mercoledì 31 ottobre 2012

Glenn Hauser logs October 31, 2012

** ALBANIA. 6100, Oct 31 at 0227, night two of the new time and frequency in English to NAm: R. Tirana IS, 0230 Klara`s sign-on announcement has been changed from the defunct A-12 one aired 24 hours earlier, but it`s wrong! She says the English schedule is to UK at 21-22 on 7465 Mon-Sat, and to USA, 02-03 on 6100 Mon-Sun --- as if the broadcasts had been expanded to a full hour, and the 6100 is of course only UT Tue-Sun. Sufficient reception, no jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. Further chex of the doomed ``CKCX`` SW station:

9560, Oct 31 at 0205 and 0229, tone test upon what was KBSWR in Spanish, and now without the clacking! It would be incredibly ironic if KBS has finally fixed the clacking problem now that they have no programming to send. More likely, the tone is now originating from Sackville, maybe Montreal or London.

6175, Oct 31 at 0205, ex-VOV relay remains off the air. See VIETNAM

5960, Oct 31 at 0229, music fill instead of NHK Japanese, but that can be heard underneath from GUF.

6110, Oct 31 at 0511, VG ex-NHK English relay is still on, now with fill music from Sackville (or Montreal? As the songs are just as likely to be in French as in English). See JAPAN [non].

9650, Oct 31 at 1259 tuned in just in time to hear RCI IS & ID and off, so they were still filling this ex-KBSWR English hour.

11655, Oct 31 at 1310, the NHK Japanese service frequency which had lasted long via Sackville, has now been replaced by music fill, mostly soft jazz. Still at 1411 recheck, and now it`s // on:

9650, Oct 31 at 1411 past 1420, ex-KBSWR in Korean hour, no more tones and clacking, but soft jazz music fill, and // 11655 ex-Japan relay.

Today Oct 31 is apparently the final final day for Sackville! As the CRTC has granted CBC`s request to revoke the license for CKCX as of November 1, referring to the CBCNQ service on 9625. Tnx to Andy Reid who tipped us on this Oct 30:

``Permission granted to close "CKCX-SW" Sackville --- Buried in this decision from the CRTC is the word on Sackville's Northern Quebec Relay:
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-602.htm

"It indicated that the new transmitters will ensure that the population of the aforementioned locations continues to be served by the news and regional information programming of its Radio One service when CKCX-SW Sackville ceases operation.

"Commission revokes the broadcasting licence for CKCX-SW Sackville effective 1 November 2012."`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake, Oct 31 circa 1330:
12230, fair at 1326 with flutter
12500, fair at 1326 with flutter
12870, poor at 1326
None in the 13s, 14s, 15s, 16s, 17s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. It appears that with B-12, the 8-kHz carrier constellation is no longer surrounding 11760 from the defective CNR1 jammer transmitter at 13-15. At least on Oct 31, I can`t hear any of them, except 11775 PMS has an extremely weak het, so weak that I can`t detect whether it is on 11776 (where it used to be) or 11774. There is also significant CCI on 11775.0, i.e. per HFCC B-12, AIR Tibetan/Nepali services at 1200-1430, 250 kW, 25 degrees from Panaji, GOA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 6000 and 6010, Oct 31 at 0510, RHC English is on both as 6000 has not gone off at 0500, and they are an echo apart. This means 6125 is not yet on the air: yes, nothing there, so I set a receiver with BFO on 6126 and wait for it to come on: the RadioCuba operator finally wakes up and on it comes at *0521, at first unmmodulated, 0522:38 fade in the English programming. // English was already on 6050, 6060.

The dozing operator at RadioCuba also failed to turn off the 9790 CRI relay at 0500: huge open carrier there at 0515, but off at 0521, rechecked once 6125 RHC had come up.

New RHC schedule, fixed to time order, effective Nov 1 shows English:
América Central              11760 kHz /25 m  2000-2100
Banda Tropical                5040 kHz /60 m  0000-0100
Wáshington                    6000 kHz /49 m  0100-0500
Chicago                       6140 kHz /49 m  0100-0700 [ex-6050]
Norte, Centro y Sudamérica    6125 kHz /49 m  0500-0700
New York                      6060 kHz /49 m  0500-0700
San Francisco                 6010 kHz /49 m  0500-0700
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. 5980, Oct 31 at 0508, VG signal with tone test, open carrier and off at 0508:50*. Surely Greenville-B tuning up for the R. Martí 07-13 UT broadcast on same.

11930, Oct 31 at 1324, R. Martí with no jamming audible. I suppose the DentroCuban Jamming Command has not yet synched up exactly with the new B-12 RM schedule (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 15040, Oct 31 at 1300, weak carrier here instead of 15045, so Delhi-Khampur has finally put the AIR Burmese service back on proper frequency, and again far enough away from the *1300 DRM on 15050. But it may not be far enough way in the targets (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, Oct 31 at 1338, still zero signal from VOI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [non]. 11935, Oct 31 at 0243, NHK is programming Japanese at last, the first night they have attained this instead of continuous IS and IDs in English and Japanese. This is new GUIANA FRENCH relay scheduled at 0200-0400. And it is // synchronized 5960 under Sackville music fill. Since until now 5960 and 11935 were not both with NHK programming, there was some suspicion 11935 was still coming from almost-defunct BONAIRE. Now 5960 and 11935 are so close as to produce a `stereo` effect, as they fade independently (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CANADA

** KAZAKHSTAN [non]. 15525, Oct 31 at 1335, assertive singing by OM, alternating with strumming; occasionally the strumming accompanies the singing; enjoying the music, trying to figure out the language: something `central` Asian. 1345 announcement mentions Kazakhstan --- but one thing for sure, it must be into rather than out of Kazakhstan, which has eliminated SWBC completely, even relays.

More such singing and strumming follows, except now mostly by YL, and she is very rudely cut off in mid-note at 1358*. Uplooked later in HFCC, we find that it`s IBB in Kazakh, i.e. R. Liberty, 100 kW, 77 degrees from Lampertheim, GERMANY at ``1300-1400``. Make that -1358! Yet another station with total disconnect between studio and transmitter about when the transmission really ends (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. See CANADA

** MEXICO. 710, Oct 31 at 1244 UT, 16 para las 6, TC on La Ranchera de Cuauhtémoc, XEDP, so this part of Chihuahua is back on UT-7 since Oct 28 (while Juárez and other border areas keep UT-6 along with USA for another week). Usual dominant signal just before sunrise here, so can`t be sunrise yet there, nor can it be night power of 100 watts as in WRTH. Furthermore it`s hard to believe that day power is only 7000 watts; anyhow, it really gets out on skywave.

Just before this, I heard a 720 station in Spanish talk programming auto-proclaim the time at 1240 UT as 6:40, so probably XEJCC in Ciudad Juárez, on the border and hostage to US DST dates (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 960, UT Wed Oct 31 at 0500, KGWA Enid fails for the second night in a row to unmodulate, so not audiblizing understation DX. We have high hopes they will resume doing so unpredictably (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9370, Oct 31 at 1310, Brother Scare via WWRB has a pronounced echo, mimicking long-path; maybe some kind of feedback loop at WWRB, as there is no such echo via non-synchronized WWCR 9980. I must say that the Last Day Prophet of God is a bit self-centered (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7506.4, Oct 31 at 0229, very poor signal, sounds like woman talking, must still be WRNO on unique off-frequency. Other US signals seem normal, so doubt this can be blamed on propagation. Maybe they sometimes default to exciter only, making it a real DX catch (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15610, Oct 31 at 1303, WEWN English is back here, ex-15615 yesterday, and even manages to modulate during the first half hour! Yet it`s weak enough not to bother yet Greece on 15630. By 1407 it has built up and does shove its 15628 spur against Greece (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 529, Oct 31 at 0538, LYQ beacon ID repeated in Morse, copiable aside Cuba 530. Capt. David Frantz, Chief Pilot of ATC, notified me that this had just been reactivated as backup to their ILS due to night flights. It`s at the WWRB site, Manchester TN, and reports are welcome via the WWRB website (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. 7305, Oct 31 at 0205 and 0230 chex, no signal from VR which in B-12 is scheduled here for its only remaining broadcast to the W Hemisphere, Spanish at 0200-0245 via Greenville. What happened? Missed checking this UT Oct 30, but on Oct 29 there was a carrier with no programming; and on UT Oct 28 not yet anything (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VIETNAM [non]. 9640, Oct 31 at 0205, VOV via Woofferton UK to ENAm, in Vietnamese with good signal tonight. Quality will vary a lot more than it used to from single-hop Sackville on 49m (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. TP carrier search, Oct 31 at 1248-1252 UT: JBA on 774, 828, 882, 1008, 1098, 1566. 1566 was strongest, and hoped for some audio; 1098 suspected to be a receiver birdie or local source instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15595, Oct 31 at 1409, open carrier, a bit of noise and off before the minute is over. Greenville again warming up for later? No, per HFCC it`s likely TINIAN, which is now relaying VATICAN at 1430-1600 to S Asia, except on Sundays and this Wednesday adding on Urdu from 1415 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)