lunedì 20 luglio 2009

Glenn Hauser logs July 20 with shorter lines

** CHINA. Firedrake July 20: at 1305, just barely audible on 13970, 9000, 8400, nowhere else (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. RHC, 13790, July 20 at 0203 in Spanish news, echoing against // 13760 from the other site. 13790 is now on the official schedule as always beamed at Rio de Janeiro, from 21 to 05 in Spanish, English, French, and Creole --- but not Portuguese!

RHC check 0610 July 20: Spanish on 11760, 6140, 6000, no signal on 6120. English on 6060, 6010.

Are they still pretending to be on 12000 in the mornings? Yes, July 20 at 1401, Tony`s announcement monitored on 15120 still says ``15120, 15360, 13760, 13680, 13780, 11760, 12000, 6000`` in that out-of-order. But then I found 12000 missing, instead breaking-up on 11800 as usual for the last few weeks, also unannounced 5965, better than 6000. They haven`t a clue in the studio what is going on at the transmitters. How about turning on a radio and listening to your own output some time? Additionally audible on 13720, which is a leapfrog of RHC 13760 over CRI English relay on 13740. A mix with the CRI audio could also be detected on 13720 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [non]. Tuning across R. Martí, 13820 via Greenville, July 20 at 1421, they had a feature from the Academia Real Española on the proper use of the colon (: dos puntos), audible OK despite heavy DentroCuban jamming against grammar lessons courtesy of the US taxpayer. In my experience, the SS community are more in need of lessons about the semi-colon, which is used even less by them than by English speakers; instead comma-splices are even more rampant. It`s time for me to give away some more semi-colons for those in dire need of them in either language; if anyone will learn their proper usage:
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CZECHIA [non]. WRMI, 9955, audible July 20 at 1311 with a bit of Spanish vs DentroCuban jamming. This is during the bihour previously occupied by R. Cuba Libre, but per the July 11 WRMI grid, it`s part of a greatly expanded schedule of R. Prague relays in English or Spanish as time-fillers, most of which are bonuses subject to replacement by new programming, and thus pointless even for the DentroCubans to jam:
0300-0430 Tue-Sat
0430-0500 daily
0600-0700 Mon-Sat
0700-0900 M-F
0900-1000 daily
1000-1100 M-F
1200-1430 daily
That adds up to 56.5 hours per week, more than one third of WRMI`s total SW output if it were on the air 24/7 and even more than that since it is not! Those lucky Czechies.

Reczeched at 1405 July 20, 9955 loud and clear, the NW antenna now in use, and no jamming audible, proving what a good signal WRMI is capable of providing. Now it`s R. Prague`s Sunday show in English being repeated on Monday with the Mailbox until 1409, Letter from Prague, 1412 Czech Books. Finally a trace of residual jamming is audible underneath.

Meanwhile on 13580, R. Prague`s attempt to broadcast directly to NAm with the current day`s program, all I could hear at 1423 was the weak mixing product from RHC, leapfrogging 13780 over 13680, which is always stronger in the other direxion, 13880 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 11590, R. Cairo, July 20 at 0200 with timesignal 18.5 seconds late (compared to WWV a minute later), Arabic news. Standard remark about useless and misleading timesignals. Fair modulation. Per Aoki, this is 250 kW, 330 degrees from Abu Zaabal, same as for English to NAm at 2300-2430 when I am rarely monitoring. For English at 0200-0330 I should be tuned to 7540 (Glenn Hauser, OK, LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. VOI still on 9525-, July 20 at 1309 in English with news of Jakarta bombing investigation. At 1418 CRI Russian dominating on 9525.0 and VOI definitely still on this time with het of about 0.1 kHz (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. VOR English poorly audible with hum on 9850, July 20 at 1414 about British politix, // but not synchronized 15605, also poor; 9850 had ACI from Chinese music jamming on 9845. 9850 is listed as Samara site by HFCC; Chita by Aoki; Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskij [sic] (Yelizovo) by EiBi and WRTH! I guess the latter would be my pick too, only for propagational reasons, hearing it at this hour in CNAm (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Last week I heard ``Tony Alámo`` on WWCR 15825 ending at 1330 instead of scheduled 1400. Maybe it was computer misprogramming, since Monday July 20 at 1357 he was still going, Karaoke-singing some hymn, confirmed as him by WWCR announcer outro. I had also checked before 1300 to find if he was already on then, but not propagating (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WRMI: see CZECHIA [non]

** U S A. Finally got a definite ID from the gospel huxter on 1570 in the null of XERF: July 20 at 0557 UT, EWTN promo, i.e. Catholic programming, 0559 ID as KBCV, mentioning the Ozarx. EWTN affiliates are usually Catholic-only, but did not take previous preaching heard as especially Catholic. ``Keep Blessing Catholic Virgin``? Should check if this SW Missouri station is // WEWN on the other term abbreviated SW.

Then checking listings, I am not 100% sure the EWTN promo came from the same station, as there was QRM. The EWTN website
http://www.ewtn.com/radio/amfm.htm does not list KBCV as an affiliate, but only two others on 1570: KPIO Loveland CO, and WISP Doylestown PA. KPIO nightpower is supposed to be only 18 watts, and WISP 900 watts, so I still think KBCV is more likely (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###