giovedì 15 ottobre 2015

Glenn Hauser logs October 14-15, 2015


** ALBANIA. 9850, Oct 15 at 0138, no signal from R. Tirana. May well be on, but MUF is dropping at the end of the A-15 season. We can hardly wait until Oct 27 when English to N America moves to 7425, and to 0230-0300 UT Tue-Sun. (All RT broadcasts will be on 7 MHz band; other English at 2100-2130 Mon-Sat on 7465; might even need to drop to 6 MHz band) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOLOMON ISLANDS. Another slight correxion: close-down time 1158:42* not 1159:42*, Viz.: 

5020, Oct 14, I awaken at 1157, so hasten to this frequency almost buried in splash from Rebelde 5025 music. The JBA carrier does cut off at 1158:42* in keeping with SIBC normal practice (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1794 monitoring: confirmed Wed Oct 14 at 2100 on WBCQ 7490: first checked webcast, but fairly good signal later on 7490 --- this should steadily improve westward with earlier sunsets, and get a good boost from Nov with shift to one UT hour later, 2200. 

EXCEPT! Per HFCC B-15, there will yet again be a collision with BBCWS in English via THAILAND from 2200 on 7490, 250 kW at 25 degrees aimed right across North America along the grayline! Frequency ``coördination`` fails again because people who don`t actually try to LISTEN, can`t imagine this would be a problem. At the very least there will be a het with WBCQ off-frequency.

WORLD OF RADIO 1795 completed in time for first airings Oct 15:
Thu 1130   WRMI 9955 to SSE
Thu 2100   WRMI 7570 to NW
Fri 0100   WBCQ 9330-CUSB to WSW
Fri 2130.5 WRMI 7570 to NW
Fri 2330   WRMI 5850 to NW
Sat 0630   HLR 7265-CUSB to SW
Sat 1430   HLR 7265-CUSB to SW
Sat 1930v  WA0RCR 1860-AM ND?
Sun 0315v  WA0RCR 1860-AM ND?
Sun 2300   WRMI 11580 to NE
Mon 0300v  WBCQ 5110v Area 51 to WSW
Mon 0330   WRMI 9955 to SSE
Tue 1100   WRMI 9955 to SSE
Wed 1315.5 WRMI 9955 to SSE
Wed 2100   WBCQ 7490v to WSW
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7489.92-AM, Oct 15 at 0134, I`m checking WBCQ on the second week of the revived `Hal Turner`, scheduled UT Thursdays 01-03. He`s telling his story of unjust incarceration, which I don`t intend to get into in detail, and of course this is all from his side only. Says the FBI paid him $3,000 in 2005 to utter that federal judges ``deserved to be killed`` on two national TV shows. Fine, but in 2009 he was betrayed, arrested, tried three times and finally convicted (not sure I have those years right). Making him ``the first talk host to be jailed for exercising free speech``.

Meanwhile, as promised, on this night only, Brother Scare is demoted from 7490v to 5109.7-CUSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9330.09-CUSB, UT Thursday Oct 15 at 0128, I`m checking the new show on WBCQ which started last week, coincidentally competing with the explosive Hal Turner on the other WBCQ frequency. Started at 0100 but as I tune in, identifying as from Joy Mennonite Church, 504 NE 16 St, Oklahoma City, phone 1-800-999-3534, a.k.a. Faith and Values Media. At tune in, was only S7, much weaker than 7490, but by 0130 increases to S9+20. 

0130 introduces with rendition of ``Praise God from whom all blessings [allegedly] flow`` and ``Episode 4 of Mennonite Radio``. Lest you think they are retro, followed by robotic voice saying that James has a cold, but then human voices, including James? Trouble is, now there`s a mixture at almost equal level with tango songs in Spanish, sounds like Gardel. At first I think it`s meant to be background for some strange reason, but continues distracting and QRMing past 0137. Check LSB and neither audio is there, both on USB only. 

Church website http://joymennonite.org/ plugs the SW broadcast and refers to http://www.mennoniteradio.org
 
This has downloads and summaries of the first four episodes, i.e. two per week starting UT October 8. Guess what, the tango music is not accidental, but the mixing was just a bit too loud:

``Tango with Torah – a regular segment by James & Becky Branum, a married couple who verbally tangos [sic] with each other and this week’s Torah portion that would be traditionally be [sic] read in Jewish synagogues (background music by [sic – fill in the blank?]) – This week’s portion is Parsha Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32)``

Carlos Gardel tango is in fact mentioned with Episode #1. I don`t see anything about the other program they were supposedly airing, `Broad Spectrum Radio`. ``In the future we will also be sending out QSL cards to listeners who send us QSL reports.`` Following further linx about SW radio, we come to this:


``A unique opportunity to get into Shortwave Radio Broadcasting…
jmbranum September 18, 2015 BLog, Radio 1 Comment

Regular readers of the JMB.mx blog know that I’m a very avid shortwave radio listener. I am fascinated by the idea that a radio station on the other side of the world can broadcast a signal and I can pick it up (thanks to radio waves bouncing off of the ionosphere) thousands of miles away, but I also love the way that radio waves don’t respect national borders.

Positively, Shortwave radio lets listeners hear stations that provide alternative perspectives. While some countries try to jam these signals, generally no country can block its citizens from hearing all shortwave frequencies.

Negatively, the freedom of Shortwave radio allows some of the worst of human tendencies to get an outsized voice. When it comes to Shortwave commercial broadcasters in the USA, the stations tend to have a very narrow set of perspectives being broadcast – the majority being fundamentalist Christian groups (some more moderately evangelical but most being on the fringe of insanity IMHO), with the rest being a mix of extremely conservative Catholic religious broadcasting (EWTN), several racist groups (including a "Kingdom Identity" sect that promotes an anti-semitic Anglo-Israel message), and paranoid conspiracy nuts like Alex Jones. Which of course seems like a crying shame, that the many shortwave listeners around the world are hearing such a biased and distorted perspective on America and its people.

So… in light of all of this, I saw an interesting announcement on the website of the one of the commercial shortwave stations in the USA, that airtime was available for a very low-cost. The station in question broadcasts an interesting but also rather troubling mix of programs, including the racist groups discussed above, yet I also appreciate the fact that they are free speech purists and are willing to sell air time to almost anyone. And of course that means that the fundamentalists and racists don’t get a monopoly on the shortwave bands.

So in light of that, I’ve decide to a launch a radio project.

I don’t yet have a name for the project, but I’m planning to broadcast a weekly one hour broadcast on 9330 mhz [sic] via WBCQ (broadcasting from Monticello, Maine, with the best reception stretching from approximately Milwaukee, Wisconsin, southeast through Chicago and then onward through much of the Upper Midwest and Lower Appalachia through South Carolina, and then varying degrees of reception radiating out from there, with some good chances of reception in other parts of the USA, Canada, the Caribbean, Central & South America and possibly Western Europe.

wbcq coverage map at 0200 utc [VOACAP]

My rough schedule for the hour broadcast might look something like this…

0-5 minutes introduction to program, thanks to sponsors (assuming I can get some, etc.)
5-15 minutes (NEED TITLE) – Program on peace, nonviolence and social justice issues
15-18 minutes – Program ID, Music and/or sponsor announcement
18-28 minutes – (NEED TITLE) – Program on Human rights and the law
28-30 minutes – Program ID, Music and/or sponsor announcements
30-60 minutes – (NEED TITLE) A Mennonite program, exploring issues of peace, social justice, economy and theology from a progressive / anarchist Mennonite perspective, probably a sermon along with some good singing, but maybe also some interviews, story telling, etc.

So then besides doing the over-the-air broadcasts, the individual programs would be available for online download as podcasts or possibly streaming format.

This might all be craziness but I think it is doable, assuming I can get some folks lined up to help me make this happen.

The needed elements would be…

1. Around $125/month to purchase airtime.
2. Some musicians who would be willing to let their songs be played (without paying royalties).
3. Ideally some content providers, folks who might be willing to put together some short audio segments (i.e. the 10 minute program on peace, the 10 minute program on human rights and the law and the 30 minute Mennonite program), or else who might be willing to write copy that I could read for some of those segments.
4. A lot of help in promoting the programming via social media.
5. Possibly an organizational sponsor — I am up for doing this on my own if need be, but it might be easier to pull off with some folks helping.

So anyway that’s what I’m working on. I’ve told the station that I’m committing for a weekly slot in October but the odds of this happening over the long-haul will dependent on the level of help I can get from the community!

On the money side of things, donations are certainly welcome and can be sent via paypal through this button. I’m paying for the first month out of my pocket but if I can get some donations for future programming that would be pretty awesome!`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5830, Oct 15 at 0608, WTWW-1 is OFF, but 5085, WTWW-2 is on with usual Art Bell show. At 1446, WTWW-1 is still off, neither on 9475 nor 5830. What has Ted done now? #1 programming is of course first priority by the SFAW owners, even tho it`s mostly 10+year-old stuff from passé Pastor Pete Peters; so why doesn`t he put that programming on the #2 transmitter (most of the time), either on #1 frequencies or #2 frequencies? Then there`s the #3 transmitter which apparently funxions only in the afternoons on 12105 (not always). Evidently #1 has failed, and lacks the flexibility to shift things around. At 1636 UT Oct 15, nothing on 12105, 9930, nor 9475, all off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 702, Oct 15 at 0610 UT, JBA carrier, also at 0624, loops east/west, which points to NZ rather than Eurafrica? No other 9-kHz carriers found, not even 738 Tahiti which the west-coasters are getting even much earlier than this (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 1701 UT October 15