sabato 12 aprile 2014

Glenn Hauser logs April 11-12, 2014

** AUSTRALIA. 15240, April 12 at 0533, separate service from RA Shepparton, not // 15300 or 13630. Discussing cyclone-related problems with callers to 1-300-801-222, and its ``phugoid`` motion, i.e. wandering back and forth, normally applied to aircraft. Some flights to Cai[r]ns have been diverted or canceled; someone reports a live (presumably) power line down on a road which hasn`t been dealt with, so her neighbors are out warning people away from it. 0538 ID as ``ABC Far North``, more calls; 0600 newscast mentions 120 kph winds, 100 ml of rain. From which studio does this originate??

Like previous cyclone-hits to Queensland, RA has dedicated a SW transmitter and 30-degree antenna at Shepparton to relaying local services back to the area, due to [real or expected?] outages of ABC FM/AM transmitters. Per Ivo Ivanov, 15240 is scheduled 22-09 UT, and 6150 at 09-22, which others first heard on April 11.

6150, April 12 at 1239, is still not // 9580, but in another country music show and discussion rather than cyclone coverage at the moment (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH. 15505, April 12 at 1358, very poor carrier with flutter from BB, can`t make out a tone or IS, but just barely detect the mistimesignal ending at 1359:43.5 today. Gentlemen, set your clox! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 6180, April 11 at 2343, RNA is back on frequency and back in whack, normal clear modulation, after being totally out of whack for a few days putting extremely distorted pulsing on 6160 and spreading to at least four adjacent channels. This follows Jorge Freitas forwarding my previous report about this to EBC. So the Canadians on 6160 are again unblocked, and no pulsing QRM to RHC 6165. Furthermore, I am hearing no het or CCI on 6000 RHC, so the other transmitter is either off or adjusted. See CANADA, CUBA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 2749-USB, April 12 at 0146, I am enjoying an unusually low local noise level for some reason except for occasional storm crashes, audiblizing marine weather around Nova Scotia by YL who sounds human; if not, well-disguised. Hard to catch locations cited, but winds are in knots, seas are in feet and visibilities are in miles (who cares about ceilings?). 0147 goes into forecasts from Saturday into Monday, back to conditions as of 1930 local time; partial ID mentions ``Coast Guard Radio Station, Bay of Fundy``. Then navigational warnings with coordinates of obstruxions, etc., in southwest Nova Scotia, then SE coast of NS; 0151 into French by same announceress. This source:
http://dxinfocentre.com/mb.htm
shows it`s VAR-3, ``Fundy``, but where is it really? There are lots of towns along the Fundy Bay coast, but I don`t see any named Fundy. VAR-3 broadcasts start at :40 or sometimes :10 past certain hours including 0140; alternates with three other stations on 2749-USB, VCO in Sydney, VCS-2 in Halifax also at :40 or :10 past, and VCN, Rivière-au-Renard QC at odder times, :37, :47, :07, or :17 past hours not occupied by the first three. VCN also is bilingual but not VCO or VCS-2. Nothing heard now on 2598-USB, the NL/QC frequency for more of this, altho VOK from Labrador, or VOK-4 from Hopedale, should have started at 0137 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 6160, April 12 at 0130, CBC discussion in English, more likely CKZN than CKZU this early, now out from total annihilation by Brazil off-frequency from 6180 and putting out huge pulsing mess for a few days; but still plenty of ACI splash from 6165 Cuba (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 17560, April 11 at 2350, fair signal with flutter in Chinese, eclipsed by the bigsig from 17550 Kuwait. Nothing scheduled now, but apparently CNR1 jammer getting a headstart on the VOA Mandarin transmission from 0000 via Tinang.

Morning survey of CNR1 jamming:
12910, April 12 at 1355, CNR1 jammer, poor with flutter
13795, April 12 at 1354, CNR1 jammer, very poor
13830, April 12 at 1353, CNR1 jammer, poor, seems Firedrake mixed
15115, 15195, 15265, April 12 at 1352, usual inband CNR1 jammers
15580, April 12 at 1349, CNR1 jammer, very poor, het 15582 V of Tibet
16100, April 12 at 1348, CNR1 jammer, JBA [usually best of the bunch]
16360, April 12 at 1348, CNR1 jammer, very poor
16920, April 12 at 1348, CNR1 jammer, very poor-poor
17300, April 12 at 1349, CNR1 jammer, poor with flutter; no 18s, 14s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [non]. See USA: 1520

** CUBA. 6000, April 12 at 0131, RHC English is hetless as BRAZIL [q.v.] has either turned off or fixed its off-frequency from 5999.6; however I don`t hear any other modulation, but I do hear some crackling pulsing QRM to RHC --- could that be Brasil? If so, nowhere near as bad as it had been on 6148-6170, so // 6165 is also clear. Have noted this before on RHC 6000 and figured it was probably one of their own countless transmission problems.

5025, April 12 at 0525, R. Rebelde is off, but 5040 RHC is still on.

6165, April 12 at 0527, RHC English is seriously undermodulated here, and almost as low on 6100, 6060; while OK modulation during music on 6000, 5040 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. 13605, April 12 at 1413, R. Martí with VG signal atop the jamming, while // 11930 is maybe JBA beneath the wall of noise. 13605 sounds like they have jacked up the power to full 250 kW today, rather than one-third or so, in a death-wish? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EAST TURKISTAN. 15410, April 12 at 1406, Chinese fair signal with heavy flutter, English clip, and 1409 few notes of a hymn tune, which was very misleading since this is listed as CRI Chinese service via Kashgar to Europe this hour only; already found it not // 9845 CNR1 jammer and/or VOA Thailand (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH. 15575, April 12 at 1351, KBSWR is JBA, useless during mailbag/DX show this Saturday --- more evidence that KBS is not serious about broadcasting to North America, and/or clueless about propagation. Direct service remains quite iffy, as G1 level geomag storms occurred in past 24 hours with solar flux at 138, and K indices at 1200 & 1500 April 12 were 3. Plenty of bigsig relay airtime is available on WRMI, WHRI, etc. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 17550, April 11 at 2348, R. Kuwait in Arabic to C&W North America, VG strength but extremely heavy flutter; in fact, the SSOB, exceeding 17860 Australia by a wide margin. This transmission at 20-24 UT, i.e. starting out at 23 hours local time, 300 kW at 350 degrees is more like a propagational experiment. It can ``ride the MUF`` on a good night, but on a bad one it will be above it, inaudible. This is the case most of the winter seasons when the transmission still exists, apparently, burning countless megawatthours for nothing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 15420.1-CUSB, April 12 at *1355.6, WBCQ prélude ID and IS loop from ``The Planet`` mixing with BBC Somali via SOUTH AFRICA on 15420.0, meaning that the additional carrier from BBC makes the pitch of WBCQ music sound way sour, off-key --- even worse the Brother Scare opening organ music from 1400, but BBC goes off at 1401.2*. It almost seems like WBCQ and BBC are finally coördinating, with BBC Somali daily at 1400-1500 except Saturday at 1300-1400 instead, per Aoki, not HFCC --- Saturday being the only day `BCQ comes on this early due to the live Sabbath service at TOM Tabernacle off I-95. But it`s probably only coincidental, since BBC shuttered Seychelles, and now relies on the slopperators at SENTECH who should have turned this off before 1400.

15770, April 12 at 1411, BS via WRMI has fair signal but barely modulated; while blasting away on 9980, 9930, sufficient on 9955, 9370, 9690? But there`s never enough BS to go around (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TIBET [non]. 15525, April 12 at 1404, V. of Tibet via MADAGASCAR is fair, so I stand by for the jump to 15530, which happens at *1408:07. Can`t make out any ChiCom jammers on or around, but likely funxioning, and left behind (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 9870, April 12 until 0156* tune in just in time to hear a bit of the VOT IS played after Spanish service; quick retune to 9770 finds that running just a little longer, then both are off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5920, April 12 at 0133, TruNews interviewing estranged son of late evil huxter Fred Phelps, // synched with 7385, i.e. both WHRI. Same show roughly a minute behind (not timed) on 5850 // 7455 WRMI.

Like Brother Scare, Wiles wastes his resources by duplicating coverage on two SW stations, apparently not understanding the broad coverage of each, and even on the same two bands!

BTW, on the DX-398 I am hearing a weak mixture of 7385 and 5085 WTWW BS on 2300 kHz, which is the difference between the two, obviously a receiver-produced image. I get lots more of these especially on 120m; the PL-880 is even worse with ghosts on other bands if there is any overload from an external antenna (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1520, April 12 at 1257 UT, Chinese lesson in English, typical CRI filler in last 5 minutes of hours, roughly equal level to KOKC and cannot separate them, also virtually zero-beat with an occasional fade. ID should come shortly! At 1300 UT three similar announcements including ``programming provided by G&E [GNE?] Studios``, comments to 1-877-913-xx89, or a gmail address. 1301 ID for KGBC, and into non-Chinese news, but 1309 recheck, now it`s the well-known voice of the CRI native announcer talking about missing plane. This is not // CRI English on 9570 via Cuba.

1520 is not KGBC, which is 1540 Galveston, but its sister station KYND Cypress TX, both of which relay CRI as both are considered necessary to cover most of the Houston metro area --- and conveniently second-adjacent. NRC AM Log 2013 shows KYND has a CP to increase day power from 3 to 25 kW and it sure sounds like this in now accomplished.
Yes: FCC AM Query now shows licensed for 25 kW day, 18 kW critical hours, nothing about a CP any more.

Oh oh, look at this now licensed day pattern:
http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/1568756-122038.pdf
big circular lobe to the ESE, tiny lobe and/or nulls toward the NNW, i.e. OK-ward. The 3-tower CH pattern is the same but filed separately:http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/1568756-122040.pdf

What I am hearing does NOT correspond to these; non-direxional now?

And/or KOKC is again on reduced power, as overcoming it here should be quite a feat. Both are in almost the same direxion from Enid, so no nulling one or the other (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1700, April 12 at 1305 UT, two sports talk stations in English, i.e. KBGG Des Moines IA and KVNS Brownsville TX, but *no* Tejano music, so much closer KKLF Richardson TX whose format recently flipped to that, must be off the air. In fact, I think I was not hearing it for a day or two (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN [non]. 7305, April 12 at 0159, no signal from Greenville-B, so I wonder if the VR relay still exist. Comes on a bit late, 0201 VR IS plays, 0202 opening Spanish; as IBB continues to violate Separation of Church & State. But wait, there`s more:

15470, April 12 at 1347, Vietnamese spoken clearly one-syllable-at-a-time, by fluent but non-native reading script? Good signal from VR as scheduled 1315-1400 westward via TINIAN. If the Holy See can use USG facilities, why not our very own gospel huxters? God forbid (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 1713 UT April 12