** ALBANIA. 9850, April 10 at 0127, R. Tirana IS is definitely here where it`s
supposed to be for the English service, not 9855 as used for the 23-24 Albanian
service. Only fair, 34-47 dbu in storm noise level, which on vacant 9835 reads
28-32 dbu on the PL-880 with short random wire (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
** CUBA. 950, April 10 at 0118 UT, as I have just logged XERN in
Nuevo León [see MEXICO], I hear the Radio Reloj ``RR`` Morse code sounder, so I
know it has to be Cuba, brought in a little better by rotating the DX-398, but
still all I can copy are the minutely time tone followed by RR for the next two
minutes, and compared to WWV, Reloj is 17 seconds slow!! Good enough for Commie
government work? WRTH 2015 shows two CMBDs on 950, each 10 kW: in Camagüey and
closer Arroyo Arenas, Habana (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
**
CUBA. 6155-6175, April 10 at 0131, RHC English 6165 is totally out of whack,
just huge crackling noise blob covering out to 20 kHz with no programmatic
modulation detectable within it. Fixing that will require a lot more than
wiggling a patchcord! English on 6060 is nominal, as is Spanish on 6060 (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT. 17550, April 9 at 2056, R.
Kuwait with ME music (rather than Qur`an), heavy flutter, but better than it was
almost an hour earlier at sign-on. PL-880 on the porch with short random wire
shows dbu ranges 26-43. It`s sampling once per second, so occasionally hits a
peak or valley, while most readings are closer to the middle of whatever range
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** MEXICO. 950, April 10 at 0117
UT, Mexican-sounding PSA, then ``La Mera Mera`` slogan (plus ``La Ranchera``?
Not sure about that part), but I am sure an 8:17 timecheck followed and temp in
Montemorelos. So it`s XERN, 5/1 kW in that Nuevo León city per Cantú, which
however calls it ``La Jefa``. Even further off is the IRCA Log listing as La
Jefa in Monterrey. Where will WRTH find it? Monterrey, but called ``Radio
Naranjera`` --- at least that matched the call letters. Could that be what I
heard, rhyming with mera? No, ``La Mera Mera`` was pretty clear and a slogan
used by several Mexican stations, odd as it sounds.
That ex-name
obviously had something to do with oranges, but what, exactly? My Random House
LA SS dixionary spells it out: naranjera is orange-seller (if feminine), but
what`s that got to do with radio? Naranjal is orange grove; naranjada is
orangeade; naranja is orange, the fruit; while naranjo besides meaning orange
tree can also informally mean lout or blockhead. I guess the color naranj@ can
be either gender, depending.
Montemorelos is about 52 km SE of Monterrey
on Carretera 85, so just about a suburb easily linked to the metropolis (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also CUBA
** OKLAHOMA. 1520, April
10 at 0057 UT, syndicated paranoid talkshow loops toward OKC, so KOKC already
back on the air again? Only fair signal with plenty of QRM, KOLM et al. Yes,
0059 UT ID ``News-Talk 1520, K-OKC, Oklahoma City, 1560 KEBC Del City`` and into
(bong) CBS News. So have KOKC finished the reconstruxion already? (Glenn Hauser,
Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also USA: 1560
** OKLAHOMA. 91.7, April 9
around 19 UT I notice that KOSU is open carrier/dead air. Further random chex,
at 2049 and past 2100 UT still find the same! I happen to be tuned in again at
2119 UT when the sound comes back at low level, then boosted up to normal level,
as local host is lamenting that 91.7 is ``off in Oklahoma City and Ponca City``
due to a technical problem, but their other relays 88.3 in Stillwater and 107.5
around Tulsa are on the air. Unfortunate, since this hinders their current push
to wrap up a fundraiser.
Earlier at 2107 I had tried to hear both of
them, and maybe there was a trace of low-power 88.3 KOSR modulating; it normally
takes some tropo help to get 107.5 into Enid. I wasn`t aware they had a relay in
Ponca City, as it never appears in the multi-station IDs that I have heard.
WTFDA FM database shows:
``K235CG KOSU 94.9 PONCA CITY OK 0.25 0.25 78.0
0.0 36.4428 97.0338 ADULT ALTERNATIVE`` which means it`s a 250-watt ERP
translator in both horizontal and vertical planes, but the vertical antenna
height is 0 meters above average terrain while the horizontal is 78 meters up.
Huh?? Many other entries have such anomalies.
Evidently this alone
relies on a direct pickup of the 91.7 signal. I`ve never heard this 94.9 in
Enid, not that far away, altho with a bigger OKC signal adjacent on 94.7. And
the ``adult alternative` format is rather incomplete --- that`s the ``crazy``
part at night, while the ``smart`` part in the daytime is still news/talk public
radio/NPR, etc.
Are there any other KOSU translators we don`t know
about? I try searching the WTFDA list, but keywords public radio are not
specific enough, and adult alternative does not apply to all the KOSU
frequencies, though they are really 100% identical in content. Then I try the
entire Oklahoma list at FCC FM Query, and that leads only to 88.3 Stillwater,
91.7 Stillwater (really OKC), 94.9 Ponca, 107.3 Bixby and 107.5 Ketchum.
Furthermore can`t find anything at http://www.kosu.org detailing all their stations,
just a general coverage map for the two bigsigs on 91.7 and 107.5 (Glenn Hauser,
Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA. 94.3, April 9 at 2048 AND 2108
UT, KLGB-LP Enid is dead air again like we caught it a few weeks ago, but it is
in stereo! Turning volume all the way up, we can also again hear JBA bleedthru
from 99.9 KVBN-LP which is really at the same site on the same tower. Still like
that at 0135 UT check April 10 --- no one minding the store (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** PERU. 5980, April 10 at 0054, JBA carrier from R.
Chaski, so tune back at 0107 to clock its cutoff, which happens at 0107:53*. One
quadrinite ago it was at 0107:27*, averaging 6.5 seconds later per, rather than
the once-reliable 5.83 seconds.
Now it`s ahead of our streetlite ignition
RF burst at 0111 UT, clear sky at sunset, officially exactly 0100 UT (Glenn
Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1768
monitoring: Thursday April 8 I am tuned to 7570 before 2100 to check out a new
time in the online schedule. Carrier is on by 2058, music at 2059, Zanotti ID at
2059.5, and indeed into WOR at 2100. 7570 dbu reading on the PL-880 with short
random wire is 29-36, while the noise floor on 7560 is 30-32. Then I check 15770
and find WOR is also on there in //, 34-45 dbu and sufficient. The schedule
shows something else on that frequency as they are supposedly being split, but
still really duplicating. Perhaps the same will happen this Friday as it did
last week at 2130 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A.
7490v, UT Friday April 10 at 0040, WBCQ with `The Next Chapter`, host talking
about the ``Rukeyser Effect`` on the old `Wall Street Week` program and how it`s
just about impossible for ordinary investors to beat the market system today.
See the WBCQ sked entry:
http://schedule.wbcq.com/main.php?fn=show_program&id=279
which
claims it`s on an hour earlier at 23-24 UT Thursdays! And Rabbi Yaakov Spivak
during this hour. Don`t know if an anomaly, mistake, or permanent change as
unfortunately like many stations, the online sked is not perfectly accurate and
up-to-date (yes, this is despite the correct EDT/UT shift of 4 hours
difference). For more on `The Next Chapter` including transcripts and audio of
all 68+ programs, see http://radioalexandria.net
5110 I
also check around 0040 April 10, but can`t detect it. By 0055, there is a weak
unreadable AM signal closer to 5109.0, so this WBCQ is apparently on the air.
Allan has previously mentioned some Thursday-night programming on 5110, but it`s
yet to appear in the Program Guide.
Besides local line noise and other
sources, there is heavy storm noise really degrading reception up to at least 13
MHz, the lightning area ranging from NW Louisiana to Chicago (Glenn Hauser, OK,
DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 7505.3, April 10 at 0129 check, no sign of
WRNO (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. After hearing KOKC
reactivated on 1520 but still announcing duplication on KEBC 1560, I also try to
match it, but April 10 at 0101 UT, 1560 is already dominated by some skywaving
gospel huxter, looping slightly clockwise from N/S --- at first I think of KKAA
Aberdeen SD, 10/10 kW U4 Family Radio, but more likely it`s closer and
clockwiser Wilkins` KLNG Council Bluffs IA, 10 kW ND daytimer. Into a rendition
of ``Deep River``, but gone by 0103 UT. Indeed, KLNG`s official April sunset is
0100 UT (May: 0130 UT) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING
DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 17700.25-LSB, April 9 at 2104, 2-way in colloquial
Spanish, I think, but very weak and sporadic, intruding, anyway into the
exclusive 16m SWBC band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This
report despatched at 0428 UT April 10
