domenica 29 marzo 2015

Glenn Hauser logs March 28, 2015

** BRAZIL. 11710 trace, 11745 & 11815 poor, March 28 at 0546 check, crackling spurs still emanate from the defective 11780.15v 250 kW transmitter of RNA/RNB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGESET)

** BULGARIA. 9525, March 28 at 2012, as expected, no signal audible here from Global 24 via Secretbrod, so at 2055 I tune in the Twente, Netherlands remote instead. No signal there either! Just wideband whine on the 31m band, something wrong with the receiver? But I leave it on 9525 and it pops on at *2057. As a second-hand reception, I can`t be sure whether that was what the transmitter did, or the receiver did. In time to hear Blues Radio International closing with Boca Ratón FL address; 2059 ``Global 24 on WRMI`` ID (NOT: still using old recordings). And into `Feature Story News` for 5 minutes starting with the NYC fire which makes me suspect it`s from yesterday. 2105 Global 24 Radio promo, like us on Facebook; and very familiar music fill interspersed with ads: ``RESPECT``, 2108 SDR from Universal et al., ``Mashed Potatoes``; 2111 ``Mrs. Robinson``; 2114 Ears to Our World; 2115 waltz theme and `News Review from European News Network`. Lead story
 refers to plane crash being ``yesterday``, so apparently recorded three days ago, usual Wednesday produxion. So far reception via Twente has been very good! But at 2121, some local noise starts cutting on and off irregularly, mostly on, like something shorting in the electrical lines around, bad transformer. 2123 lets up a little, then worsens again. 2126, ENN concludes with ``Out on a Song``, some retro artist. 2129 promo another ENN program (which isn`t on G24 or SW, AFAIK), `Anything Goes`, on Mondays and Fridays.

2130.5 Global 24 ID ``on 9395 kHz``, also outdated; 2131:09 (with webcast delay), start WORLD OF RADIO 1766 and played to completion at 2200. The noise bursts continue to QRM. At 2145 ACI also cuts on, i.e. 9530 with HCJB`s Radio Akhbar Mufriha, 250 kW, 27 degrees from ASCENSION. I`ve been listening with relatively wide (default?) bandwidth on the remote, but now narrow it to lessen this and off-tune to 9524, which helps. Still it gets worse at 2155.

What about from next week in A-15? G24/BUL still isn`t registered. HFCC shows that HCJB/ASC will be gone from 9530, but 9525 will have CRI Russian from 19 to 21, aimed NW from Beijing site, so that will be no good for Bulgaria around Eurasia during that bihour (this Saturday start scheduled at 1800 with two hours of `The Rock Pile`). Will WOR stay at 2130 or shift to 2030? TBA (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 7230.0-LSB, March 28 at 0552, XL3A is making his contact #710 in the WPX DX Contest, but whence? QRZ.com shows: XL3A, Ron Vander Kraats, 9 Jopling Avenue South, Islington, ON M9B 3P4, Canada; QSL: VE3AT --- who, AAMOF, has exactly the same name and address. But XL3A is so much more exotic a prefix. Hambands have continued to be crammed this weekend tnx to the contest, but with the MARTINIQUE log, this is about the extent of my monitoring of it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. CNR1 jammers, morning of March 28:

17830, March 28 at 1418, CNR1 jammer, poor with heavy flutter. Had not noticed this inband one before, but I bet it`s against VOA Tibetan --- yes, Aoki shows via Tinang, Philippines, this hour only

17585, March 28 at 1418, CNR1 jammer, fair with heavy flutter. This one is vs VOA Tibetan via Lampertheim, Germany

16920, March 28 at 1418, CNR1 jammer, good with heavy flutter
15970, March 28 at 1419, CNR1 jammer, good with flutter
15745, March 28 at 1419, CNR1 jammer, good with heavy flutter
14980, March 28 at 1421, CNR1 jammer, fair-good with flutter

14920, March 28 at 1421, CNR1 jammer but dead air until 1422 modulation, good with flutter

12560, March 28 at 1424, CNR1 jammer, fair with flutter
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 17550, March 28 at 2004, R. Kuwait ID in passing, Arabic, fair, registering 27-38 dbu on the PL-880 with short random wire; by 2023 it`s down to 20-35 dbu, and keeps weakening. Believe it`s the first time this year I have heard this strange service to Central & Western North America at 20-24 UT. Riding the MUF, reception will continue to vary widely from day to day. And still NO signal on 15540 for the 18-21 English service, transmitter defunct? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MARTINIQUE. 7279.5-LSB, March 28 at 0549, ham TO4C making quick contest QSOs, having reached #923 sequentially. Fortunately always utters call fonetikaly, but where in the world is that? Must find himself in Region 2 to reside in this bandpart. QRZ.com shows:

TO4C, Richard Brokenshaw M5RIC, QSL Via M0OXO, OQRS Preferred, Martinique. Active from Martinique NA-107 from:
26 March - 01 April 2014 including an entry in CQWW WPX SSB.
22 March - 29 March 2015 including an entry in CQWW WPX SSB.

No doubt he got that odd call to diversify the prefixes available rather than plain old FM- something (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1560, afternoon of March 28, KEBC OKC is still duplicating 1520 KOKC --- did they break contract with NBC Sports and can`t go back? There is certainly no need for // 1560 as long as 1520 is funxioning. Ben Dawson provides more:

``1520 back on the air! With our new folded vertical radiator and a slightly modified simple L network. Makes 10 kW with 1.07 VSWR. Jack calls it a "Slant-loaded Network".

The Jack he refers to is Jack Sellmeyer, distinguished Texas consulting engineer who cobbled together the temporary lash up.``

I assume a ``folded vertical`` is a bit of a joke, considering that`s what the tornado left them with (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 90.1, March 28 just before 1500 UT, KUCO remarx during a pledge drive, after announcer and GM Brad Ferguson stumbles over triple-station ID, that the heritage KCSC call, originally on 90.1, will be applied to the 95.9 Woodward relay effective Monday = March 30, ex-KZCU. UCO acquired it from KCCU Lawton, which was unwilling / unable to run it properly, get rid of persistent IADs (intermittent audio dropouts) marring the 95.9 transmission which was 100% relay of KCCU. (Or rather one time when I was in range --- can`t get it in Enid ---, the dropouts were extremely regular, like clockwork.)

It`s seemed odd that for the past few months since KUCO took it over, IDs have continued to be as KZCU, obviously based on the ex-owner`s home calls. Thought they might go for ``KUCW`` which seemed to be available. Then later in the afternoon during Met Opera intermission, local host Lane Whitesell (who`s awfully hard to find on the website, spell-checking), says KCSC calls are effective Wednesday = April 1, which seems more likely (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PHILIPPINES. 9800, March 28 at 1427, VOA Korean usual good signal but somewhat distorted and carrier wobble, soul music. Is Tinang site, and has had such problem before (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RWANDA. I make a point of monitoring the final semihour in existence of the Kigali relay station, which is AWR French on 17800: tune-in at 2000 to very good signal, opening as Radio Mondiale Adventiste. First segment is ``emission de santé`` (which means health, an Adventist preoccupation, not saintliness), advice about STDs. 2007 break for address in Côte d`Ivoire, music box; 2009.5 AWR theme, another talk.

I haven`t been logging the dbmu readings displayed by the PL-880 which is now hooked up to a random wire under the eaves on the porch, but this time I do and compare it to the few other signals on 16m; larger ranges indicate more fading:

17800 AWR Kigali registers 34-46 dbu
17790 WRMI is a bit weaker at 38-45 dbu, and softer modulation
17730 RHC is stronger at 43-51 dbu, but sounds weaker, undermodulated
17550 Kuwait is 27-38 dbu and weakening (see separate log)
Noise floor on unoccupied 17 MHz channel is 15-17 dbu

At 2024 I start recording the last six minutes to be heard from Kigali, ever:
http://www.w4uvh.net/kigaliend.rm

2025, e-mail Abidjan address, again. I am trying to copy it: La Radio Mondiale Adventiste, La Voix de l`Espérance, 08 Boite Postale 1551(?), Abidjan 08, Côte d`Ivoire? but not sure, so try to look it up. Nowhere in the WRTH entries for AWR. Nor that I can find on website, with podcasts of this and many previous French broadcasts, http://af.awr.org/ci/fra/7 where you are expected to use e-mail only but not the `local` address announced: lavoixdelesperance@yahoo.com --- They say to be sure to make the e-mail in minuscule (lower case) only --- no, e-mail addresses are NOT case-sensitive. Google search on voix esperance cote divoire leads to a station of the same name on FM 101.6, but it`s Methodist!!

2026, AWR theme and other music, mentioning Jesus, hymn, address yet again. Says back tomorrow at same time, nothing about new frequency or new site! (But HFCC A-15 shows the 2000 French broadcast will be on 9610 via Nauen, and 17570 via Issoudun.) ``He leadeth me`` tune is cut off at 2029 and carrier stays on another minute+ until 2030:03****. Goodbye forever. (Ironically, DW`s own usage of Kigali ended a few hours earlier when I couldn`t monitor.) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. 17755, March 28 at 2010, no signal, nor 21620, which REE was reportedly using already from A-15 schedule this Saturday starting at 1500 per Ivo Ivanov; 15490 is good with flutter; at 2021 that signal ranges 36-47 dbu without flutter, but at 2022 the flutter resumes during silly ballgame; suspect this flutter is from two transmitters beating rather than propagation. 2032 check, now I can detect a JBA carrier on 17755, and 9620 is also audible along with 15490 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 650, March 28 at 1855 UT on caradio, finding that IBOC from 640 KWPN Moore OK is off, is anything making it on 650? Yes, JBA country music! Can it be WSM Nashville, a megameter away, just a few minutes after our local mean noon? What else could it be? I stop and get out the PL-880 which fortunately I have along to check out something on SW. With BFO and rotating it, I can barely DF this 650 signal to east-west, which chex for WSM. But there is also a second even weaker carrier. That would most likely be talker KGAB in SE Wyoming, which has been known barely to make it here on groundwave (if KLTT 670 Denver can, why not?). But is WSM by skywave or groundwave? D-layer absorption should be taking it out, but ground conductivity between there and here is nothing special, and I don`t even get Memphis on 560 or 600 in daytime. BTW, NRC AM Log shows there are only 7 stations on 650 in the entire conterminous US, which is about as close as we can get
 to a `clear` channel any more.

Mandatory check of 720 as well: at 1906 UT March 28, I do have a SAH, presumably KSAH TX and WGN IL (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 0058 UT March 29