sabato 28 aprile 2012

Glenn Hauser logs April 27-28, 2012

** AUSTRALIA. April 28, another day reconfirming fragments of new schedule of R. Australia, which they have still failed to display on their own website:

13630 on from *0500 in English, still no 13690 or 15160.

15240 at 0501 is again in Indonesian, good signal here obviously still on one of the Pacific azimuths, *not* toward Indonesia. While the other changes may be intentional, surely this is a mixup. Indonesian segments had previously been on 15415 at proper angle, but now that stays in English with much weaker signal here, and // much stronger 15515 to Pacific, equivalent strength to 15240 and ex-15160.

As for programming, since it`s Saturday afternoon, 13630, 15415 and 15515 are playing a silly ballgame at from before 0529, onwards.

What will happen on 15240, the Indonesian frequency which reverts to English at 0530? After a torch song in English, ``Georgia on My Mind`` as outroed in English, a brief Indonesian announcement, and 0530 cut to English service in mid-sentence, report about the Tasmanian Fungi Festival, I kid you not, and how visiting Europeans and Chinese should *not* eat Aussie ``death-cap`` mushrooms which *look* like safe ones they are familiar with. Good to know. 0533 on to report about a Japanese soccer ball being found on the Alaska coast, having been transported by the tsunami, and how the finder will be returning it to the owner whose ID info was visible upon it --- an old story; I know I heard the exact same report several days ago. According to the online program schedules, both Asia and Pacific at 05-07 Saturday are supposed to carry ``Live talk and music with Al Crombie``, and no ``Grandstand`` until 0700, but obviously not so.

After sunrise, too busy chasing other stuff to check much RA, but still on 9580, 9890 and 11945 before 1500. Both 9`s are off at 1504, altho something is still JBA on 11945, supposedly in a semi-hour break between Romania and Iran (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 15340, April 28 at 1229, HCJB Global Voice Australia ID in English, Melbourne address, and into another language starting with a song about Radio Shack(?), probably just similar-sounding words! Fair signal with regular fading, so likely SAH of about 8 Hz, from what? This is well before RHC blows them away from 1300.

What language? HFCC shows ``raw`` at 1230-1300 Sun-Fri, but does not account for anything on 15340 Saturdays --- surely there is something in this continuous transmission. Aoki shows Rawang at 1230-1300 Mon-Sat with nothing on Sundays! Both use numbers for days of week, but there should not be any disparity with 1=Sunday for both. EiBi, OTOH specifies 1=Monday but in this case uses letters Sun-Fri for 1230-1300 Rawang, and nothing on Saturday. WRTH 2012 shows Rawang except on Saturdays, and I`m no going to hunt thru the entire language-order schedule for anything on Saturdays.

Ultimate authority should be HCJB itself. A-12 schedule grid at
http://www.hcjb.org.au/docs/A12_Schedule_HCJB_Australia_20120325-20121027.pdf
shows ``Myanmar - (Rawang) (raw)`` *every* day of the week at 1230-1300 on 15340. So is Rawang the name of a dialect or a program? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake April 28, before 1300:
12230, poor at 1249
13920, poor at 1249, with fax(?) QRM; none in the 14s
13935, poor at 1249, and distorted like a spur; unusual for FD
15440, fair at 1234, het on hi side; far enough from weak Turkey 15450
15555, fair at 1249; no longer on 15440
15900, good at 1241
15970, good at 1234, weaker than 15900
16100, very good at 1243
16700, poor at 1243
16980, poor at 1243
17100, fair at 1243 with noise too
17170, very poor at 1244
17250, very poor at 1244; unusual more than one at a time 17+

After 1300:
15500, fair at 1317, het on lo side

After 1400:
15615, notable for NOT being heard here at 1418 vs WEWN, but could have just gone off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA [and non]. 15600, April 28 at 1238, weak signal in Asian language, music, bothered by continuous beeps at 4 per second from MCW (not just a CW carrier off and on) on approx. 15603; evitable by side-tuning downward. Is it jamming? Aoki and HFCC show the 15600 is CRI in Malaysian, 1230-1327, 100 kW, 175 degrees from Kunming-Anning. Continued past 1300 with music, sounds like Indonesian announcement.

But Aoki may have the explanation: listed on 15602 is V. of Tibet via Tajikistan, altho at 1402-1430, a notorious jumparounder both in frequency and times. The beeping was still going long after this, at 1418; and at 1456 when 15600 again had a JBA signal when nothing is scheduled (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [and non]. 15190, April 27 at 2014, preacher with fair signal on R. Africa; while VOA Botswana 15580 was very good. April 28 at 0546, 15190 is fair with preacher; I think it just came on as nothing there a few minutes earlier. Anyone ever hear a sign-on, or do they just jump-start a program? At this hour nothing from Nigeria on 15120, off? VOA Botswana 15580 had been JBA at 0528, improving to very poor at 0544 (Glenn Hauser, OK DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9650, KBSWR via CANADA, Saturday April 28 I start listening early enough from 1245, I think, to hear Kevin O`Donovan, but he never showed up; just Jeff in Maryland at 1251 with `Tech Tips`, about how the KBSWR website Quarterly Quiz has multiple choices and linx to the answers, resulting in 100+ winners, too many to name on the air, but a clever way to get listeners/readers to learn more about Korea (of course the winners are chosen by the draw from the thousands who must get the answers right so easily). 1255 studio announcers with usual ``regional summary of reception conditions`` of KBSWR, 1256 wrapping up show (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 15540, Friday April 27 at 2031, R. Kuwait is playing ME music instead of western pop! And soon found // 17550, so it`s the Arabic service instead of English, soon confirmed by lo-key YL announcement. Reverent? Or maybe just her late-night style. At the moment, 17550 is stronger, but with more flutter. This means no English news summary at 2050 either. At 2100 fade music for accurate 5+1 timesignal, news fanfare and news in Arabic, 15540 staying on until cut off at 2105:45* and // 17550 which continued.

So what has become of the English service at 18-21 on 15540? Hope it`s just a fluke or mixup today, but R. Kuwait has always claimed in HFCC that those two sesquihours are in Arabic, and 15540 has *never* been announced, instead imaginary ``11990`` for English, where there was still nothing to be heard.

15540, at 1819 April 28, good signal, playing Beyonce or somebody, so sounds like it`s back to English instead of Arabic; whew (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 6185, April 28 at 0458, open carrier, possibly just barely modulated, blown away at 0459 by CRI English 6190 via Sackville. 0500 is the nominal sign-off time now for XEPPM. Still need to check it earlier to hear if they are managing to modulate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. Another sporadic-E opening erupted April 28, only up to channel 2 audio, 60 MHz, often only ch 2 video 55 MHz; never found any activity on ch 3 or higher. All times UT.

1555 on 2, noting weak analog video activity with antenna at default aim south. Checking 6m Es map, only a single contact displayed, between Minnesota and Virginia, so I rotate to north in case it`s Canada, which I haven`t seen since last summer(?), but no, the peak is SSW.

1620 on 2, TVKIDZ in lower left; 1621 an X- ID super flashes by in the upper left for only a few sex and I can`t copy it! A circular bug in UR.

1627 on 2, strong but video only, IFE PSA, zero-CCI, AMLO ad; then some audio fades in too, Spanish.

1628 on 2, tiny white letters super ID again flash in upper left, and this time I make out SAN LUIS POTOSI tho the call is partially overscanned offscreen on my 12-inch B&W Zenith which can`t be adjusted. Anyhow, it`s XHSLT, 100 kW on net-2. They are just opening a movie with credits including John Travolta, and SS announcer also speaks the credits, so it is going to be dubbed.

1630 on 2, AMLO large letters, apparent political ad, Presidente 2012. Is that a party or a candidate?

1631 on 2, good fade-in with strong video, TeleActiva news promo, then f-bug in LL for another program promo, ``El Mañanero`` at 6:30 am L-V; more political ads, PSA from Comisión Estatal Electoral de Nuevo León, encouraging voting per se.

1653 on 2, an infomercial for something is running with large MTY in lower left and phone number across the bottom. All this is XEFB, which in my previous heyday of TVDXing was a regular on channel 3, but it`s been on 2 for many years now. W9WI.com listing must be in default error, showing only a CP for 0.0 kW.

1700 on 2, now it`s `Lucha Libre Azteca`, fake costumed wrestling taking a break, 1704 has illegible bug in UR, time and temp at 26 degrees above 12:04 = CDT. Soon back to the match which has a large eye/flame Azteca logo behind the ring. Googling indicates this is on the Azteca 7 net, so probably skip has shifted over to XHTAU Tampico, tho there are a bunch of other affiliates elsewhere. Opening weakens and pretty much gone by 1740 altho by now there are some US 6m ham contacts with Mexico.

I left the TV on anyway, and at 1816 heard a couple Spanish-sounding syllables, meteor burst? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NETHERLANDS [non]. 17605, April 27 just as I tune in music, it cuts off the air at 2027*. Presumably RNW via VATICAN, which is supposed to run from 1800 to 1957, but has previously been heard as late at 2057*. // 15495 continues, opening a new English program at 2030. Bonaire is not scheduled to start 17605 until 2100 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NORTH AMERICA. 15070, April 28 at 1318, here`s Undercover Radio, on AM, at first very poor S2-S4 peaks, but by 1324 way up to S9+5 peaks; at 1331 Dr Benway wishes us happy new year 2007, e-mail and Merlin addresses for QSLs, ``pirate radio from the middle of nowhere``. I was listening on the breakfast table DX-390, fed on 88.1 FM by the WT601N Part 15 transmitter plugged into the FRG-7, only receiver which could get a decent signal from this, but went off at 1333*.

I figured that was the end of it, turned off the feeder, and finished my strawberries, and toast with home-grown apricot jam. 1353 rechecking the FRG-7, now he`s back on 15075 instead, and peaking S9+10, ID again with addresses, apologizes for being behind with QSLs for UR and Progressive Music Radio`s twentieth anniversary broadcast, but promises to get them out ASAP. But that was years ago already.

1355 starts a tale about visiting the Solomon Islands to dive, Gizo Island exactly, scraping a stinging coral, and he died --- or almost, as transported to a naval medical facility in Washington DC where he was saved by being downloaded to a biochip. All accompanied by mysterious music, Hearts-of-Space-like.

1406 ID, as the Memorial Weekend Broadcast for 2006, more relaxing narration with space music. 1410 warning about Commander Bunny taking over your mind and the world in his rodent revolution; Dr Benway issues hypnotic commands on how to cope. 1412 again offering QSL, undercoverradio @ mail.com (not gmail this time). 1413 starts another weird dreamlike narration about colonizing a new planet. 1420 message from the Cydonian Martians, the fourth planet to the third; still good signal but fading a bit. 1441 mentions Memorial weekend again, offering QSLs and off at 1442:30*. Thence did not find him on 15250 or any other 19 m band frequency. (Still haven`t received a formal QSL for my last unique report of that, altho he did reply by e-mail) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 15190, Saturday April 28 at 1455 very poor, Brother Scare via IRRS via ROMANIA, and maybe with CCI from R. Africa, but off at 1458. At 1459 I am hearing a JBA signal on 15700, presumably the Saturday-only prolongation of BS for another bihour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN [non]. 15650 and 15725, following other reports of V. of South Sudan Revolutionary Radio being heard on these frequencies April 26-27, I look for them at various times April 27-28, but nothing heard: April 27 at 2010, 2108; April 28 after 0500, 0528. Catch as catch can, not only for DXers but Sudanese (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1614 monitoring: UT Saturday April 28 at 0130 on WBCQ 5110v-CUSB/LSB, unconfirmed, as I was recovering from mowing, but on this week`s Area 51 schedule as 0130. Don`t know how long AWWW ran either, or what preceded 0130, but International Radio Report not mentioned this week, as last week it was a `special` about RCI.

9955, April 28 at 1503, gh voice is JBA from WRMI, seems more `jamming` from a bubbling household cable DTV converter box than from Cuba. Remaining times on WRMI: Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130.

On WTWW: UT Sunday 0400 on 5755. On HLR Germany: Tuesday 0930 on 5980 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15470, April 28 at 1417-1419 open carrier with some hum, maybe JBM or atop scheduled BBC Hindi via Cyprus; no tones heard, but presumably a Greenvile transmitter testing to be sure it`s ready for later use, i.e. English at 16-17, 94 degrees, which per HFCC started April 4 (unfortunately I didn`t uplook this till later, but it`s supposed to be daily; which programming?) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 15715, April 28 at 1457, tonal SE Asian language with reverb, poor signal, mentions kHz several times, Burmese? AWR then mentioned and its theme; 1500 Voice of Hope ID but noticeably weaker. That may be because according to HFCC, at 1500, KSDA GUAM 100 kW 285 degrees in Burmese, turns the frequency over to the substitute thru June Trincomalee, SRI LANKA, site, 125 kW, 60 degrees in Karen. Meanwhile, may we assume that the conflicting A-12 HFCC entry for YFR, 500 kW, 90 degrees via Wertachtal at 14-16 in Sinhala and Kannada, is inoperative? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 1140, April 28 at 0553 UT, gospel huxter in Spanish, good signal from N/S, surely XEMR 50/50 kW, Monterrey NL? Others have reported this as ``MR Deportes`` as listed in WRTH, IRCA and Cantú i.e. a sports format, but whenever I hear it, there`s religion. Maybe both, like KFXY 1640 Enid? The station website via
http://www.gruporadioalegria.com/ mentions nothing but sports, and no program schedule.

Could I really be getting a US station? I always thought it was XEMR. Prime suspect in the NRC AM Log is KHFX, Cleburne TX near The Metroplex, but with a Houston address, 24 hour Spanish religion as ``Radio Ato``, 5000/710 watts. Pattern book shows its main lobe is to the NW, which would audiblize it here, while XEMR`s is a circle tangent to Monterrey, ``everything`` going to its SW (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)