venerdì 5 settembre 2014

Glenn Hauser logs September 4-5, 2014

** AUSTRALIA. 9580, 12065 et al., Friday Sept 5 at 1306, R. Australia again with `Sound Quality`, ambient music, compere saying it`s also available ondemand for one month from RN. RA online program schedule still claims this hour is `Keys to Music`, classical appreciation. One can only wonder how many more of the 168 hours per week of continuous RA programming are incorrectly listed (or incorrectly transmitted?) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH [and non]. 15105, Sept 5 at 1229, Bangladesh Betar IS, poor with flutter, 5+1 mistimesignal ending at 1229:32! and sign-on in English. Rarely heard here and still too poor to copy; not much else this early on 19m but 15040 India also in, fair with flutter, music.

15505, Sept 5 at 1357, JBA carrier from BB Urdu service, which I have also not heard for months, but not yet enough signal even to detect this mistimesignal, presumably also still considerably fast before 1400. FWIW, comparing to the very weak Saudisig on 21505, which I use when possible to line up the FRG-7 BFO offset in order to detect BB, it is a shade higher off 15505 than Riyadh is from 21505 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BURMYANMAR [non]. 9335 // 13870, Sept 5 at 1322, RFA Burmese with expressive and emphatic OM speech, mixed music bits, with 13870 a few seconds ahead of 9335, westward from TINIAN, yet good signal here on both, way off-beam, howcum? Pipeline from the NMI? Or wrong azimuth? Farthest up their antennas go is 333 degrees for Korean, and there`s no target directly opposite from here.

With news that Democratic Voice of Burma will be closing SW at end of October its ethnic language services (but now about plain old Burmese?), we wonder how much if any of the RFA Burmese service is really in minority languages? which seem to be more in need of surrogate service than the majority. Christian broadcasters are well aware of this, e.g. multilingual RBA (aren`t there enough religions in Myanmar already?) Maybe explained somewhere on the RFA Burmese website but not in English:
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 9965, Sept 5 at 0112, R. Cairo Arabic, good with flutter, undermodulated and whine

9315, Sept 5 at 0113, R. Cairo Spanish, good signal but dead air and hi-pitched whine

12070, Sept 5 at 0117, R. Cairo Spanish, VG signal but no modulation except continuous hum and occasional pulses

11710, Sept 5 at 0115, still no signal, conceding to 11711- Argentina (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** HAWAII. 10000, Sept 5 at 1245 zeroing BFO on WWVH to measure Vietnam off-frequency, propagation minute finishes with a spurious tone of about 3 seconds, as frequently (always?) happens on WWVH, with different human OM propspeaker than artificial YL on WWV at :18 past. I hope NIST are more careful with their time and frequency accuracy (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA. 9380, Sept 5 at 1317, hi-pitched tone test, 1319 into AIR IS; 1320 ``Vande Mataram`` announced and this hymn to the motherland played for only about a minute before 1321 Hindi sign-on, as always to open the National Channel overnight service, on this new 250 kW Aligarh frequency replacing 9470 as of several weeks ago. I have been trying to hear it without success till now and it`s still very poor with flutter. But handily escapes QRM around the old frequency, co-opting wooden registration by Pakistan from 1330 on 9380, not to be confused with! AIR NC at 1320-0043 supposed to remain // 9425 via Delhi-Khampur, only a JBA carrier there. Jose Jacob`s updated schedule at
http://qsl.net/vu2jos/sw/freq.htm
also shows 9380 for Vividh Bharati service at 0100-0435 & 0900-1200 when it`s // 9870 Bengaluru (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN. 12025, Sept 5 at 0150, VRII in Spanish has hum on this frequency which is lacking on // 9860, despite same Kamalabad site.

11730, Sept 5 at 1258, M&M conversation in presumed listed Pashto from IRIB, as scheduled due east from Sirjan; salaam aleikum/aleikum salaam around 1300 and continuing, not the top of hour in Iran or Afghanistan; good with flutter, better than 11715 KJES (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 910, Sept 5 at 1211 UT, automated YL timecheck as 5, 11 minutos, back to Mexican music. So has to be in the UT -7 zone = PDT/MST. There is no Nevadan; Arizonan is not Spanish; only Mexican fit is XEAO in Mexicali BCN, 250 watts day & night per Cantú and WRTH; 1000/250 per IRCA; all as Radio Mexicana. Only other possibility would be KOXR in further Oxnard, with similar format, 1 kW night, but like all the 910 Alta Californians direxional southwest into the Pacific while XEAO is ND (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 1040, Sept 5 at 1205 UT, amid heavy QRM, not just WHO, make out mentions of BM Radio, Chihuahua, and Grupo Radiorama. Therefore it is XEHES, in Chihuahua city, the only 1040 in the estado, and which Cantú confirms is with Radiorama:
http://www.radiorama.com.mx/chihuahua
Cantú and IRCA Mexican Log show 5000/250, Estéreo Sensación // FM 94.1 XHHES. WRTH 2014 agrees on power but name as `Éxtasis Digital`. I logged this a few times in 2012y as ``Romántica`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1210, Sept 5 at 0139 UT, C&W music from US Country, i.e. KGYN Guymon, No Man`s Land. Whenever checked at night now for some weeks has good signal, i.e. illegally ND day pattern not nulling toward Philly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OMAN. 15355, Sept 5 at 0113, RSO is very good! with Qur`an, in fact the second SSOB after 15160 Spain; sought here after absence from scheduled 9500 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PAKISTAN. 15730, Sept 5 at 0122, solo song in S Asian language, poor with flutter; normally nothing to be heard above 15720 NZ. HFCC shows it`s PBC in Urdu at 0045-0215, 250 kW, 118 degrees from Islamabad. So many Pak registrations are wooden, but not this one, not now. Aoki says it`s the API-6 unit, and 15730 also registered for four other transmissions by API-6 or API-5 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also INDIA 9380

** SRI LANKA. 11905, Sept 5 at 0114:46.5 music prélude starts from SLBC upon open carrier just turned on after 0114:00; timesignal ends at 0115:18.5 but only two pips are heard, as sometimes happens; sign-on in S Asian language but always mentioning Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation full name in English (Glenn hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1737 monitoring: confirmed at NEW time of 2330.5 UT Thursday Sept 4 on WRMI 11580. `Eu News Net` was running just before, and on to WOR without any ID break, and yes, it`s the latest edition, not last week`s. Fair signal here but readable, and presumably better and better further and further east via azimuth 44.

WOR 1737 also confirmed on WWRB, 3185 and webcast, UT Friday Sept 5 at 0327, after respectful pause after abrupt stop of previous preacher; and as always initially blasts on at overmodulated level before turned down. Next:

Friday 2130 on WRMI 7570 & 15770: latter should be good into Europe if MUF hold up, with former better in closer parts of North America to Okeechobee than Oklahoma.
Saturday 0630 & 1430 on Hamburger Lokalradio 7265-CUSB
UT Sunday 0100 on WRMI 5950 (if back on air; has been off a few days)
UT Sunday 0131 on KVOH 9975 (if back on air; missing last week)
UT Monday 0259v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5109v-CUSB; etc.
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9955, Friday Sept 5 at 1250, WRMI with `AWR Wavescan`, another excerpt of a speech at NASB Greenville in May, George from KTWR Guam who says they have been replacing transmitters with DRM-capable ones, still waiting for DRM receivers to be widely available, but they do a DRM hour in Japanese where they have an audience using SDRs; waiting for DRM to become the standard for everything in India. With usual CCCCI from France in Chinese via Taiwan until 1300. But there are plenty of other chances to hear WS, especially on WRMI (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 12105, Sept 5 at 0116, WTWW-3 still with the logorrhea of Brother Scare instead of SFAW/Bibling, and tonite the signal is holding up so far; absent from 5085 WTWW-2; and 9475 WTWW-1 is nominal (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 600, Sept 5 at 0531, ``News-talk KTBB and KTBB.com`` ID, Air Force Reserve PSA, San Antonio, presented by the Texas Association of Broadcasters; another ID mentions 95.7 FM (FCC FM Query shows only a 250-watt translator CP, K236BG). This Tyler TX station is not that far away, but dominant night signal here usually is WMT in IA, which I can still hear now by nulling KTBB. Both of them aim this way at night, KTBB northwest with 2.5 kW, and WMT southwest with 5 kW, often with same network talk programming but unsynchronized, annoying (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 630, Sept 4 at 1901 UT, Fox ``News`` of Joan Rivers; 1905 UT traffic report about Boulder Turnpike; 1906 UT temp now 68 degrees; 630, Denver`s Talk Station. So KHOW 5 kW, at 450 miles/725 km city-to-city, very edge of its daytime groundwave reach, only a semihour after local mean noon. On caradio parked at a restaurant in central Enid, not a really quiet location but quiet enough to copy very weak signal. Listed as IBOC but could not hear that noise from KHOW, and fortunately IBOC no longer on from OK`s 640, nor apparently from doomed Disney KMIK 620 The Metroplex. 670 KLTT 50 kW also audible at only slightly better level. I also find a fast SAH on 560, where KWTO Springfield MO dominates with its own weak groundwave over a much closer but less favorable ground conductivity path, so the other one is likely KLZ Denver, also 5 kW, but with a tight N-S pattern not nearly so favorable usward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 900, Sept 4 at 1909 UT on caradio bandscan I notice that KSGL Wichita KS is missing. 250 watter is normally audible on daytime groundwave, and sometimes even its IBOC upper sideband circa 913 if in a quiet location. Hybrid outlet with religion and nostalgia, as explained on their compact website
http://www.ksgl.com but nothing found about being off the air. I`ve e-mailed an inquiry (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

I soon received a reply from KSGL that they are on the air, but maybe something is wrong with the power level, or wind is blowing the wrong way (hi). I check again at 2335 UT Sept 4 and still can`t hear it at all. Maybe by mistake on night power of 29 watts? Another check at 1725 UT Sept 5: I do detect only a JBA carrier on 900 (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1530, Sept 5 at 0144 UT, break in music to announce a traffic accident is blocking I-25 thru Pueblo, so detour into city streets; from Ray Weston in the ``Pueblo Radio News Center``, but outro as ``--- Newsroom``. I.e. KCMN in Colorado, dominant signal instead of WCKY. Yet, KCMN official September sunset is 0115 UT, so it`s well on the way to another night of cheating with 15,000 instead of 15 watts (they also have a 1000 watt Critical Hours license) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VIETNAM [and non]. 12018.9 approx., VOV direct as always off-frequency, Sept 5 at 1244 in English, poor signal; this puts it unnecessarily closer to the RTTY circa 12015! Saying goodbye at 1257.5, carrier still on. Aimed southward from Hanoi-Sontai, with Indonesian to follow at 1300, per Aoki, EiBi and HFCC, which insist it`s on 12020. But they are all wrong! At the same time another transmitter at same site northward goes from Russian to Chinese on 12000, not checked today but IIRC really is always on-frequency.

VOV is fond of this area, also using 12005 for relay in English to North America at 0100 --- usually still very good, but a couple nights ago quite weak, if always via Woofferton rather than Ascension (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 1510, Sept 5 at 0128 UT, again hearing Mexican music station, loops NNE/SSW appropriate for Monterrey; fades for ID at 0130 UT; another SHVA announcement at 0137 mentions 15-10 AM; and at 0138 sounds like ``[two syllables] Radio``. Just too much QRM from several stations even with WLAC nulled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 1807 UT September 5