sabato 10 luglio 2010

Glenn Hauser logs July 9-10, 2010

** ALASKA. 7355, KNLS English much better than the day before; July 10 at 1255 ID, ``The New Life Station`` and Rob Scobey giving schedule of four English broadcasts including 1400 on 11765, gospel rock filling out the hour. Not only are the July shows repeats on same day of week as originally, but unmodified to include full English schedule which is currently imaginary.

BTW, WYFR is ``The Sound of the New Life``; someone should trademark ``New Life`` to avoid confusion and stymie the competition. 

9920, July 10 at 1355, disco-beat rocker YL, resembling Lady Ga Ga, but surely not, since at 1357 Mandarin announcement, something-GBT ID, then 1358 giveaway KNLS theme ditty, OC until 1359:33* and KNLS is scheduled 13-14 in Chinese on 9920, so that`s where the one funxional transmitter goes after 7355 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. Tho RA was on 9500 instead of 9475 as I reported July 9, on July 10 it was back on 9475: at 1259, telltale het of 4 kHz against superstrong WTWW 9479, nothing on 9500, and could make out Chinese at 1300 on 9475. 1404 still nothing on 9500, something on 9475. So was 9500 a mistake or a test? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake July 10:
 9380, good at 1245 before WWRB 9385 was problematic.
Nothing on 9040, 9000 or 8400 at 1245.
14970, good at 1314.
None others found up to 19 MHz.

CNR1 jamming:
15430, July 10 at 1346 CNR1 alone, M&W conversation with some laughs, // 15265. V. of Tibet frequency at 1330-1400 via UAE, per Aoki.
15530, July 10 at 1345 poor with motorboating but V. of Tibet target via Uzbekistan inaudible; 15530 audio // 15285 under BBC, and 15265 with het (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 15330, as I tune by at 2009 July 9, there is DCJC pulse jamming against nothing, but soon cut off. Just keeping warmed up for late October when R. Martí should resume this frequency for B-10 season.

13580, RHC leapfrog mixing at equal level with VOA Somali via MADAGASCAR, July 10 at 1313, while not audible on 13880. Normally the upper leapfrog of 13680 over 13780 is much stronger. 13680 with squeal as usual (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9525.9, VOI VG at 1302 July 10 with news in English, halting announcer struggling with heavy accent, unfamiliar words. Top story about the president vs the attorney general; census shows Indopop exceeds 238 megapeople, up from 205M in Y2K. VG modulation and signal S9+22, only slight fading. Furthermore, at 1403 in Indonesian, no het from China 9525.0 audible! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) 

** KUWAIT. 13650, July 9 at 1951 ME music, Arabic M&W vocals plus orchestra, good but fluttery. 1957 Arabic announcement and a bit more music until 1959:53*. Did not catch ID but it`s R. Kuwait as scheduled via Kabd site. Presumably this is the transmitter which switches to 17750 at 2000 for a semihour of collision with VOA French via Bonaire, then clear until 2400 or earlier fadeout. Like it, 13650 at 13-16 and 17-20 is 500 kW, 350 degrees from site a.k.a. Sulaibiyah to CIRAF zones 6-7 which are C&W USA! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LAOS [non]. 11785, WHRI, Saturday July 10 at 1329 concluding Hmong semihour with website
www.hwm.us and St. Paul, Hminnesota address. I was sure of that URL announced with letters in English, but it`s not correct, forwarding to an unrelated advertising site from China, so don`t click on it.

Hmong World Christian Radio is really still at
http://www.hwcr.us where they do refer to HWM as abbreviation for their Hmong World Ministries, so cited site lapsed? Even stranger, per the linx page http://www.hwcr.us/links.html some of their ``affiliates`` run Dairy Queen franchises (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LIBYA. 17725, V. of Africa from the Great Jamahiriyah, July 10 at 1408 poor with African music, vocal plus mbira; 1411 ID and presenting a special program on the occasion of some revolution. So it`s still there, altho inaudible on // 21695. Had not heard it for some time with poor propagation during 14-16 English broadcast (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. Enid`s only local D/TV station, KXOK, is DX as far as DTV on channel 31. Must still be only 40 watts. I barely get decode, only when aimed at North Enid, not downtown whence it supposedly transmits from the Broadway Tower. July 9 at 1508 UT during old Richard Greene Robin Hood B&W show. // NTSC on 32. PSIP ID on 31 just says KXOK 31-1. You do not get it as virtual 32; since analog 32 is still on the air too?

Robin Hood continued past 1530, another episode since it was only a semi-hour show as I recall? Odd time of 1551 UT ID, and 1552 into Laurel & Hardy, poor resolution film of their adventures in the French Foreign Legion, more public-domain stuff, cheapTV, which continued past 1600; 1630 singing and dancing ``Shine On, Harvest Moon``. RH apparently ran short because of no commercials to play. Nor were L&H interrupted for ads, just digital breakups.

KXOK does have neat animated ID inspired by Vance AFB of T-something jet trainer zooming with callsign on tail, swoops past building with antenna tower atop, recognizable to us as the Broadway Tower, then 3-D KXOK letters from various angles floating in space. Concludes by showing channels 32 and 18, even tho has been on cable 15 instead for a month, and only we cognoscenti know about DTV 31, which is hardly necessary to show hoary old B&W films.

At 1700 UT another play of the animated ID, and into another L&H film from Hal Roach Productions, ``March of the Wooden Soldiers``. I think I`ll watch Descontrol on Telemundo instead, RF-29.

Unlike zap2it, TV Guide quickly got the Suddenlink channel changes made, correctly showing KXOK on C15, but totally incorrect listings for 10 am-past noon Saturday, probably really RTV while KXOK is axually playing RH and L&H locally. Zap2it has a totally different schedule for KXOK, and it`s wrong too! Who is to blame? Let`s start with KXOK itself (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 9945, July 10 at 1401, mix of Indonesian and English, ID as ``VOA Direct Connexion``, jingle in English, DJ in Indonesian, American music. This is the Fri-Sat-Sun only broadcast at 14-15, via Tinang, PHILIPPINES. They do not even bother with token news on the hour. Much better than Prague via Miami on 9955 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 17580, July 10 at 1407, S Asian language stronger than adjacent VOA Greenville 17585 which had news interview instead of Music Mix since it`s Saturday. Per Aoki, 17580 is YFR Bengali, due east from Wertachtal, GERMANY.

As a result, how many Bengalis will be astounded when, on May 22, 2011, nothing has changed and we are all still here --- except Family Radio has collapsed of its own ``judgment day`` nonsense:
http://www.familyradio.com/graphical/literature/judgment/judgment.html

BTW, schedule at
http://www.familyradio.com/international/schedules/B01/bengali_b01.html claims Bengali is at 13-15, only on 15255, more nonsense from Mr Camping; 17580 apparently replaced it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ALASKA

** U S A. George McClintock explains the downtime for WTWW on July 7-8: the plate blocker failed. It keeps voltage from going into the antenna, just RF. That happens rarely, and cost $20K to replace. Luckily, Continental had one handy destined for a new transmitter, and they shipped it overnight. George enjoys the SW engineering, such as learning how to install this item in the 418-E, which he had never had to do before.

Some other modules were damaged, but able to get back on the air anyway awaiting replacements, with reduced power of 60 kW, then 80 and hoped to be back up to 95-100 kW today July 10.

How is second transmitter coming? Painfully slowly, but he`s in no big hurry. It`s a Continental 418-D which came from Seychelles. It will be refurbished with all-new parts, to become a 418-F, which is more advanced than the -E now in use, and should be more reliable once the bugs are out.

Old announcements still mentioning ``program tests`` have been removed, and expects to get more continuity including PSAs. PPP is being urged to fix long periods of dead air on his program feed. One lasting 35-40 minutes was filled by music from WTWW. George regrets that he has not had time to do more with the website (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###