giovedì 16 febbraio 2017

Glenn Hauser logs February 14-15, 2017


** ALBANIA. 7475-, Feb 15 at 0225 and 0240 chex, still no signal from R. Tirana. Romania in French is audible on 7410, i.a., and China via Albania is in well on 9570 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ARGENTINA [non]. 11710.6v, circa 0140 Feb 15, again tonight no trace of a RAE signal; and weak het on 6060 may not involve RAE either. RAE, of course, never appears in HFCC, but what else might be on 6060 at 0112? HFCC B-16 does show: VIRI in Arabic from Zahedan at 2100-0230, and CNR Chengdu at 2155-0135. Wolfgang Büschel also replies: 

``Checked 6060 kHz channel last night Feb 13, at 2314 UT on remote unit in central Florida: 6060.002 strongest VIRI Zahedan in Arabic at S=9+20dB level. Underneath Brazilian SRDA on 6059.763 kHz very odd fq channel. Nothing could be traced like RAE Buenos Aires at this hour so far``

Meanwhile, I had posted this to the condiglista yg: ``No escuchamos nada en las frecuencias de la RAE, 15345v ni en 11710.6v, aunque tal vez en 6060. Por favor los diexistas argentinos o sudamericanos averigüen si la RAE esté totalmente fuera del aire o no? Gracias. Guilleremo Glenn Hauser``

I got this reply from Gabriel Gómez on a related subject:

``Estimado Glenn, saludos desde Montevideó. A mediados de Enero en encuentro personal con Arnaldo Slaen del programa Actualidad DX.com.ar me notificó que debido a problemas en el servicio se estaba pensando arrendar tiempo de emisión en WRMI. Con la finalidad de potenciar salida y ampliar alcance de emisión. 73``

Well, Arnaldo`s other DX program, La Rosa de Tokio, has several hours on WRMI already. I gather that Actualidad DX is of widely variable lengths, which would make it difficult to schedule into automation (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH. 15505, Feb 14 at 1358, JBA carrier from presumed Bangladesh Betar about to open Urdu service. I`ve sometimes checked for this all winter but no luck; now with equinox looming, we hope for even slightly improved trans-polar propagation, as I am eager to get enough strength to capture and reconfirm their traditional mistimesignals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 11854.95, Feb 15 at 0142, JBA carrier from R. Aparecida: now drifting down again after accomplishing a reset to 11855.01 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 6000, Feb 15 at 0152, RHC is S9+25/30 but just barely modulated in English, which is often the case, while the only // at this hour, 6165 is S9+50 with OK mod (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 9490, Feb 15 at 0144, no signal from R. República, and no jamming either. But recheck at 0201, now a wall-of-noise atop a detectable carrier from FRANCE. So it seems that R.R. is now starting at 0200 as in HFCC, but contrary to that has also dropped the 01-02 hour (and was it ever at 00-01? Maybe during DST); and is it really only one hour now until 0259? Haven`t checked when it stops, but remnant pulse jamming is often audible well into the wee hours (horitas?) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREECE. 9420, Feb 14 at 2110, VOG is S9+10 with Greek music, mostly songs for rest of hour, just right to accompany my nap. // 9935 carrier detectable in huge splash from 9930 WTWW. 9420 also often stops the memory scan on the BST-1 caradio around this hour when I am not dozing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9525.940, Feb 14 at 1407, VP carrier from VOI, presumably in Indonesian now and English before 1400. A week ago Ivo Ivanov had found it back on their almost +1 kHz off-frequency after a spell slightly below 9525.000, presumably a different transmitter. Atsunori Ishida, http://rri.jpn.org notes that Feb 5 was the first day on 9526 ex-9525 (rounded off), and has been heard at least part of the +09-21 UT span every day since, except Feb 11. E.g. on Feb 13 not heard after 1109* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENNG DIGEST)

** MADAGASCAR. 5008v, Feb 15 at 0148, no signal here nor hetting 5010 Cuban leapfrog now always audible when both 5040 and 5025 are on from same site. Ron Howard was getting around ``5010.78v, R. Madagasikara, 1518-1532, Feb 14`` reactivated, by long path and we should also get the morning broadcast by short path in the 02/03 UT period. But not heard tonight before I quit circa 0230 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NORTH AMERICA. 7615, Feb 15 at 0223, Station YHWH is here again tonight, S9-S8 with a passage I recognize as heard before, nixing holidays. Was not on at previous bandscan before 0200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 7340, Feb 15 at 0152, RRI in proper language Romanian // 5910, unlike 24 hours ago when 7340 was in English by mistake, making 3 frequencies in that // 7325 & 5960 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN. 9690, Feb 14 at 2107, REE reactivated, VG signal with silly ballgame, while JBA on 11685, poor on 15390, 15500. I think this is first day North American channel is back after latest outage (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 12035, Feb 14 at 1420, VOT music, hurried headlines in English to close European service, and 1425 to IS with presumed Kazakh IDs interspersed, until finally cut off at 1429:10* --- so Emirler must still hustle to get Kazakh frequency 9785 up and modulating by 1430:00. WEWN has fixed the 12050 spurblobs, for now, see U S A, so VOT is QRM-free today (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 4036-USB, Feb 15 at 0211, MARS net with abbr`d calls, all fonetik, including R5M, 5R3, and AAA5R2 about sending traffic.

4041-USB, another MARS net 5 kHz away, Feb 15 at 0210, first sending digital file; then reciting a roster presumably of stations which have checked in tonight, fonetikaly: AAA7JO is the NCS, 7JU, 7DP, AFA7BG, 7BP, 7AC, AFA7KO, 7NE, and one then heard, 7JV (evidently the ones without AFA- are AAAs, or AARs?) At 0214 NCS says A7A is now a free net. Radiochex follow between 7GH and 7JO, then sending digital test message (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 10000, Feb 14 at 1404, WWV is announcing during this minute every hour that due to an upgrade it will be off the air from all frequencies Feb 21 & 22 (Tue & Wed) starting at 14 UT for not more than 8 hours each. 

That will be a chance for us to hear some other SFTS stations, e.g. is LOL ARGENTINA really active? STFT Sked per WRTH shows 14-15 M-F only on 10000 with 2 kW. Of course, WWVH will still be running. 

5005.19, Feb 15 at 0148, WWV is putting a spur here with tix audible, but disappears at 0149 after minute announcement. I was preparing to look for reactivated Madagascar, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1864 monitoring: confirmed Tuesday February 14 at 2130 on WRMI 15770, S9+10 and // 6855 JBA. Also confirmed Tue Feb 14 at 2300 on WRMI 9955, holding its own against protracted wall-of-noise jamming against Radio Libertad; tnx a lot, Arnie! Also confirmed JBA, UT Wed Feb 15 after 0030 on WBCQ, 9330v-CUSB. Next:
Wed 1030   WRMI 5850 to NW, 6855 to WNW
Wed 1415.5 WRMI 9955 to SSE, 6855 to WNW
Wed 2200   WBCQ 7490v to WSW
Thu 0030   WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5130.08, Feb 15 at 0146, WBCQ is open carrier/dead air, still so at 0203 check. As nothing else is scheduled, this time would have been filled by Brother Scare (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 12050, Feb 14 at 1415, 24 hours after the horrible spur field WEWN was outputting, it`s back in whack, bandwidth from 12050 greatly reduced. So I thank Glen Tapley:

``Glen, 24 hours later, 1415 UT today, greatly improved. Just about 15 kHz bandwidth as received and no further spurs. Much weaker Turkey in the clear on 12035. Please keep it up! I would assume 5810 at night is same transmitter as 12050 in daytime, but it has not displayed such wideband spurious problems. Is it really a different transmitter? I did notice it was having off & on problems. Glenn`` -- and he replies:

``The 12050 is in a high band and 5810 on low band. Two distinct transmitters. Thank you for informing us of the issue. Glen`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1590, Feb 15 at 0140 UT, another try to mail down the Spanish religion here which last night appeared to be coming from KMIC Houston, back in Spanish after a South Asian format. Don`t get much, but some gospel music and talk; at 0158 UT mentions La Virgen María, Catholic rather than Pentecostal or Hindu keywords. Then arrives this clarification from our DXLD correspondent in Houston, tnx Stephen:

``Glenn, it appears KMIC 1590 is back to Radio Aleluya, Spanish language religion. Radio Dabang had been on 1590 for several months with South Asian programming, after moving off KLVL 1480.

KLVL launched a new FM translator on 95.3, which went on the air with South Asian programming a couple of weeks ago. I discovered that it was Radio Dabang, // to both KLVL 1480 and KMIC 1590. Now it seems that Radio Dabang has dropped 1590 in favor of the FM signal and its poorer AM counterpart.

At a 0300 check February 15, KMIC 1590 was // to sisters KJOZ 880 and the local 88.1 FM, but NOT // to siblings KQUE 980 or KRCM 1380 (apparently running more than authorized 50 watts at night, but much less than the 22 kW day power; perhaps using directional array instead of ND?)

I will do some more checking to see if 1590 is fulltime Radio Aleluya or splitting time with something else.

The KLVL 1480 day signal is decent, but the night signal starts dying west of downtown Houston, and is buried in the co-channel pileup outside of West Loop 610.  The 95.3 translator gets out farther with an east-west directional signal that protects LPFM KEPH on the south side of the metro area and an unbuilt LPFM in NE Harris County.  Co-channel KTTF in Tomball (NW Harris County) has had some of its southeastern coverage area clipped by the translator.

Stephen Luce, Houston, Texas`` 
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 1521.0, Feb 15 at 0230, carrier making quite audible tell-tale het against 1520.0 KOLM/KOKC, no doubt BSKSA signifying trans-Atlantic propagation is open. But nothing detected on several other lower split frequencies checked. So I try longwave again:

At 0231-0232 UT Feb 15, I finally get some JBA trans-Atlantic LW carriers on 162, 198, 207, 216 kHz on the NRD-545 and ALA-330S, with no sign they are NDBs, altho some higher LWBC channels are beacon-blocked. 216 is strong enough to DF on the DX-398 as from NE. I was a bit surprised at 162 as France is presumably running much reduced power now just for phase-modulated timesignals. 198 would be BBCR4, 207 Iceland (but no 189), 216 Monaco/France. Or Morocco is also listed on 207, but nothing heard on 171 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 0528 UT February 15