** AUSTRALIA. 6168-6169 & 6131-6132, June 17 at 1226, distorted spurs out of the RA 6150 transmitter now peaking in these areas plus/minus 18-19 kHz away; modulation on them is `better` than before making them more or less readable and matching 6150, and clear but weak 6080, during `Asia-Pacific` news magazine. After 1300, the higher one is beating mercilessly against RNZI which has just come up on 6170. I`m notifying both stations about this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake June 17:
13795, poor at 1234
CNR1 jamming instead of Firedrake June 17:
13920, fair at 1234; none in the 12s
14700, fair at 1234 with flutter; none in the 15s, 16s or 17s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. I took my own advice and made a point of listening again to RHC`s `En Contacto` on the second airing which started at 2244 UT on 17720 (better than // 17705), Sunday June 16, to copy more details about their transmitter site #3 called Titán. The interviewee, Pedro Martínez is the sub-director-general. I missed the sub before. It seems the name Titán comes from El Titán de Bronce, nickname for the XIX century revolutionary hero Antonio Maceo. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Maceo_Grajales
a quick wiki on him:
``Lt. General José Antonio de la Caridad Maceo y Grajales (June 14, 1845 – December 7, 1896) was second-in-command of the Cuban Army of Independence. Fellow Cubans gave Maceo the sobriquet of the "Bronze Titan" (Spanish: El Titán de Bronce), which was a reference to his skin color, stature and status``
Pedro mentioned that there`s a mural of him at the SW site. At first I thought the bronze bit referred to a statue, and there is a monument in Santiago wherein on his horse he is dwarfed by jagged bars: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DirkvdM_monumento_antonio_maceo.jpg
For the 28th anniversary of Titán, staff were given DVDs containing the 86 episodes on the history of RHC.
Of the five transmitters there: #1 and #5 are Soviet ``PKV`` models (meaning RKB in Cyrillic?). Those have low-frequency PSM modifications. The others, #2, #3 and #4, are also Russian and have been modified for ``DRM`` [sic], i.e. ``régimen dinámico de portadora``. Which I assume is like Dynamic Carrier Control, as explained in DXLD 12-34, which also explains Pulse Step Modulation under PHILIPPINES, RVA.
6165, June 17 at 0059, RHC English frequency open carrier is varying slightly with BFO, but on AM has constant audible rhumble (hum + rumble).
9850, June 17 at 1231, RHC Spanish now with big wobble on the carrier and rumble on the modulation. I wonder which Titán transmitter this is? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 790, June 17 at 1110 UT, news in Spanish dominates the QRM, about bajacalifornianos; at 1111 a timecheck in ``hora central de México`` and R. Fórmula ID, ``cubriendo todo México y Estados Unidos``, adstring, 1115 Fórmula 9-70 promo, which is the flagship station XERFR in the DF whose IDs get relayed everywhere. So is it XENT, La Paz BCS, 5/0.75 kW as in IRCA? Probably, altho this may be during national network news, and there is another Fórmula on 790 in Guadalajara, supposedly a 1 kW daytimer. Cantú shows XENT at 10/0.75 kW and XEGAJ as 0.25 kW day & nite. WRTH agrees with IRCA on XENT and with Cantú on XEGAJ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1310, June 17 at 1100 UT I am unavoidably awake just before sunrise, so start tuning down the MW band in search of Mexican NAs. Finally hit one here at 1103, heavy QRM, but during full ID at 1104 I can make out a mention of Monterrey, and maybe a slogan, Radio Extremo? Anyhow, IRCA Log shows the NL station is XEVB, 5/0.1 kW, slogan ``Mujer`` = woman. Cantú agrees except power as 5/0.25 kW. WRTH agrees with that except name as ``Radio Mujer`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 960, June 17 at 0500 UT, KGWA Enid is providing a Fox-hole again (some recent unlogged dates it`s axually kept modulating), but nothing significant heard in its absence; however, at 0504 well before the usual cut-back-on time of 0505, a NWS severe weather warning fires starting with annoying sounder: it`s nice to know this still worx. Robot mentions numerous counties affected, appending ``in Northwest Oklahoma`` to each one of them --- we know that! Maddening delays to finishing the warning. ``All in NW Oklahoma`` would have been sufficient. Finally after 0506, KGWA rejoins regular programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, June 17 at 0056, R. Chaski carrier at usual very poor level, but enough to tell when it cuts off at 0102:49.5* which is 5 seconds later than yesterday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 15440, June 16 at 2210, RTI relay in English via WYFR has excellent signal as always. In case you haven`t heard, Dan Elyea at Okeechobee has notified us that June 30 will be WYFR`s last day on the air. This follows drastic and progressive cuts in its own broadcasts as well as RTI relays. Now all that will be gone. Nothing has been said about what will become of the dozen SW transmitters and all those antennas, which are on rented property. We`d like to see WRMI get them, at fire-sale price? But winning the lottery would help.
So the two remaining RTI relays in English, 22-23 on 15440 and 03-04 on 6115, have only a biweek to go. NOW is the time for North American RTI SWListeners to lobby RTI to make some other relay arrangement, if we are still to hear it with loud & clear reception. Perhaps WHRI? WTWW-2? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12105, Monday June 17 at 1306, WTWW-3 is in Yoruba, with music, only recognizable word several times, ``Jerusalem``. Presumed Yoruba, as it`s a tonal African language, not one of the easily identifiable other Bible Worldwide tongues, Arabic or western ones, and Yoruba has been on the WTWW schedule for months tho not at this hour, as language times continue to be rotated unpredictably (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. First item on this week`s `Music from Other Minds` is ``Wireless Fantasy`` featuring Morse code of early station IDs, on webcast from KALW: http://kalw.drupal.publicbroadcasting.net/local-music-player
Playlist for show linx to: Vladimir Ussachevsky [1911-1990]: Wireless Fantasy (1960) Composers Recordings CRI 813 ---
Album details but nothing about this particular work:http://www.newworldrecords.org/album.cgi?rm=view&album_id=17282
Google on the composer and title gets you more such as this http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1294785
abstract of a 2007y article re:
``Wireless Fantasy, Vladimir Ussachevsky's 4½-minute tribute to the birth of wireless radio, utilises a rich collection of sound materials, from antique spark generators and shortwave radio sounds to a recorded segment of Wagner's Parsifal. Wireless Fantasy is here examined not as much for the cultural meaning of its sources but for insight into Ussachevsky's dramatic counterpointing of those sources in real time. The analytical methodology focuses on pitch, rhythm, and timbre equally, using both standard music notation and spectral analysis to examine the contrapuntal elements in this classic electroacoustic composition. Special attention is paid to the coincidence of accent between the source materials that generates the work's climax and to the involvement of all the sources in articulating its final cadence. The larger issue of quotation within electroacoustic composition is discussed with regard to an abstract reference in the work's coda.``
The KALW music programs stay up for only a week, but there is (of course?) a YouTube of the entire <5 minute Wireless Fantasy, and also from iTunes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 13881-SSB, June 17 at 0520, intermittent talk for a few seconds at a time in Amerenglish; sounds like a broadcast, or reading from a manual, seems about computers? Maybe a MARS tutorial. Includes sound effects. Het from carrier on 13883, seemingly also source after 0525 of occasional tone and fax(?) sounds, not clear whether from same station. Searching the UDXF yg on 13881 gets some ``XUP pulser`` logs, DF from Cuba or SE USA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA. Firedrake June 17:
13795, poor at 1234
CNR1 jamming instead of Firedrake June 17:
13920, fair at 1234; none in the 12s
14700, fair at 1234 with flutter; none in the 15s, 16s or 17s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. I took my own advice and made a point of listening again to RHC`s `En Contacto` on the second airing which started at 2244 UT on 17720 (better than // 17705), Sunday June 16, to copy more details about their transmitter site #3 called Titán. The interviewee, Pedro Martínez is the sub-director-general. I missed the sub before. It seems the name Titán comes from El Titán de Bronce, nickname for the XIX century revolutionary hero Antonio Maceo. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Maceo_Grajales
a quick wiki on him:
``Lt. General José Antonio de la Caridad Maceo y Grajales (June 14, 1845 – December 7, 1896) was second-in-command of the Cuban Army of Independence. Fellow Cubans gave Maceo the sobriquet of the "Bronze Titan" (Spanish: El Titán de Bronce), which was a reference to his skin color, stature and status``
Pedro mentioned that there`s a mural of him at the SW site. At first I thought the bronze bit referred to a statue, and there is a monument in Santiago wherein on his horse he is dwarfed by jagged bars: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DirkvdM_monumento_antonio_maceo.jpg
For the 28th anniversary of Titán, staff were given DVDs containing the 86 episodes on the history of RHC.
Of the five transmitters there: #1 and #5 are Soviet ``PKV`` models (meaning RKB in Cyrillic?). Those have low-frequency PSM modifications. The others, #2, #3 and #4, are also Russian and have been modified for ``DRM`` [sic], i.e. ``régimen dinámico de portadora``. Which I assume is like Dynamic Carrier Control, as explained in DXLD 12-34, which also explains Pulse Step Modulation under PHILIPPINES, RVA.
6165, June 17 at 0059, RHC English frequency open carrier is varying slightly with BFO, but on AM has constant audible rhumble (hum + rumble).
9850, June 17 at 1231, RHC Spanish now with big wobble on the carrier and rumble on the modulation. I wonder which Titán transmitter this is? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 790, June 17 at 1110 UT, news in Spanish dominates the QRM, about bajacalifornianos; at 1111 a timecheck in ``hora central de México`` and R. Fórmula ID, ``cubriendo todo México y Estados Unidos``, adstring, 1115 Fórmula 9-70 promo, which is the flagship station XERFR in the DF whose IDs get relayed everywhere. So is it XENT, La Paz BCS, 5/0.75 kW as in IRCA? Probably, altho this may be during national network news, and there is another Fórmula on 790 in Guadalajara, supposedly a 1 kW daytimer. Cantú shows XENT at 10/0.75 kW and XEGAJ as 0.25 kW day & nite. WRTH agrees with IRCA on XENT and with Cantú on XEGAJ (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 1310, June 17 at 1100 UT I am unavoidably awake just before sunrise, so start tuning down the MW band in search of Mexican NAs. Finally hit one here at 1103, heavy QRM, but during full ID at 1104 I can make out a mention of Monterrey, and maybe a slogan, Radio Extremo? Anyhow, IRCA Log shows the NL station is XEVB, 5/0.1 kW, slogan ``Mujer`` = woman. Cantú agrees except power as 5/0.25 kW. WRTH agrees with that except name as ``Radio Mujer`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 960, June 17 at 0500 UT, KGWA Enid is providing a Fox-hole again (some recent unlogged dates it`s axually kept modulating), but nothing significant heard in its absence; however, at 0504 well before the usual cut-back-on time of 0505, a NWS severe weather warning fires starting with annoying sounder: it`s nice to know this still worx. Robot mentions numerous counties affected, appending ``in Northwest Oklahoma`` to each one of them --- we know that! Maddening delays to finishing the warning. ``All in NW Oklahoma`` would have been sufficient. Finally after 0506, KGWA rejoins regular programming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, June 17 at 0056, R. Chaski carrier at usual very poor level, but enough to tell when it cuts off at 0102:49.5* which is 5 seconds later than yesterday (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** TAIWAN [non]. 15440, June 16 at 2210, RTI relay in English via WYFR has excellent signal as always. In case you haven`t heard, Dan Elyea at Okeechobee has notified us that June 30 will be WYFR`s last day on the air. This follows drastic and progressive cuts in its own broadcasts as well as RTI relays. Now all that will be gone. Nothing has been said about what will become of the dozen SW transmitters and all those antennas, which are on rented property. We`d like to see WRMI get them, at fire-sale price? But winning the lottery would help.
So the two remaining RTI relays in English, 22-23 on 15440 and 03-04 on 6115, have only a biweek to go. NOW is the time for North American RTI SWListeners to lobby RTI to make some other relay arrangement, if we are still to hear it with loud & clear reception. Perhaps WHRI? WTWW-2? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 12105, Monday June 17 at 1306, WTWW-3 is in Yoruba, with music, only recognizable word several times, ``Jerusalem``. Presumed Yoruba, as it`s a tonal African language, not one of the easily identifiable other Bible Worldwide tongues, Arabic or western ones, and Yoruba has been on the WTWW schedule for months tho not at this hour, as language times continue to be rotated unpredictably (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. First item on this week`s `Music from Other Minds` is ``Wireless Fantasy`` featuring Morse code of early station IDs, on webcast from KALW: http://kalw.drupal.publicbroadcasting.net/local-music-player
Playlist for show linx to: Vladimir Ussachevsky [1911-1990]: Wireless Fantasy (1960) Composers Recordings CRI 813 ---
Album details but nothing about this particular work:http://www.newworldrecords.org/album.cgi?rm=view&album_id=17282
Google on the composer and title gets you more such as this http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1294785
abstract of a 2007y article re:
``Wireless Fantasy, Vladimir Ussachevsky's 4½-minute tribute to the birth of wireless radio, utilises a rich collection of sound materials, from antique spark generators and shortwave radio sounds to a recorded segment of Wagner's Parsifal. Wireless Fantasy is here examined not as much for the cultural meaning of its sources but for insight into Ussachevsky's dramatic counterpointing of those sources in real time. The analytical methodology focuses on pitch, rhythm, and timbre equally, using both standard music notation and spectral analysis to examine the contrapuntal elements in this classic electroacoustic composition. Special attention is paid to the coincidence of accent between the source materials that generates the work's climax and to the involvement of all the sources in articulating its final cadence. The larger issue of quotation within electroacoustic composition is discussed with regard to an abstract reference in the work's coda.``
The KALW music programs stay up for only a week, but there is (of course?) a YouTube of the entire <5 minute Wireless Fantasy, and also from iTunes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 13881-SSB, June 17 at 0520, intermittent talk for a few seconds at a time in Amerenglish; sounds like a broadcast, or reading from a manual, seems about computers? Maybe a MARS tutorial. Includes sound effects. Het from carrier on 13883, seemingly also source after 0525 of occasional tone and fax(?) sounds, not clear whether from same station. Searching the UDXF yg on 13881 gets some ``XUP pulser`` logs, DF from Cuba or SE USA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
