domenica 19 luglio 2009

Glenn Hauser logs July 17-18, 2009

** CHINA. Firedrake July 18: at 1350 VP on 8400, not on 9000 or 13970, trace on 14430. But at 1352, good on 15150, nothing on any higher frequency. Things were rather different after 1435: now FD was fair with flutter on 17470, still at 1508, good at S9+10 and less flutter. At 1438, now VG S9+10 on 13970, but just barely audible on 14430. At 1443, JBA on 9000 and 8400. At 1536 still good on 17470, fair on 13970; at 1537 also good on 13500.

Did not take time to examine which frequencies were // and which not, but usually there are two different Firedrake music streams. Nor do I try much to track the other CNR1 echo jamming, but was hearing that at 1440 on 11510 and 11615, which are VOA Tibetan and Mandarin respectively during the 14-15 hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. RHC check July 18 at 0610: Spanish on 11760, 6120, 6060 and very poor 6000. English on 6010 only, while 6140 was open carrier, still the case at 0630. How many DentroCubans could have had a decent meal for the cost of 250+ kW of electricity wasted in those few minutes?

Wondering if RHC is still on extended schedule, not revealed on their website, almost two sesquiweeks after the Honduran coup/non-coup? Yes! July 18 at 1500 I tuned to 13780 which was playing music, but no sign-off or any other announcement before it went to open carrier at 1502, hetting Austria/Sackville on 13775. RHC 13680 was also still on with OC.

Then I tuned to 11760 and found RHC news underway // no echo on: 5965, and // but echoing on 13760, 11690 and 6000. I had already noticed open carrier on 11690 at 1450 making HCJB barely detectable under that and the RTTY, during Aventura Diexista, Allen Graham interviewing Jeff White about WRMI; which was Lima Charlie on 11960. At 1510, 11760 dumped off the air abruptly, but was back on at next check for it 1535. I had also neglected to look for 11800 earlier but it too was on at 1538, an echo apart from 11760. So that makes a total of six extra frequencies found after 1500: 5965, 6000, 11690, 11760, 11800, 13760.

Note: we have not had a word about this extended schedule from Arnie Coro; you need to get your RHC operational news from actual monitoring by yours truly instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GERMANY [non]. July 18 at 1506 found a collision on 15450 and slow SAH; one was in Russian and soon heard DW theme music; the other unID language, and both were gone by 1530. Currently scheduled at 1500-1530
is VOA Uzbek via Sri Lanka, but can`t find any listing for DW! A mistake or something new, site? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA [and non]. VOI, missing from 9526 or any other frequency during the 13-14 UT English broadcast the last two days, was back July 18 at 1303 check, but now just a shade below 9525 instead of just a shade below 9526. Scenario: the 9526v transmitter failed, and it took them two days to get the 9525v one up and running instead. Newscast in progress about the suicide bombings at Jak hotels; same YL announcer heard thruout the hour doing all the narration, including around 1330 a feature on batik.

Ron Howard also caught this July 18 after 1100 in Chinese and measured VOI at 9524.88. Normally, there is a big het during the 14-15 hour when CRI in Russian is in 9525.0, but today after 1400 I heard that without any het, which should have diminished from approx. 880 to 120 Hz, suggesting that VOI was off the air during the Malaysian hour today, unless it outfaded completely, unlikely.

When CRI finished abruptly at 1457* no trace of VOI then either when a bit of its next English broadcast used to follow after 1500. I wonder if they belatedly took my advice and started moving to 11785 at 1400 to avoid the CRI QRM --- that`s OK on weekdays, but not here on weekends when WHRI blots everything else out on 11785 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. 21695, very weak signal occasionally fading up, July 18 at 1355, music and talk, sounds Swahili, and that matches V. of Africa schedule, to go into English after 1400; unfavorable azimuth for us of 230 degrees, per Aoki, which BTW is not toward Swahililand either (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. Since WWCR 13845 and 15825 were inbooming, July 18 at 1350, I knew sporadic E was again in axion, as without it these megameter-distant frequencies are poorly audible. So I checked 18770 for the WWRB 2 x 9385 harmonic at 1354, and there was Brother Scare`s organ music steady at S9; at 1431 he was screaming to a chorus of amens.

At 1437 was also hearing BS on WBCQ 15420, much stronger than and running about one second ahead of // 18770. WBCQ carries him on 15420 Sabbath mornings only.

As for the sporadic E, WWV was also well heard on 20000 at 1354, less than one megameter, so normally inaudible here without Es. But the MUF did not rise to channel 2 TV, and there were only a handful of 6-meter ham contacts on the map (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1469 must have started as early as 2028:30 on WWCR 15825, Friday July 17, since it was ending at 2057:15, leaving plenty of time for the frequency change to 7465 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Tuning across WTJC, 9370v, July 18 at 1300, so-called `news` from IRN-USA network had a `correspondent` reporting the death of Walter Cronkite, incorrectly saying he was 90 instead of 92, and getting in a jab that he was a member of some one-world organization, godforbid. The clear implication from the tone of this item was ``good riddance``, as to anyone remotely liberal or fair (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Re previous report of a gospel huxter in English on 1570 instead of XERF: I checked again July 18 at 0635 UT, this time with the DX-398 portable which has good nulling capability. XERF was certainly on in Spanish as usual, but if I nulled it I could hear the preaching in English. But on the FRG-7 with E-W longwire, I was getting the English station and very little XERF. The LW must be more direxional than I had realized at this frequency. It was late and still didn`t get ID, but the two most likely possibilities, roughly at right angles to Del Río, are:

KZLI Catoosa/Tulsa OK, but is supposed to have a nostalgia format and NOT be on the air at night; however we did hear that after sunrise with Imus in the Morning, which is not a musical show, so they could have preachers too. Token website is extremely uninformative:
http://1570kzli.com/

The other and very likely the answer is a relatively new station in Missouri, which *is* legally on 24 hours, COL Hollister, address in Springfield, and NRC AM Log says its format is religion: KBCV, 5000 W day, 3000 W night. The NRC Pattern Book of 2006, when it was just a CP, showed night pattern with major lobe NW, minor SE, which means not much of a signal toward Enid, but not in a total null either, which is directly toward XERF (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###