mercoledì 19 settembre 2012

Glenn Hauser logs September 17-18, 2012

** AUSTRALIA. 12080, Sept 18 at 1252, fair signal from some station playing `Waltzing Matilda` over and over, presumed R. Australia testing with IS normally heard too seldom, but why? Kept a receiver on here and was still going at 1311, 1325, 1330, but off at 1344. This frequency is normally 10 kW AM from Brandon, at many hours, but finishing with DRM at 11-12; now it`s surely strong enough to be the spare 100 kW transmitter at Shepparton (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH. 15105, Sept 18 at 1237, BB, JBA carrier with flutter; 1245 music. Not a good transpolar day, but at least it`s detectably on. 1316 it`s also on this time and a bit better, with music into presumed Nepali.

15505, Sept 18 at 1411, very poor with flutter in presumed Urdu service (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 18, before 1300:
12980, fair at 1254; none in the 11s, 10s, 9s, 8s or 7s
14700, poor at 1251; none in the 13s
14870, poor-fair at 1246; CB QRM all thru the 14 MHz range from a 27185 CBer a block away, grrrr!
15555, poor at 1239
16980, very poor at 1246 with flutter; none in the 17s

Before 1330, incomplete:
15495, fair at 1327
15565, fair at 1327

After 1400, incomplete:
15605, fair at 1411
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 9564-9565, Sept 18 at 0546, whining sound, unseems of local origin, not the usual pulse/bubble jamming overrun we get from the DentroCuban Jamming Command.

15230, Sept 18 at 1238, RHC is somewhat distorted with noise around the sidebands.

11860, Sept 18 at 1254, RadioCuba manages to punch up the correct RHC frequency today, instead of 11680 yesterday before 1300 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUIANA FRENCH. 11995, Sept 18 at 0509 and still at 0549, presumed GUF with the S9+12 megawatt-wasting open carrier plus some hum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN. 9760, Sept 18 at 0548 Japanese talk, soon // 9595, slightly better on 9760; 9595 is R. Nikkei program 1, 9760 program 2, but obviously simulcasting at least now. 9760 goes off at 0610 except weekends per EiBi (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA [and non]. 7245, Sept 18 at 0523, IGIM is on and chanting, but quite undermodulated; much better level e.g. on Tunisia 7275 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 980, Sept 18 at 1202 UT, news report on ``digitalization`` of IMER stations in Mexico City being completed, so this must be the IMER station in Cananea, Sonora again, XEFQ. See also 1570 XERF log (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 1000, Sept 18 at 1204 UT, NA ending and Ciudad Juárez mentioned, making slow SAH with KTOK OKC, nulled as best I could. So it`s the usual XE SRS occupant as in Cantú:
1000 XEFV La Rancherita Cd. Juárez, Chih. 1,000 D
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 1300, Sept 18 at 1217 UT = Enid LSR today, Radio México Noticias, from Ciudad Juárez, also greeting listeners en El Paso, Las Cruces, Univérsity Park, but not Enid. XEP has no problem overriding Tulsa around LSR, more so than other 1220+ stations, with its odd 38 kW daypower, vs 200 watts at night, but I wonder about its direxionality if any. Maybe the pending new NRC Pattern Book will show it. Cantú:
1300 XEP Radio 13 Cd. Juárez, Chih. 38,000 200
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 1570, Sept 18 at 1219 UT, XERF with glowing report on IMER`s digitalization of its 9 stations in the DF having been completed, lauded even by Pres. Calderón himself`s soundbite (pato cojo hasta el 30 de noviembre). Must be continuation of report started earlier on 980 XEFQ, q.v. They enumerated 94.5, 105.7 and 107.9 but did not hear any other FMs or AMs mentioned specifically. IMER website
http://www.imer.com.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=269&Itemid=91
shows only 7 stations in the DF, the others being 660, 710, 1220, 1350, so these are presumably now IBOC too; the ``digital`` system not specified, but AFAIK, DRM lost the battle, and IBOC is already running on a few commercial border stations (FM only?). Previous news was that all IMER stations nationwide would be digital by yearend. This program is from the ``Sistema Nacional de Noticias`` (a.k.a. Antena Radio?). 1570 soon losing out to another SS at 1222, ESPN; See OKLAHOMA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA [non?]. 1570, Sept 18 at 1222 UT, I have been listening to XERF (see MEXICO), when another SS appears, sports talk ``para todo el país``, ESPN Deportes. Pronounced ``i-es-pi-en``, i.e. the letters as in English, which the network mandates everyone to say, to forestall Spanish snickers about male members (a word I avoid only in case of spam filters).

An unwieldy brand name in English is even more so in Spanish; IIRC it originally meant Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (on cable TV). I don`t find a single SS ESPN affiliate on 1570 in NRC AM Log 2012 --- I went thru all 63 listings twice; no quick searching on paper --- and as previously mentioned, no affiliate list can be found on the ESPN-D website (if anyone has one, please let us know!).

Can it be nearest 1570, KZLI Catoosa/Tulsa? How about 1530, which we already know is ESPN Deportes in that market? At 1306 UT when XERF is no longer a problem, I compare the two. Yes, ESPN Deportes on 1570 // 1530, except 1530 is unsynchronized a fraxion of a second behind 1570. Both loop east/west. 1530 and 1570 have previously been simulcast in Tulsa with some other format, temporarily? They are jointly owned, along with 1270, so anything could happen, but you`d think a simulcast would be synchronized, so 1570 could still be somewhere else. Another question for Bruce Winkelman inside Tulsa.

Program notes: at 1306 the program is apparently called ``Raza Deportiva`` (if not RASA, a network), talking about fútbol, US teams, Mexican, even Real Madrid. So is it only about soccer or American football too? 1313 on 1570, promo for Iespien Deportes Radio; now both are weakening, but not fading at same time. The Tulsans at 100+ miles do benefit from skywave vs groundwave.

Wikipedia thinx 1570 Tulsa is still Que Buena, which is really now on 1270, and linx to
http://lamegatulsa.com/home/ which claims 1570 AM is La Mega. Beware: vamping music loop launches automatically. Please stop! Try to launch live(?) audio on Winamp but no funciona. This website could be on autoplay two years out of date judging from one date I can find on it. Has Twitter linx to ``7 days ago`` full of innumerable duplicate twits from one Diana Reyes, apparently a music promotriz.

Another approach: search on ESPN Deportes 1570 leads to an ESPN app provided by 970/1570 La Raza in Jaxonville FL, but no evidence that their 1570 WVOJ axually carries ESPND, and even with 10 kW day power, it`s way too late for that to be making it out here (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PRIDNESTROVYE. 9665, Sept 17 at 2115, enjoying the music from Radio PMR, presumably the usual fill in the last half of each semi-hour language broadcast --- but at 2120 a timesignal! And starting Russian. Axually the TS was 10 seconds late ending at 2120:10, if they were shooting for 2120, certainly an odd time for a TS and for starting a language. Per EiBi, Russian is supposed to be at 2200-2230 UT Sun-Thu, as well as 1800-1830 and 2000-2030 M-F. Are other languages getting jumbled and signaled thus? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOMALILAND [non]. 7120, Sept 18 at 1414, still zero signal from R. Hargaysa; I optimistically check this each morning before turning off the radio and turning on the computer. Its oceanic longpath has made it to the west coast of North America by 1400; and 7110 Myanmar, by a quite different path over Mongolia, still has a JBA carrier a bihour after sunrise here, so there is hope (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [and non]. 11880, Sept 18 at 1332 I am surprised to hear Chaikofsky`s Piano Concerto No. 1 on REE via Costa Rica; lost feed and filling? No, same thing but 6 seconds ahead on 17595 Noblejas direct, instead of ``Españoles en la Mar``. What happened to that? 1334 YL outros first movement of this music, described as a ``duel between the piano and the other instruments``; then gives phone number for karaoke --- what? Maybe REE has plugged into some other domestic network such as Radio Tres. Is there a holiday, or a strike? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 690, Sept 18 at 0538 UT tuneby, ``news on demand at KTSMRadio.com``. Tnx very much. Hey, that used to be on 1380; swapped with KHEY so KTSM gets the 10/10 kW bigsig while KHEY was demoted to 5/0.5 kW, even worse with much smaller hiband coverage. NRC pattern book shows 690 throws almost all its night signal SSW for great coverage of Chihuahua in English, with tiny lobes or nulls (hard to tell which) toward us and KGGF Coffeyville KS (and Montreal whether anything is there or not), and KGGF gets to aim right toward El Paso at night! Yet at the moment KTSM has the edge here. I demand to know why (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1010, any doubt that the SS religion I was getting here came from Phoenix has now been eliminated: Sept 18 at 1205 UT, OM sermon again, looping east/west. 1230 still in, now SS YL with announcements of church service schedules, some partly en inglés, with numerous 602-AC phone numbers. 1232 ad in Spanish for Christian Auto Care. Hmm, how can you tell if your car is Christian? One can only hope. 1233 ad for an abogada also with a 602-phone who handles immigration cases. So it is without a doubt: KXXT, COL Tolleson AZ, surely on 15 kW day power and pattern eastward rather than 250-watt night power, despite it being only 5:30 am there MST; a bilingual religious station (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1460, Sept 18 at 1215 UT, ``Thunder Country 97.3 and 1460``, weather. Therefore it`s 1 kW KKOY, Chanute KS, while 97.3 is a mere translator, K247AT, per NRC AM Log, yet they give it top billing, as any FM surely deserves (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 9885, Sept 18 at 1417, open carrier and tone test briefly, S9+10 to 1418*. Probably Greenville B, which will not be broadcasting VOA Spanish on this frequency until 2330; or maybe São Tomé for French at 2100 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)