC Radio National programs as I assumed it would be (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BANGLADESH. 15105, Aug 21 at 1249, Bangladesh Betar very poor with S Asian song, 1250 announcement sounds like English with lilt I can`t really understand; 1251 more songs, 1259 sign-off, 1300 brief tone test and carrier stays on a while longer. Recheck at 1313 as VP carrier with flutter starts playing the BB IS prior to Nepali service. 1330 check, S Asian song.
15505, Aug 21 at 1358 fair signal now with IS, timesignal only 8 sex slow! Opening Urdu. Note that Wolfgang Büschel reports BB has been persuaded to get out of the hamband later, from yesterday 7250 ex-7105 for the 1745-2000 broadcasts in English and Bengali, when of course, we have no chance of hearing it in North America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL [and non]. 4915.0, Aug 21 at 0525, I can hear weak music vs local noise level and CODAR, and frequency matches BBC Arabic 9915.0. This CODAR is at the rate of once per second rather than twice; ``tie me CODARoo down, sport``. 0529 announcement perceptibly in Brazilian accent but too weak to copy; 0533 back to music. There are two active ZYs on 4915, so which is it? Recent reports say R. Daqui is off the air between 03 and 09, while Rdif. Macapá is 24 hours. There was a similarly weak signal from the Brazilian(s) on 4885 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHAD. 6165, Aug 21 at 0502, RNT with heavy-beat music, French announcement, 0506 conversation; no news on the hour at this time. Quite good, better than heard recently around 0530 after fading down. Should be even better around presumed sign-on 0430v (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake August 21, after 1330:
16100, very good at 1332
15495, fair at 1333
14980, very good at 1333
14700, poor at 1333; none in the 13s, 12s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [non]. 13740, Aug 21 at 1447, CRI English via CUBA with usual VG signal for the 14-16 UT relay. Jim, K5JG in the ptsw yg said it was missing Sunday mornings Aug 12 and 19. Could be another anomaly caused by the defunct Aló, Presidente relays formerly at that time, when Cuban SW transmitters had to be reconfigured (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. I have finally figured out the source of all those very weak carriers in the 11.7 MHz range I have been hearing almost every morning for a couple weeks in the 13-15 UT period; and in retrospect it seems obvious: the RHC transmitter on 11760.
11736, 11744, 11752, 11768, 11776 and 11784, Aug 21 at 1314 are all audible either with BFO or as beats with broadcasters on 11735, 11750, 11775, 11785. I had previously measured 11752 as 11751.5, an odd one out, but think I must have miscalculated. This now puts them all at exactly 8 kHz intervals above and below 11760 (where there is no het). That RHC transmitter sounds OK on-frequency.
Just about every imaginable defect has happened at one time or another from RHC, but this is a new one on me, spur carriers at multiples of 8.0 kHz above and below. To make sure, I am monitoring before 1500 when I know 11760 will be going off the air. By this time they are all weakened, but I can still barely hear the very weak 11776 het on Anguilla 11775. Yup, it goes off just after 1500 at the same time carrier cut on 11760. Only one thing doesn`t fit: 11760 is on the air from 1100, but I`ve not heard these before 1300. Maybe the signals haven`t built up to sufficient strength until then? Or there is a transmission change at that time.
RHC uses 11760 at many other dayparts, but have not noticed a constellation of 8 kHz spurs then; may not be there if it`s a different transmitter, but the offending transmitter might also do the same when applied to any other fundamental, so be on the lookout for them (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CYPRUS [and non]. 9345-9370, Aug 21 at 0513, poor signals from lo-pitched OTH radar pulses, presumed from here; they no longer have to worry about QRM from WTJC 9367v, whose license has been surrendered, FCC confirms to me (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, Aug 21 at 0521, no signal from TGAV, Radio Truth/Verdad. This has been highly reliable for many months. Normally on air until about 0610* Hope they have not had a major breakdown again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA [and non]. 7245, Aug 21 at 0508, no signal from IGIM; as we expected, now that Ramadan is over, no longer running all-night. I suppose they may still turn it on at widely variable times closer to 0600. Other African signals were in as usual: South Africa 7230, 7285; Tunisia 7275 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 15180, Aug 21 before 1330 there was something weak here, presumed V. of the Wilderness, the Cornerstone Ministry show from California in Korean, via Sri Lanka as scheduled. After 1330, nothing. On Sundays only this is supposed to last a full hour, but on Aug 19, Mark F. Tattenbaum had an unID with a test transmission in English at 1330 on 15180, asking for reports to testtransmission@gmail.com This address was previously used by BaBcoCk, Woofferton; so check next Sunday. However, the current 15180 transmission via SL is brokered by MBR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MONGOLIA [non]. 12015, Aug 21 at 1407, 1443, nothing but the usual RTTY audible here. Was checking for V. of Mongolia, Chinese at 1430, since Dave Valko`s log on 12085, English at 1030 had CNR1 jamming right after VOM`s only other Chinese broadcast at 1000. So is anyone hearing 12015 with VOM Chinese and/or jamming? It seems the ChiCom are not too happy with their neighbor for allowing R. Free Asia to broadcast from there in Tibetan on 7470, 17730, which of course are also jammed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 91.7, KOSU`s drastic format change went into effect UT Aug 21 at 0000, with The Spy, Oklahoma indie music. No more `Performance Today` classical music (and KCSC-FM OKC tells me they can`t afford to pick it up, at higher rates than KOSU was charged as a mere Stillwater-market station), and no more classical music overnight. The Spy does not appeal to me at all, but spot checks the first evening found talk, talk, talk, about the music scene, I suppose, rather than axual music.
And as I feared, NPR news on the hour has also been dropped. I used to hear it habitually at midnight local, 0500 UT before retiring, but The Spy just kept on going. However, on weekends KOSU had already dropped the midnight news, unwilling to interrupt jazz for it.
I was wondering what kind of financial arrangement KOSU has with The Spy. KOSU Director Kelly Burley even sent me a copy of the contraxual agreement showing there is no exchange of money. KOSU hopes to use these 10 hours per day to build up its listener base and hence ultimately income, and will no longer have to purchase PT and many other expensive public radio programs. Burley`s complete rationale will be in the next DX Listening Digest 12-34.
Here`s the new schedule grid:http://kosu.org/wp-content/themes/KOSU3/images/KOSUProgramGuide2012.pdf
And here`s the old one which I saved, still in effect until Aug 20:http://www.w4uvh.net/KOSUProgramGuide2011.pdf
It seems KOSU has outsourced control of its own website and so far has not been able to remove the old deleted programming shown in the day-by-day listings (Glenn Hauser, Enid, August 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 31-2, KXOK-LD with Mundo Fox on subchannel: watched a while on Aug 20; apparently a movie and it`s all in squeeze-o-vision as the Aspect Ratio Cannot Be Changed On This Channel. And the Mundo Fox circular logo becomes an oval. BTW, no local ID in any form seen at 1700 UT hourtop break between programs, nor elsewhen. Looked for program schedule: not anywhere on the zap2it Suddenlink Enid cable lineup of hundreds of channels including exotic ones.
TitanTV does not have it in the on-air-lineup for Enid (which axually defaults to Oklahoma City, including lots of outlying stations never to be seen inside OKC, but not this. And still has several outdated/inaccurate ones on its roster.)
So I have to go to http://www.mundofox.com There is a drop-down list of cities to ``find you station`` --- no Enid there tho has OKC with KOHC. Found 24h program grid for the network, where I see nothing of interest tho a lot of the titles are unfamiliar, lots of novelas, apparently. Nothing resembling a newscast, fortunately, as Murdoch would turn that into another farce like the Fox `News` Channel. A few titles are in English, perhaps kidvid, but maybe dubbed or subtitled.
What about TV-OK`s website? I don`t seem to have it bookmarked, so googled it: would you believe the top hits don`t go to anything except other sites, mostly directories, mentioning it? Found one item of interest, a 4-year-old animated ID I remember seeing on air, but not lately, posted by its producer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lJxSWxgvk
``Uploaded by sgfx on Dec 2, 2008 --- KXOK is a small broadcast TV station in Enid OK. How Small? The entire station is in one rack mount case in a small 2 room office on the top of Enid's tallest building and was controlled remotely, sometimes via a cell phone. Anyhow this is an Animation I did as their station ID in trade for some unused video equipment. Why the T-38? Vance AFB is just outside of town and they have a ton of these Sexy little T-38 jet trainers flying all over the place.`` [and exhaust falling all over town accounting for sticky dust buildups even inside homes: there`s farmland all around Enid: why do they have to fly over the city, also increasing risk of crashes upon the population?? Some high-risk areas have zoning restrictions to keep down the number of people in the way. I also have to pause WORLD OF RADIO recordings while they roar over. -- gh]
Maybe the outdated wikipedia entry will have a link to its own website? No. It does remind us of the shady history of this station, including a lawsuit by Dr Gene Scott who didn`t appreciate being broadcast over it, ``copyright infringement``. I wonder if Mundo Fox even knows they`re on KXOK? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 10000, Aug 21 before 0518 I am monitoring WWV again 24 hours after I heard them announce time a minute off as 0519: no, not tonight, both WWV and WWVH correct. And propagation report followed on WWV: ``SF 96, Ap 12, K 2 at 03, no, no``. The automation system could surely be blamed for playing the wrong timecheck, while the axual pips remained highly accurate. BTW, there`s been a wildfire in NW Kauai near the WWVH site; note if it become absent. KHON-TV and the Star-Bulletin have had several stories about the fire (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7302-USB, Aug 21 from 1340, Air Force MARS net. NCS is Paul, AFA6BP. He is calling every station on his roster, one by one, and addresses each one of them as ``sir`` (bet he was an NCO). They each report on how well they copied earlier digital transmissions, mostly very well, and often a brief local weather comment. Contacts at the moment are AFA6ZU, and AFA6KJ. Calls are invariably given in proper fonetix, and all in the 6-call area, which does not correspond to ham call areas, i.e. California. Locations seldom referred to, but AFA6DH at 1343 says he is in north Texas; some of them have a different letter than A in the third position. Still going past 1357. Googling finds NCS AFA6BP: TX Hughes Springs 75656. Hughes Springs is a little town near Daingerfield, between Mt Pleasant and Atlanta in the NE corner of Texas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15550-USB, Aug 21 at 1401, music and ``WJHR Radio International`` sign-on after some music, reports to WJHR@usa.com and then `Rock of Ages`, sounds like on banjo et al. 1404 JIP the usual gospel-huxter. No point in listening or logging this except to confirm periodically this useless glorified ham station still exists. I keep expecting some Firedrake jumparound to collide with it, but so far not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9675v, Aug 21 at 0511, tonight`s pitch check between the hetting Brasilian and presumed Peruvian: Bb below middle C = 233 Hz. All I can hear is the het which is much louder than any possible modulation from either station (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BANGLADESH. 15105, Aug 21 at 1249, Bangladesh Betar very poor with S Asian song, 1250 announcement sounds like English with lilt I can`t really understand; 1251 more songs, 1259 sign-off, 1300 brief tone test and carrier stays on a while longer. Recheck at 1313 as VP carrier with flutter starts playing the BB IS prior to Nepali service. 1330 check, S Asian song.
15505, Aug 21 at 1358 fair signal now with IS, timesignal only 8 sex slow! Opening Urdu. Note that Wolfgang Büschel reports BB has been persuaded to get out of the hamband later, from yesterday 7250 ex-7105 for the 1745-2000 broadcasts in English and Bengali, when of course, we have no chance of hearing it in North America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** BRAZIL [and non]. 4915.0, Aug 21 at 0525, I can hear weak music vs local noise level and CODAR, and frequency matches BBC Arabic 9915.0. This CODAR is at the rate of once per second rather than twice; ``tie me CODARoo down, sport``. 0529 announcement perceptibly in Brazilian accent but too weak to copy; 0533 back to music. There are two active ZYs on 4915, so which is it? Recent reports say R. Daqui is off the air between 03 and 09, while Rdif. Macapá is 24 hours. There was a similarly weak signal from the Brazilian(s) on 4885 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHAD. 6165, Aug 21 at 0502, RNT with heavy-beat music, French announcement, 0506 conversation; no news on the hour at this time. Quite good, better than heard recently around 0530 after fading down. Should be even better around presumed sign-on 0430v (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake August 21, after 1330:
16100, very good at 1332
15495, fair at 1333
14980, very good at 1333
14700, poor at 1333; none in the 13s, 12s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [non]. 13740, Aug 21 at 1447, CRI English via CUBA with usual VG signal for the 14-16 UT relay. Jim, K5JG in the ptsw yg said it was missing Sunday mornings Aug 12 and 19. Could be another anomaly caused by the defunct Aló, Presidente relays formerly at that time, when Cuban SW transmitters had to be reconfigured (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. I have finally figured out the source of all those very weak carriers in the 11.7 MHz range I have been hearing almost every morning for a couple weeks in the 13-15 UT period; and in retrospect it seems obvious: the RHC transmitter on 11760.
11736, 11744, 11752, 11768, 11776 and 11784, Aug 21 at 1314 are all audible either with BFO or as beats with broadcasters on 11735, 11750, 11775, 11785. I had previously measured 11752 as 11751.5, an odd one out, but think I must have miscalculated. This now puts them all at exactly 8 kHz intervals above and below 11760 (where there is no het). That RHC transmitter sounds OK on-frequency.
Just about every imaginable defect has happened at one time or another from RHC, but this is a new one on me, spur carriers at multiples of 8.0 kHz above and below. To make sure, I am monitoring before 1500 when I know 11760 will be going off the air. By this time they are all weakened, but I can still barely hear the very weak 11776 het on Anguilla 11775. Yup, it goes off just after 1500 at the same time carrier cut on 11760. Only one thing doesn`t fit: 11760 is on the air from 1100, but I`ve not heard these before 1300. Maybe the signals haven`t built up to sufficient strength until then? Or there is a transmission change at that time.
RHC uses 11760 at many other dayparts, but have not noticed a constellation of 8 kHz spurs then; may not be there if it`s a different transmitter, but the offending transmitter might also do the same when applied to any other fundamental, so be on the lookout for them (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CYPRUS [and non]. 9345-9370, Aug 21 at 0513, poor signals from lo-pitched OTH radar pulses, presumed from here; they no longer have to worry about QRM from WTJC 9367v, whose license has been surrendered, FCC confirms to me (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, Aug 21 at 0521, no signal from TGAV, Radio Truth/Verdad. This has been highly reliable for many months. Normally on air until about 0610* Hope they have not had a major breakdown again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MAURITANIA [and non]. 7245, Aug 21 at 0508, no signal from IGIM; as we expected, now that Ramadan is over, no longer running all-night. I suppose they may still turn it on at widely variable times closer to 0600. Other African signals were in as usual: South Africa 7230, 7285; Tunisia 7275 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KOREA NORTH [non]. 15180, Aug 21 before 1330 there was something weak here, presumed V. of the Wilderness, the Cornerstone Ministry show from California in Korean, via Sri Lanka as scheduled. After 1330, nothing. On Sundays only this is supposed to last a full hour, but on Aug 19, Mark F. Tattenbaum had an unID with a test transmission in English at 1330 on 15180, asking for reports to testtransmission@gmail.com This address was previously used by BaBcoCk, Woofferton; so check next Sunday. However, the current 15180 transmission via SL is brokered by MBR (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MONGOLIA [non]. 12015, Aug 21 at 1407, 1443, nothing but the usual RTTY audible here. Was checking for V. of Mongolia, Chinese at 1430, since Dave Valko`s log on 12085, English at 1030 had CNR1 jamming right after VOM`s only other Chinese broadcast at 1000. So is anyone hearing 12015 with VOM Chinese and/or jamming? It seems the ChiCom are not too happy with their neighbor for allowing R. Free Asia to broadcast from there in Tibetan on 7470, 17730, which of course are also jammed (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 91.7, KOSU`s drastic format change went into effect UT Aug 21 at 0000, with The Spy, Oklahoma indie music. No more `Performance Today` classical music (and KCSC-FM OKC tells me they can`t afford to pick it up, at higher rates than KOSU was charged as a mere Stillwater-market station), and no more classical music overnight. The Spy does not appeal to me at all, but spot checks the first evening found talk, talk, talk, about the music scene, I suppose, rather than axual music.
And as I feared, NPR news on the hour has also been dropped. I used to hear it habitually at midnight local, 0500 UT before retiring, but The Spy just kept on going. However, on weekends KOSU had already dropped the midnight news, unwilling to interrupt jazz for it.
I was wondering what kind of financial arrangement KOSU has with The Spy. KOSU Director Kelly Burley even sent me a copy of the contraxual agreement showing there is no exchange of money. KOSU hopes to use these 10 hours per day to build up its listener base and hence ultimately income, and will no longer have to purchase PT and many other expensive public radio programs. Burley`s complete rationale will be in the next DX Listening Digest 12-34.
Here`s the new schedule grid:http://kosu.org/wp-content/themes/KOSU3/images/KOSUProgramGuide2012.pdf
And here`s the old one which I saved, still in effect until Aug 20:http://www.w4uvh.net/KOSUProgramGuide2011.pdf
It seems KOSU has outsourced control of its own website and so far has not been able to remove the old deleted programming shown in the day-by-day listings (Glenn Hauser, Enid, August 21, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 31-2, KXOK-LD with Mundo Fox on subchannel: watched a while on Aug 20; apparently a movie and it`s all in squeeze-o-vision as the Aspect Ratio Cannot Be Changed On This Channel. And the Mundo Fox circular logo becomes an oval. BTW, no local ID in any form seen at 1700 UT hourtop break between programs, nor elsewhen. Looked for program schedule: not anywhere on the zap2it Suddenlink Enid cable lineup of hundreds of channels including exotic ones.
TitanTV does not have it in the on-air-lineup for Enid (which axually defaults to Oklahoma City, including lots of outlying stations never to be seen inside OKC, but not this. And still has several outdated/inaccurate ones on its roster.)
So I have to go to http://www.mundofox.com There is a drop-down list of cities to ``find you station`` --- no Enid there tho has OKC with KOHC. Found 24h program grid for the network, where I see nothing of interest tho a lot of the titles are unfamiliar, lots of novelas, apparently. Nothing resembling a newscast, fortunately, as Murdoch would turn that into another farce like the Fox `News` Channel. A few titles are in English, perhaps kidvid, but maybe dubbed or subtitled.
What about TV-OK`s website? I don`t seem to have it bookmarked, so googled it: would you believe the top hits don`t go to anything except other sites, mostly directories, mentioning it? Found one item of interest, a 4-year-old animated ID I remember seeing on air, but not lately, posted by its producer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lJxSWxgvk
``Uploaded by sgfx on Dec 2, 2008 --- KXOK is a small broadcast TV station in Enid OK. How Small? The entire station is in one rack mount case in a small 2 room office on the top of Enid's tallest building and was controlled remotely, sometimes via a cell phone. Anyhow this is an Animation I did as their station ID in trade for some unused video equipment. Why the T-38? Vance AFB is just outside of town and they have a ton of these Sexy little T-38 jet trainers flying all over the place.`` [and exhaust falling all over town accounting for sticky dust buildups even inside homes: there`s farmland all around Enid: why do they have to fly over the city, also increasing risk of crashes upon the population?? Some high-risk areas have zoning restrictions to keep down the number of people in the way. I also have to pause WORLD OF RADIO recordings while they roar over. -- gh]
Maybe the outdated wikipedia entry will have a link to its own website? No. It does remind us of the shady history of this station, including a lawsuit by Dr Gene Scott who didn`t appreciate being broadcast over it, ``copyright infringement``. I wonder if Mundo Fox even knows they`re on KXOK? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 10000, Aug 21 before 0518 I am monitoring WWV again 24 hours after I heard them announce time a minute off as 0519: no, not tonight, both WWV and WWVH correct. And propagation report followed on WWV: ``SF 96, Ap 12, K 2 at 03, no, no``. The automation system could surely be blamed for playing the wrong timecheck, while the axual pips remained highly accurate. BTW, there`s been a wildfire in NW Kauai near the WWVH site; note if it become absent. KHON-TV and the Star-Bulletin have had several stories about the fire (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7302-USB, Aug 21 from 1340, Air Force MARS net. NCS is Paul, AFA6BP. He is calling every station on his roster, one by one, and addresses each one of them as ``sir`` (bet he was an NCO). They each report on how well they copied earlier digital transmissions, mostly very well, and often a brief local weather comment. Contacts at the moment are AFA6ZU, and AFA6KJ. Calls are invariably given in proper fonetix, and all in the 6-call area, which does not correspond to ham call areas, i.e. California. Locations seldom referred to, but AFA6DH at 1343 says he is in north Texas; some of them have a different letter than A in the third position. Still going past 1357. Googling finds NCS AFA6BP: TX Hughes Springs 75656. Hughes Springs is a little town near Daingerfield, between Mt Pleasant and Atlanta in the NE corner of Texas (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 15550-USB, Aug 21 at 1401, music and ``WJHR Radio International`` sign-on after some music, reports to WJHR@usa.com and then `Rock of Ages`, sounds like on banjo et al. 1404 JIP the usual gospel-huxter. No point in listening or logging this except to confirm periodically this useless glorified ham station still exists. I keep expecting some Firedrake jumparound to collide with it, but so far not (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 9675v, Aug 21 at 0511, tonight`s pitch check between the hetting Brasilian and presumed Peruvian: Bb below middle C = 233 Hz. All I can hear is the het which is much louder than any possible modulation from either station (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
