** CUBA. 5025, Feb 27 at 0530, as I tune by during headlines, soon ID as ``CMBA, Rebelde``. I suppose this is nothing unusual, CMBA being the general callsign for the network, not any one particular AM, FM or SW frequency.
OTOH, you`ll never heard RHC, even in Spanish, announce its own callsign CMRH --- and it`s been almost three years since I last mentioned it, high time for a reminder.
While I`m at it, another overdue re-exclamation of my parody lema: ``Cuba, último territorio esclavo en América; patria o suerte, ¡pensaremos!`` last uttered on July 26, 2012 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GABON [and non]. 9580, Feb 27 at 0518, ANO is surely back after missing a few days, making usual big het with MOROCCO 9579.1. Stephen Wood in Massachusetts also confirmed Gabon on 9580.025, Feb 26 at 2200-2300+ when carrier stayed on a while longer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, Feb 27 at 0533, R. Truth is in open carrier/dead air, unknown for how long, but remodulating at next check 1055 in English about Moses & Egypt (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUIANA FRENCH. 9490, Feb 27 at 0057, still no spurs detectable around 9374 or 9606 from R. República. Nice of TDF to go ahead and repair this considering that the GUF relay is to be abandoned at the end of B-12; see also JAPAN [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 11740, Feb 27 at 0515, NHK World R. Japan in English, usual very good signal via GUIANA FRENCH [q.v.]; David Crystal opening `Radio Japan Focus` about robotix. By 0526 usual music fill at end, and I notice that NHK Spanish via WHRI 6195 is playing different music. Sometimes the feature program scripts are the same, obviously both translated from same original Japanese, and even the music fill.
Better enjoy this bigsig from NHK English while you can (and if you can get it, the other GUF relay at 1200 on 15190), since in A-13, NHK plans to *abandon North America* with no more broadcasts to here in English or even Japanese. Various other relays will still be used to other worldparts, but not GUF, which only WYFR wanted to employ for a few hours to LAm, but that`s not enough to keep it financially viable; so apparently Montsinéry is to follow in the footsteps of Sackville and Bonaire, be closed down. NHK will still try to reach Latin America from France instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 21540, Feb 27 at 1512, R. Kuwait surely made a good move for a change by keeping this on later than 1500 until 1800, still very good signal, SSOB by far, but not much to compare with, weakies BBC 21470 and REE 21610. In dramatic music, then dramatic dialog only in Arabic.
Does 21540 partially replace one or more of these, previously in B-12 schedule? 15540 at 16-18, 6050 at 16-21, 9750 at 11-16, 11630 at 0930-1600, 13650 at 17-20? None of them are on the exact same 310 degree beam listed for 21540 --- Current HFCC finally showing this real frequency despite collision with Spain before 1500, instead of imaginary 21520 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Long after the rest of Enid appears to be back to normal with power restored, but still a lot of ice to melt, something remains drastically wrong at Chisholm Trail Broadcasting. Its stations are still missing the morning of February 27. Perhaps there is a pocket of power outage around the CTB building on Willow, north side of Enid, which is next to the three KCRC 1390 towers; all their other stations have remote sites.
Silent 1390 is no loss, just another ESPN clone with no full service; this also removes harmonix and mixing products with KGWA, such as 3310 (2 x 960 + 1390), which always blox R. Mosoj Chaski from me, but I`ll have to be up very early for a chance at it. If Bolivia be on at 0104 Feb 27, nothing audible then. Guess not: WRTH shows 09-13 & 21-01. There is also a MARS net in the mornings near 3310.
All the other significant local stations were back as of Feb 26 afternoon at 2133 UT, as I checked the FM band on the caradio:
OFF: 107.1 KNID, 96.9 KQOB, 95.7 KXLS, the three main CTB or Champlin stations. You thought 96.9 was an OKC station? Transmitter site is halfway to Enid, but we did think it was programmed out of OKC. Apparently has to be routed thru dark Enid HQ, like KOAG 1640.
Also OFF, various other stations, LPFM, translators, gospel huxters in Enid and area:
93.1, 90.5, 90.3, 89.1 (so KMUW Wichita NPR can be re-heard), 88.3.
ON with open carrier only: 92.1 (not unusual for KAMG any time), 94.3.
ON but distorted audio: KEIF-LP 104.7 `The Rocket`
Since KGWA 960 was always on when checked during and after the storm, figured it would stay, but to my surprise, UT Feb 27 at 0322, it`s off. Now I can DX the frequency at some time other than 0600-0605 UT when they usually cut modulation but keep carrier.
But KGWA cuts back on at *0350:40 with ad during Clark Howard show in progress. For what I got meanwhile (not much), see USA. Also on 1390 and 1400 without KCRC, and 1640 without KOAG. While KGWA was off, so was KOFM 103.1 from same studios, also same remote transmitter site.
530, ``K-530-AM``, 0330 UT Feb 27, Vance AFB is back on and finally serving a useful purpose, as amid the extremely stale Ad Council PSAs, such as FEMA info, Amber Alerts, the robovoice now informs us that deliveries are to be delayed, as the base is *closed* for all but ``mission-essential personnel needed to return it to operational status``. You`d think a major AFB would have its own backup generator power, but they could not even come up with 10 watts to keep this TIS on the air during the worst of it.
BTW, drastic cuts are feared at Vance as well as commercial airport Woodring in Enid with The Sequester. Even worse at Vance, a major SNAFU about health insurance deduxions caused drastic cuts in paychex of unionized civilians at Vance starting in January. Local charities are giving such families food! There are several stories about this at http://www.enidnews.com --- but never heard anything about it on 530.
In the base newspaper The Scoop, also published by Enid News, not so much either, and its website http://thescooponline.net goes nowhere with or without www.
Another survey Feb 27 at 1516+ UT finds:
960, KGWA on
1390, KCRC still off
1640, KOAG open carrier; last night it was completely off
Local and nearby FMs:
107.1, KNID off
105.5, translator on
104.7, KEIF on
103.1, KOFM on
98.5, & // 98.3 translators on
96.9, KQOB, still off
95.7, KXLS, still off
94.3, KLBG-LP OC
93.1, K226BR, off, audiblizing Hutchinson KS
92.1, KAMG-LP OC
91.1, on
90.5, & 90.3 offs
89.7, on (never found it off)
89.1, back on
88.3, Family Radio/KEAR off
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU [and non]. 5980, Feb 27 at 0100*, CNR1 jammer pips and off, and now can hear some very weak Spanish talk from R. Chaski, Urubamba. By 0105 it`s music, the carrier S/N level slightly better than usual, no problem with BFO precising the cutoff at 0106:08.5* as it precesses 5 sex later each night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SRI LANKA. 15255, Feb 27 at 1505*-*1507, break in transmission during S Asian vocal music; similar fluttery non-// signal on 15270. These are both AWR via Trincomalee per HFCC:
15255, 1500-1530 250 kW, 5 degrees in Nepali
15270, 1500-1530 250 kW, 355 degrees in Punjabi
Despite the breakdown, AWR is a major customer now of Trinco, abandoned by DW, obsessed as the Adventists are about converting S Asians. Multiple deities just won`t do (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 960, Feb 27 at 0332 while local KGWA is off, think I hear Jim Bohannon in the pileup with Mex mx mix, peaking NE/SW. Is he on KMA in Iowa? NOT according to http://www.jimbotalk.net/stationfinder which on 960 only has KGWA itself! Which dropped him years ago (list shows him not on KGWA Enid but on ``KGWA Oklahoma City``!). So much for the validity of that program`s station finder.
So I go to KMA`s own program schedule:
http://www.kmaland.com/schedule.asp
After very detailed minute-by-minute listings earlier in the day, who cares about TV prime time when no one is listening to AM radio? Just this for M-F: ``6:30 variety of programs: local sports, Royals Baseball, Cardinal Baseball, Daily Wrap, Jim Bohannon, Dave Ramsey`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1400, also sat here a while enjoying the absence of KCRC 1390 splatter, with a chance for some graveyarders to peak out of the pileup: all I get is at 0458 UT Feb 27, is partial ID for K?YL, with bathrooom radio positioned to favor N/S. Bingo! The only fit is KEYL, Long Prairie MN, more than a megameter away in west-central Minnesota (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1640, local KOAG remains off the air [see OKLAHOMA], so what else can be heard? Feb 27 at 0552, music and R. Disney ID, presumably WKSH Sussex WI rather than the other Disney, KDZR in Lake Oswego OR (an echo would be nice to bag both at once!).
This is mixing with sports talk, and at 0603 ID as ``sports radio 93.7, ESPN``, but must have misheard it since the FM of WTNI Biloxi MS is on 96.7 per NRC AM Log. These were both on the FRG-7 with longwire, so no DFing.
KOAG is normally weak enough at night that by nulling it on the DX-398 I can often hear WTNI and/or Spanish from KBJA Utah (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 7360, Feb 27 at 0520, VR is VG in English to Africa, at 0523 ending weekly `Justice & Peace` show, into `Sports Report` about FIFA! The latter with heavy African accent. VR continues to present itself as a general news and feature station, not just Catholicism.
Since PBXVI had it abandon North America, this 0500-0530 transmission remains a best bet for anyone here who really wants to hear VR, 500 kW, 175 degrees from SMG, where we suspect their rotatable antenna either points in wrong direxions, (need to synch with the rotor control box?), or really has a very broad pattern; or maybe some of the reflective elements are dysfunxional (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1179, Feb 27 at 0540, very weak JBA carrier detectable hetting Omaha, loops NW/SE, so presumably another Cuban variant in the R. Rebelde jamming network, rather than Europe, despite:
1521, Feb 27 at 0542, het upon KOKC OKC, rather late for the Saudi behemoth, but maybe a bit of the 2 megawatts are still making it thru. BTW, KOKC has a better night signal lately, probably fixed their antenna and/or the Minnesotan 1520 has quit cheating (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1390, Feb 27 as local KCRC is still down, what else can I hear? Mostly a pileup with nothing intelligible, except occasionally: at 0346 UT a gospel huxter peaking E/W; at 0412 a calmer more composed one citing Jeremiah 9, from E/W, or NW/SE? Depends on where in the house I rotate the DX-398, reminding us of how approximate such findings can be.
In near/adjacent states, there aren`t many REL or GOS 1390s in the NRC AM Log, in fact only WMER Meridian MS, 5000/101 watts, and beyond that, WHMA Anniston AL, 5000/1000. And then there`s WGRB in Chicago which I suspected the night before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 4950-, Feb 27 at 0056, het with one station on the low side, presumably Angola and Kashmir (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
OTOH, you`ll never heard RHC, even in Spanish, announce its own callsign CMRH --- and it`s been almost three years since I last mentioned it, high time for a reminder.
While I`m at it, another overdue re-exclamation of my parody lema: ``Cuba, último territorio esclavo en América; patria o suerte, ¡pensaremos!`` last uttered on July 26, 2012 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GABON [and non]. 9580, Feb 27 at 0518, ANO is surely back after missing a few days, making usual big het with MOROCCO 9579.1. Stephen Wood in Massachusetts also confirmed Gabon on 9580.025, Feb 26 at 2200-2300+ when carrier stayed on a while longer (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA. 4055, Feb 27 at 0533, R. Truth is in open carrier/dead air, unknown for how long, but remodulating at next check 1055 in English about Moses & Egypt (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUIANA FRENCH. 9490, Feb 27 at 0057, still no spurs detectable around 9374 or 9606 from R. República. Nice of TDF to go ahead and repair this considering that the GUF relay is to be abandoned at the end of B-12; see also JAPAN [non] (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** JAPAN [non]. 11740, Feb 27 at 0515, NHK World R. Japan in English, usual very good signal via GUIANA FRENCH [q.v.]; David Crystal opening `Radio Japan Focus` about robotix. By 0526 usual music fill at end, and I notice that NHK Spanish via WHRI 6195 is playing different music. Sometimes the feature program scripts are the same, obviously both translated from same original Japanese, and even the music fill.
Better enjoy this bigsig from NHK English while you can (and if you can get it, the other GUF relay at 1200 on 15190), since in A-13, NHK plans to *abandon North America* with no more broadcasts to here in English or even Japanese. Various other relays will still be used to other worldparts, but not GUF, which only WYFR wanted to employ for a few hours to LAm, but that`s not enough to keep it financially viable; so apparently Montsinéry is to follow in the footsteps of Sackville and Bonaire, be closed down. NHK will still try to reach Latin America from France instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 21540, Feb 27 at 1512, R. Kuwait surely made a good move for a change by keeping this on later than 1500 until 1800, still very good signal, SSOB by far, but not much to compare with, weakies BBC 21470 and REE 21610. In dramatic music, then dramatic dialog only in Arabic.
Does 21540 partially replace one or more of these, previously in B-12 schedule? 15540 at 16-18, 6050 at 16-21, 9750 at 11-16, 11630 at 0930-1600, 13650 at 17-20? None of them are on the exact same 310 degree beam listed for 21540 --- Current HFCC finally showing this real frequency despite collision with Spain before 1500, instead of imaginary 21520 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. Long after the rest of Enid appears to be back to normal with power restored, but still a lot of ice to melt, something remains drastically wrong at Chisholm Trail Broadcasting. Its stations are still missing the morning of February 27. Perhaps there is a pocket of power outage around the CTB building on Willow, north side of Enid, which is next to the three KCRC 1390 towers; all their other stations have remote sites.
Silent 1390 is no loss, just another ESPN clone with no full service; this also removes harmonix and mixing products with KGWA, such as 3310 (2 x 960 + 1390), which always blox R. Mosoj Chaski from me, but I`ll have to be up very early for a chance at it. If Bolivia be on at 0104 Feb 27, nothing audible then. Guess not: WRTH shows 09-13 & 21-01. There is also a MARS net in the mornings near 3310.
All the other significant local stations were back as of Feb 26 afternoon at 2133 UT, as I checked the FM band on the caradio:
OFF: 107.1 KNID, 96.9 KQOB, 95.7 KXLS, the three main CTB or Champlin stations. You thought 96.9 was an OKC station? Transmitter site is halfway to Enid, but we did think it was programmed out of OKC. Apparently has to be routed thru dark Enid HQ, like KOAG 1640.
Also OFF, various other stations, LPFM, translators, gospel huxters in Enid and area:
93.1, 90.5, 90.3, 89.1 (so KMUW Wichita NPR can be re-heard), 88.3.
ON with open carrier only: 92.1 (not unusual for KAMG any time), 94.3.
ON but distorted audio: KEIF-LP 104.7 `The Rocket`
Since KGWA 960 was always on when checked during and after the storm, figured it would stay, but to my surprise, UT Feb 27 at 0322, it`s off. Now I can DX the frequency at some time other than 0600-0605 UT when they usually cut modulation but keep carrier.
But KGWA cuts back on at *0350:40 with ad during Clark Howard show in progress. For what I got meanwhile (not much), see USA. Also on 1390 and 1400 without KCRC, and 1640 without KOAG. While KGWA was off, so was KOFM 103.1 from same studios, also same remote transmitter site.
530, ``K-530-AM``, 0330 UT Feb 27, Vance AFB is back on and finally serving a useful purpose, as amid the extremely stale Ad Council PSAs, such as FEMA info, Amber Alerts, the robovoice now informs us that deliveries are to be delayed, as the base is *closed* for all but ``mission-essential personnel needed to return it to operational status``. You`d think a major AFB would have its own backup generator power, but they could not even come up with 10 watts to keep this TIS on the air during the worst of it.
BTW, drastic cuts are feared at Vance as well as commercial airport Woodring in Enid with The Sequester. Even worse at Vance, a major SNAFU about health insurance deduxions caused drastic cuts in paychex of unionized civilians at Vance starting in January. Local charities are giving such families food! There are several stories about this at http://www.enidnews.com --- but never heard anything about it on 530.
In the base newspaper The Scoop, also published by Enid News, not so much either, and its website http://thescooponline.net goes nowhere with or without www.
Another survey Feb 27 at 1516+ UT finds:
960, KGWA on
1390, KCRC still off
1640, KOAG open carrier; last night it was completely off
Local and nearby FMs:
107.1, KNID off
105.5, translator on
104.7, KEIF on
103.1, KOFM on
98.5, & // 98.3 translators on
96.9, KQOB, still off
95.7, KXLS, still off
94.3, KLBG-LP OC
93.1, K226BR, off, audiblizing Hutchinson KS
92.1, KAMG-LP OC
91.1, on
90.5, & 90.3 offs
89.7, on (never found it off)
89.1, back on
88.3, Family Radio/KEAR off
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU [and non]. 5980, Feb 27 at 0100*, CNR1 jammer pips and off, and now can hear some very weak Spanish talk from R. Chaski, Urubamba. By 0105 it`s music, the carrier S/N level slightly better than usual, no problem with BFO precising the cutoff at 0106:08.5* as it precesses 5 sex later each night (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** SRI LANKA. 15255, Feb 27 at 1505*-*1507, break in transmission during S Asian vocal music; similar fluttery non-// signal on 15270. These are both AWR via Trincomalee per HFCC:
15255, 1500-1530 250 kW, 5 degrees in Nepali
15270, 1500-1530 250 kW, 355 degrees in Punjabi
Despite the breakdown, AWR is a major customer now of Trinco, abandoned by DW, obsessed as the Adventists are about converting S Asians. Multiple deities just won`t do (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 960, Feb 27 at 0332 while local KGWA is off, think I hear Jim Bohannon in the pileup with Mex mx mix, peaking NE/SW. Is he on KMA in Iowa? NOT according to http://www.jimbotalk.net/stationfinder which on 960 only has KGWA itself! Which dropped him years ago (list shows him not on KGWA Enid but on ``KGWA Oklahoma City``!). So much for the validity of that program`s station finder.
So I go to KMA`s own program schedule:
http://www.kmaland.com/schedule.asp
After very detailed minute-by-minute listings earlier in the day, who cares about TV prime time when no one is listening to AM radio? Just this for M-F: ``6:30 variety of programs: local sports, Royals Baseball, Cardinal Baseball, Daily Wrap, Jim Bohannon, Dave Ramsey`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1400, also sat here a while enjoying the absence of KCRC 1390 splatter, with a chance for some graveyarders to peak out of the pileup: all I get is at 0458 UT Feb 27, is partial ID for K?YL, with bathrooom radio positioned to favor N/S. Bingo! The only fit is KEYL, Long Prairie MN, more than a megameter away in west-central Minnesota (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 1640, local KOAG remains off the air [see OKLAHOMA], so what else can be heard? Feb 27 at 0552, music and R. Disney ID, presumably WKSH Sussex WI rather than the other Disney, KDZR in Lake Oswego OR (an echo would be nice to bag both at once!).
This is mixing with sports talk, and at 0603 ID as ``sports radio 93.7, ESPN``, but must have misheard it since the FM of WTNI Biloxi MS is on 96.7 per NRC AM Log. These were both on the FRG-7 with longwire, so no DFing.
KOAG is normally weak enough at night that by nulling it on the DX-398 I can often hear WTNI and/or Spanish from KBJA Utah (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** VATICAN. 7360, Feb 27 at 0520, VR is VG in English to Africa, at 0523 ending weekly `Justice & Peace` show, into `Sports Report` about FIFA! The latter with heavy African accent. VR continues to present itself as a general news and feature station, not just Catholicism.
Since PBXVI had it abandon North America, this 0500-0530 transmission remains a best bet for anyone here who really wants to hear VR, 500 kW, 175 degrees from SMG, where we suspect their rotatable antenna either points in wrong direxions, (need to synch with the rotor control box?), or really has a very broad pattern; or maybe some of the reflective elements are dysfunxional (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1179, Feb 27 at 0540, very weak JBA carrier detectable hetting Omaha, loops NW/SE, so presumably another Cuban variant in the R. Rebelde jamming network, rather than Europe, despite:
1521, Feb 27 at 0542, het upon KOKC OKC, rather late for the Saudi behemoth, but maybe a bit of the 2 megawatts are still making it thru. BTW, KOKC has a better night signal lately, probably fixed their antenna and/or the Minnesotan 1520 has quit cheating (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 1390, Feb 27 as local KCRC is still down, what else can I hear? Mostly a pileup with nothing intelligible, except occasionally: at 0346 UT a gospel huxter peaking E/W; at 0412 a calmer more composed one citing Jeremiah 9, from E/W, or NW/SE? Depends on where in the house I rotate the DX-398, reminding us of how approximate such findings can be.
In near/adjacent states, there aren`t many REL or GOS 1390s in the NRC AM Log, in fact only WMER Meridian MS, 5000/101 watts, and beyond that, WHMA Anniston AL, 5000/1000. And then there`s WGRB in Chicago which I suspected the night before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 4950-, Feb 27 at 0056, het with one station on the low side, presumably Angola and Kashmir (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
