domenica 3 luglio 2011

Glenn Hauser logs July 2-3, 2011

** CANADA. DX Sherlock shows all the 6m Es activity to the north, not south, July 3 at 0115 UT, but I check both direxions to be sure: yes, weak northerly Es; 0136 on channel 2 analog, glimpse of CBC Pizza logo in promo. In and out, mostly out.

0205 on 4, a bit of drama from north, soon gone (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake July 2:
15970, poor with flutter at 2327
16980, fair at 2328

UT July 3, during power outage following lightning strike, so local noise level lower, on ATS-909, battery power with interior random wire:
15800, poor at 0027; Aoki has SOH here at 20-17, but not heard in our mornings
15970, fair at 0027
16980, fair at 0027
17170, very poor at 0028
18180, JBA at 0028
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA [and non]. 15230, July 2 at 2325, RHC still colliding with R. Australia and atop it, while RA`s // 15560 is very good at 70 degrees vs 30 from Shep on 15230 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS. 15544-15569, July 3 at 0028, OTH radar pulses, presumed from here, poor signals (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ISRAEL. 15850, July 2 at 2328 rock music at S9+12, from Galei Tsahal. Not in HFCC, but WRTH says 10 kW to Europe. If it is really direxional like that, also favors NAm beyond, not bad (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ITALY [non]. Checking the IRRS/NEXUS-IBA/EGR webcasts, Saturday July 2 at 1814, when WORLD OF RADIO used to be on,
http://mp3.nexus.org/mp3/
I am hearing nothing but lite music fill on all four, not Brother Scare. It`s a new month, so wonder if he is still on 7290 anyway?

At 1816 into the `California Report`, of all things, podcast of public radio show originating at KQED San Francisco! And preceded by `the NPR voice` who does all the underwriting announcements (does he have any other job?)

Please check this in Europe. IRRS program schedule still shows Overcomer at 18-20, but not updated since June 10.

TOM SW schedule
ftp://www.overcomerministry.org/RadioSchedule/Short%20Wave%20Radio.html
has never got round to including 7290, altho mentioned on homepage (Glenn Hauser, OK, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST) Replies soon came in:

Glenn, checked 7290 at 1853. Nonstop English songs until around 1858, then some PSA's and IRRS ID with address. Back to nonstop pops.
Recheck at 1921, Brother S on the channel (Jari Savolainen, Finland, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

I tuned 7290 at 1855 and heard pop music and a commercial(?) for 'skicher' (phonetically) and other promo, followed at 1900 by ID as IRRS and address, all in an American accent, followed by --- well, it sounds musical. Similar followed without announcement, but the off-switch is now beckoning! I hung on till 1910 when a news broadcast "of less heard items" suddenly appeared and then `Between the Lines`. This was faded out at 1917 when the familiar voice of Bro. Scare appeared! Had they been taking the wrong feed? The signal is very strong and peaking to 30 dB over 9 with only slight splash from 7295 (Noel R. Green (NW England), ibid.)

We also notified IRRS and at 1918 Alfredo Cotroneo replied: ``Sat[ellite] problem now OK. Thanks``

I wonder how the Bro. S. audio is routed to the transmitter [Tiganeshti, ROMANIA]. When checking out 7290 last Saturday, the transmission had a remarkably shabby audio quality, as if a stream with low bitrate was reencoded into another low bitrate stream, perhaps with both streams using different codecs (this makes the results of such cascading particularly bad). The fan noise that always accompanies the, uh, talk from the "radio room" at Walterboro had turned into a weird bubbling sound which a gate muted during every pause.

Probably their solution (are these ordinary webstreams?) is sub-standard not only in regard to audio quality but also in regard to reliability. And this without a real need, since this program audio can simply be taken from Hotbird, which in all likelihood is what Wertachtal and Moosbrunn are or were doing (are these MB-brokered transmissions still in place?). (Kai Ludwig, Germany, ibid.)

** SPAIN [and non]. 17715, Sat July 2 at 2105, an excellent hour of contemporary classical music by South American composers, at least from Bolivia and Perú, including a `cello trio portraying kids at a circus, and a bassoon (fagot) piece. Reception also excellent, as if 350 kW aimed right at US from Noblejas, but registered as 250 kW at 230 degrees to South America. It`s at least as strong here as the morning M-F broadcast on 17595 at 302 degrees.

Equally good // 17850 via COSTA RICA, with audio quality to match instead of muffled like the relays used to be. The latter, altho only 100 kW, is 340 degrees, really USward.

Another fine musical hour after 2205, `Mundofonías` starting with music from Galicia, and interviews promoting various music festivals around the country. The direct // frequency during the second hour is 15110, equally inbooming and is really 302 degrees. Things unravel before 2300. 15110 cuts to sign off announcement at 2255-2256*. 17850 is still on with promo fillers, including one for weird `Costa de Tormentas` show, but audio keeps being interrupted, still past 2301 with music until carrier cut at 2302* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15420-CUSB from WBCQ on an hour longer than scheduled: another anomaly one finds only by monitoring, not by consulting the website
http://schedule.wbcq.com/main.php?fn=sked&freq=15420
which shows 15420 seven days a week only until 2100*.

Saturday July 2 at 2132, TimTron is in progress with his unique style and funny music. Is this // 7415? Strangely, the program schedule for that now at
http://schedule.wbcq.com/main.php?fn=sked&freq=7415
does not show anything at all on Saturdays; everything canceled? I can`t be sure there is a signal on 7415 with the summer noise level.

At 2152 plays ``Eyes without a Face``; 2156 starts to close, complaining of QRM from CRI (on 7415), and mentions also being on 15420, with today`s date, his hotmail address. 2202 still wrapping it up, and I think he said another hour would be on 5110, but 41m is closing. Finally at 2204-2205:20 regular generic canned WBCQ sign-off by Allan, but followed by tone until really off at 2207*. FCC and HFCC show 15420 registered, and thus available if wanted, from 12 to 23 UT.

This schedule
http://schedule.wbcq.com/main.php?fn=sked&freq=5110
shows two hours of TimTron Worldwide, but not at 2100: spanning UT Sat into Sun at 2300-0100 on 5110!

Area 51 schedule for July 2 also shows TimTron at 23-01.

7415 rechecked at 0215 UT July 3: no signal, when QSO with Ted Randall used to appear for hours and hours on UT Sundays. I did confirm it Saturday sometime between 18 and 20 on 9479 WTWW, technical discussion other than PPP (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. A reminder to check for our new WORLD OF RADIO times:
UT Sunday 0400 on WTWW 5755
UT Monday 0300 on WBCQ 5110v-CUSB
(Glenn Hauser, OK, July 3, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 11580, July 2 at 2335, WYFR, the mistaken and murder-inducing laughingstock Harold Camping is *still* on the air with `Open Forum` despite FR notice that they would stop playing him back after June 30. This is one of the few remaining English hours via Okeechobee itself, 23-24 only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###