martedì 23 ottobre 2012

Glenn Hauser logs October 23, 2012

** ALBANIA. 9590, Oct 23 at 0517, CRI Arabic via Cërrik, which had been distorted, has almost recovered, but is still slightly clearer and stronger on // 9515 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH. 15505, Oct 23 at 1358, Bangladesh Betar on the air in time for a change to play a bit of IS, very poor with flutter; time signal ending early at 1359:45, opening Urdu. I think I also heard a bit of signal before 1300 on 15105 for English too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 6180, Oct 23 at 0520, RNB is off the air again, but still going strong on 11780 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 9555, Oct 23 at 0516, VOV relay in Vietnamese is on correct frequency instead of 6175; no longer a solid signal in the nightmiddle; only a few more days before this is all over. I made a point of listening to the BaBcoCk music loop at 0527.6-0529, followed by the Radio Canada Internationale IDs in French and English, and the first two notes of ``O Canada`` IS, before cut off the air (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also VATICAN; JAPAN [non]; KOREA SOUTH [non]

** CHINA. Firedrake Oct 23, before 1400, all with flutter:
12980, good at 1342
13920, very good at 1342
13970, very good at 1342; none in the 14s
15515, fair at 1349, het on hi side
15560, fair at 1349, plus noise jamming, het on lo side
16250, very good at 1351
16980, very good at 1351
17250, very good at 1352; none in the 18s
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUIANA FRENCH. 11995, Oct 23 at 0513 at first thought the open carrier was off, but soon faded back up to very poor level, with usual hum (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 3325, Oct 23 at 1242, some continuous talk modulation is audible vs the noise level; no carriers at all on other PNG 90m frequencies, so it appears to be an Indonesian-morning rather than a PNG-morning, i.e. tentatively RRI Palangkaraya. Altho some of the PNGs probably signed off earlier. I keep listening, as the sun rises here, straining to make out a keyword to clinch it as Indonesian, but all I can get is a possible ``berita`` at 1300, tho I must admit I was expecting it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA. 9526-, Oct 23 at 1303, VOI English has the best modulation level yet since its reactivation, but is still woefully low, not enough to overcome flutter fading noise. Some hum, but no IADs: at least that`s one problem apparently fixed in the meantime. I also have to avoid splash from 9520, and put FRG-7 in ATTenuation mode because of overload from 9479 WTWW and even 9980 WWCR.

Plugs website, then news, starting with story about a homemade bomb. 1305 over to the Kalimantan guy, so they are still doing ``Exotic Indonesia`` joint programs on Tuesdays with RRI Banjarmasin. Haven`t been able to hear that for many months! At 1308, continues to hand back and forth between two OM voices in Jak and Banj. 1317 Jak YL announcer is more readable by the pitch of her voice, but only briefly, previewing `Today in History` segment. 1320 really mentions ``Exotic Indonesia`` and T.I.H. 1329 starts another segment with music and it keeps playing in background for next dekaminute, further impeding readability. Recheck in time to hear the 9525.0 CRI Russian prélude cut on at 1357 producing big het (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [non]. 6110, Oct 23 at 0521, NHK English via CANADA is still a bigsig for a few more nights, and at this time announcing some frequency changes effective Oct 28, without giving any sites, but I insert the old ones, presumably the same:
05 to S Africa,    11970 to  9770 [France]
10 & 12 to SE Asia, 9695 to 11740 [Singapore]
13 to SW Asia      15735 to 11730 [Uzbekistan]
14 to SE Asia      11705 to 11925 [Palau]
14 to SW Asia      15735 to 11695 [Uzbekistan]

But this announcement is incomplete! Notably the very frequency we are listening to, which as I have publicized several times will be moving from Sackville 6110 to Guiana French 11740 at 0500. And 1200 from Sackville 6120 to Guiana French 15190 and/or 6120. Surely 6120 is not going to work or really be used over that path. I suppose at other breaks they will give the rest of the frequency changes.

0522 on to `Once Upon a Time in Japan`, folk tales, this week, ``Click-Clack Mountain`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 6045, Oct 23 at 0613, KBS in Spanish with the usual ``clacking`` accompanying all their program feeds to CANADA. Another transmission going away in a few days with the demise of Sackville, and nothing known to replace it. KBS has not registered anything at all with HFCC for B-12. And checked Oct 23, still has nothing on own website about B-12, just A-12 schedules (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MADAGASCAR [and non]. 15542 approx., Oct 23 at 0505, big blob of extremely distorted FMy overmodulation, presumed the Talata transmitter missing from 15400 with Radio Dabanga, and which 24 hours earlier was doing the same circa 15497; and which on July 26 was also in the 15550 area. This time, // 11650 via Vatican too weak to establish a //, but I have little doubt my explanation is correct.

This was another all-Africa night on 19m, with VOA Botswana 15580 in well, and VON Ikorodu 15120 sufficient. By 0526, the 15542 blob was much weaker and the others had also faded down. Apparently they are clueless in Talata that something is very, very wrong with this transmitter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 690, Oct 23 at 0605 UT, ``La 69, Siempre Deportiva``, and repeat of a Jacobo Zabludovsky show which originally aired 12 hours earlier at 1 pm; loops N/S, and Cantú shows:
690 XEN La 69 México, DF 100,000 5,000
Last summer I heard him in the afternoon on some FM DX
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 700, Oct 23 at 0544 UT, in WLW null, interview about escuelas en la República Mexicana. If it were not for the night power of only 150 watts, I would choose R. Red as the most likely talker vs several music stations listed in Cantú:
700 XEDKR Radio Red AM Guadalajara, Jal. 10,000 150
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO [and non]. 9579.12, Oct 23 at 0516, Médi Un, Nador transmitter is still way off-frequency and hetting GABON 9580.0 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 960, UT Tuesday October 23 at 0500, KGWA Enid again fails to transmit dead air for five minutes, instead continued with Fox `News`, so no DXing under it tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA 1020, Oct 23 at 0557 UT, KOKP Perry has again lost programming, dead air only, but producing a SAH probably with KDKA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** ROMANIA. 7225-7230-7235, Oct 23 at 0611, DRM noise must be RRI German as scheduled from Tiganeshti for 0600-0630. Tho legit, it`s a shame they don`t have a little more consideration for hams in the Western Hemisphere, blotting out 10 kHz of their band. At least this is RRI`s only current DRM frequency in the 7200-7300 range; RNZI managed to use 7440 instead of 7285 which it had also registered (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 9980, Oct 23 at 1159, WWCR is already on with Brother Scare, very poor signal before sunrise with band not open yet from TN, but may have been on for an hour already. The transmitter schedule now shows 9980 at 11-01, but the program schedule dated 1 Oct still shows no start weekdays until 1600. But by 1240 signal had built up to daytime blast level, causing overload thruout the 31m band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [and non]. Following up on the missing REE DX program `Amigos de la Onda Corta`, which has been absent for several weeks from its previously scheduled final repeat Sundays at 1230 UT – I notified Pepe Bueno about this, who circulates weekly advance publicity about the program topix, and he asked producer and host Antonio Buitrago. His full reply in Castilian will appear in the next DXLD 12-43, but summarizing:

It was replaced (apparently without notice) by a broadcast Mondays at 2230 on 7275, 9570 and 15110, the latter to North America, and all direct from Spain. However in B-12 there will be further changes: Saturdays at 0605 (ex-0505), 2330 (ex Sunday 0030) and UT Tuesdays at 0130. This starts Sunday October 29, so presumably only affects the Tuesday broadcast that week.

However2, from November 12 a new REE program schedule goes into effect, and `Amigos de la OC` will expand from 25 to 50 minutes with the last half being a mailbag like the former `Correo del Oyente`. Times for that are not yet known but will likely change again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 5950, Oct 23 at 0513, RTI in English, usual VG signal via WYFR, M&W chatting rather than significant programming; 0524 finishing and next program to be `We`ve Got Mail`, but then it starts and there they are chatting again. Maybe we will not be missing much:

Ever since we had a look at the WYFR B-12 frequency schedule a couple months ago, we have been apprehensive that the RTI relays would be terminated, as 5950 and/or 9680 are no longer on the schedule at the long-established times yearound for RTI English, 0200, 0300 and 0500. There are still some earlier transmissions which must be RTI relays, but how about English?

Less than a week before B-12, RTI has finally made public its plans: there will be only one English relay via WYFR and it will be at the new time of 22-23 UT on 15440 and 6115; tnx to dxldyg member Ashik Eqbal Tokon, Rajshahi, Bangladesh, who found that on the RTI website. 15440 is registered as 285 degrees, and 6115 at 355 degrees (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 7350-7355-7360, Oct 23 at 0611, DRM noise stronger than Romania 7230; this is registered as BBC, 100 kW, 300 degrees via AUSTRIA, so USward altho targeted only at W Europe, 0600-0800. I thought they had canceled SW to Europe (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO in B-12: WRN is making some schedule changes: the Africa/Asia/Pacific service which has been carrying WOR Saturdays at 0800, is replaced by Sunday 1500 UT effective October 28.

The North American service Saturday 1730 broadcast makes the usual off-DST shift to 1830 UT as from November 10, but the other two broadcasts are canceled. This also applies to WRN via SiriusXM 120, so no longer aired there Sundays at what would have been 0930 and 1830 UT. Thus we also must also say goodbye to listeners via the only two US stations known to be relaying WRN overnight, WXPR in Wisconsin and KSFC in Washington.

WRN, which originally required WOR to run 28:43 minutes, also need it to be 29:00 from next week, and I hope this will not cause any problems for all our other affiliates. If they need to edit something out, the final propagation outlook should be sufficient (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 710, Oct 23 at 1207 UT, KCMO Kansas City MO, ``now on FM 103.7``, another big AM station which thinx that`s not enough. But FM is not new: already in NRC AM Log 2012 as of last August at latest. Opening local `KCMO Morning Show` with Greg-somebody who is anti-Obama, of course (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN. 11905, Oct 23 at 0512, something in English, poor signal; by 0524 had faded down to JBA carrier. Tnx to tip from Pat Blakely who says on Oct 21 and 22 he was hearing CBC Radio One, Overnight relaying items from other stations such as R. Netherlands, from 0530 to off at 0600, but may have started earlier.

We looked up this frequency, and it`s supposed to be VOA Kurdish via Vatican! Must be a colossal feed mixup. Then on Oct 23 Pat heard it again from 0500, with CBC relaying programming from PRI. Meanwhile, Wolfgang Büschel had contacted Arto Mujunen of IBB monitoring in Finland, who replied:

``Thanks for the info. We are aware of this problem and trying to get it solved. Recent jamming by Iran and Syria targeting satellite feeds have been causing problems. 73 Arto``

So they have had to change their feed routing to other transponders or satellites, but there is still no excuse for the SW relay operators putting on a completely wrong feed, day after day. Is no one paying attention at SMG? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15976-USB approx., Oct 23 at 1346, 2-way in Spanish, discussing ``fuerza del corriente``, but also ``aeronave``, so not sure if aeronautical or marine, poachers or narcotraffickers? Frequency may have been 0.5 kHz above or below (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)