sabato 29 settembre 2012

Glenn Hauser logs September 28-29, 2012

** ALBANIA. 9590, Sept 29 at 0538, CRI Arabic via Cërrik is rather distorted, unlike // 9515. Not the first time I have noticed such a problem. I wonder if same transmitter is also distorting English earlier on another frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 11945, Sept 29 at 0534, R. Australia, fair signal is on early with silly ballgame, as expected before normal *0600. Nigel Holmes had warned us: ``Radio Australia will broadcast coverage of the AFL Grand Final on Saturday 29 September 2012 from 0430 to 0745 UT. It will be part of our regular Grandstand sports coverage`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BANGLADESH. 15105, Sept 29 before 1300 and after 1315; and 15505 after 1400: no signals from BB, apparently taking another weekend off (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 6180, Sept 29 at 0030 check, RNA is missing, but 11780 is still on. Recheck 0526, same situation. See EAST TURKISTAN (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. 6175, Sept 29 at 0526, VOV relay is stuck once again on wrong frequency via Sackville, as the final hour in Vietnamese from 0430 is supposed to be on 9555, where we do normally hear it, but not tonight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 11935, Sept 29 at 1240, incredible vocal gymnastix by soprano mouthing Mandarin morphemes, brief Russian announcement, resumes partly joined by male voice. Is CRI, 10-13, 500 kW, 37 degrees toward DVR from SZG site, i.e. USward, so also a reliable service into deep North America (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also ALBANIA, EAST TURKISTAN

** CHINA. Firedrake Sept 29, circa 1330:
15485, fair at 1328 with het on hi side, still at 1333
15610, fair at 1328 between WEWN and WEWN spur, but off at 1333
None in the 12s, 13s, 14s, 16s, 17s, 18s

After 1430:
15970, very good at 1435; none in the 16s, 17s, 18s
14800, very good at 1437
13920, very good at 1437
13130, good at 1438
12800, good at 1428; none in the 11s, 10s
 9680, barely audible in mix at 1440 // 14800, under CNR1, RTI, RRI
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 9810, Sept 29 at 0535 as I tune in, a bit of RHC in English, then to dead air and off 0536*, while same subject continued on 49m frequencies. 9810 is not supposed to be in English at all, closing 0500* after Spanish. Also had ACI from DentroCuban Jamming Command pulses against nothing on 9805, which continued.

13800-13840, Sept 29 at 1303, wall of noise jamming on 13820 against Martí is bleeding out this far, with peaks circa 13805 and 13835 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EAST TURKISTAN. 6180, Sept 29 at 0030, surprised to find CRI English here with ID, addresses, fair signal, audible only because RNA BRAZIL [q.v.] is off. This is 100 kW, 173 degrees form Kashgar at 00-02, and not strong enough to ACI XEPPM 6185, another beneficiary (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUATEMALA. 4055, Sept 29 at 0502 tune-in, R. Truth full ID in English with Hammond organ music, asking for reports to be QSLed. The music is somewhat distorted, more so than the speech, and carrier slightly unstable. S9+15, a reliable signal any night with its 700 (?) watts, and one of only two Central Americans still active on SW (with R. República, Costa Rica, 5954v; Honduras might appear on 3340 or 3250, but not lately.) (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUIANA FRENCH. 11995, Sept 29 at 0534, the open carrier with hum is missing for a change. And I have realized that the one time it was heard on 9490 instead probably resulted from leaving the R. República relay transmitter on way past its own 0200* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KOREA SOUTH [non]. 9650, Sat Sept 29 at 1250, KBSWR via CANADA, Kevin O`Donovan in NM starts two minutes later than usual, saying Voice of Indonesia on Facebook acknowledges it has technical problems on shortwave but hopes to be back on the air soon; also photos of the five contest winners visiting earlier this month [yes, still nothing on 9526-].

Always with annoying clicking KBS imposes on its feeds to Canada, Kevin`s constant companion at 1253, Jeffrey Bolognese in MD provides transcripts and audio at
http://kbstechtips.wordpress.com/
this week about Windows Media Player being preferred for online listening to KBS (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MAURITANIA. 7245, Sept 29 at 0541, IGIM absent, so another chantless morning (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 540, Sept 29 at 0604 UT, NA ends and full ID for XETX, Chihuahua, ``Grupo BM Radio``, poor signal; Cantú: 540 XETX La Ranchera de Paquimé + FM 90.5 Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chih. 1,000 250
(Glenn Hauser, oK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 850, Sept 29 at 0547 UT, discussion called `El Mundo del Trabajo`, loops SW and KOA not a problem during momentary fade, but soon resurging. Two possibilities in Cantú:
850 XEM  Milenio Radio     + FM 103.7 Chihuahua, Chih. 5,000 500
850 XEUS Radio Universidad + FM 107.5 Hermosillo, Son. 1,000 200

I would dearly like it to be the 200-watt XEUS which sesquidecades ago was on SW 6115, but its program grid
http://www.radio.uson.mx/programacion.html
indicates rock music at this time, in a widely varied format.

Milenio doesn`t seem to have a program grid for radio, but it does for TV, which may or may not be providing // soundtrack for radio.
http://tv.milenio.com/horarios
Lots of talk shows, but nothing by this name shown now or at any time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MOROCCO [and non]. 15349.1, Sept 28 at 2045, IMM is still missing. What`s wrong at Nador? Leaves weak and fluttery RAE 15345v ARGENTINA in the clear, so Europeans should be enjoying unimpeded that only remaining external service from S America during their M-F hours to that continent.

9579.12v, Sept 29 at 0537, the Médi Un frequency from Nador is also absent, which it should be if they can`t get it back onto proper 9575; Africa No. Un, Gabon, unimpeded in French on 9580 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. 11840, Sept 29 at 1337 open carrier is already on from VOR, 1339 starts brief tones intermittently on and off; by 1350 the tones are constantly on and off, pitch somewhere between G5 and G#5 = 784 and 830 Hz, prior to the English at 14-16, 250 kW, 265 degrees from Pet/Kam to CIRAF 44, eastern China; certainly a sufficient signal too off the back to WNAm, at the outset, as long as the Cuban radio war is not too severe on 11845. Remember when 11840 was the regional Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk domestic outlet? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 15420-CUSB, WBCQ, Sept 29 at 1402, Sabbath Service from Walterboro, Hammond organ music sounds awfully flat, due to on-frequency carrier from BBCWS Somali via Cyprus, which per HFCC is 250 kW, 160 degrees on Saturdays since 18 August, while it`s 173 degrees on Sunday-Friday since 27 Sept, why the discrepancy? BBCWS also provides huge collision of audio on both sidebands, escaping most of WBCQ on the LSB. Meanwhile, Brother Scare // 15215 via IRRS via ????? is on-key with no CCI. Meanwhile, plenty of open frequencies around 15420: 15405, 15410, 15415, 15425, 15430, 15435, so why do those two insist on colliding? BTW, HFCC does not show WBCQ as SSB of any sort, altho it does list 15550 WJHR as ``T`` instead of D for AM, or N for DRM (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SUDAN SOUTH [non]. 15725, Sept 29 at 0531, emphatic speech in non-English, poor signal from V. of South Sudan Revolutionary Radio. Had not heard it in some time due to degrading propagation, tho usually sought sometime after 0500. A Reuters story via Mike Cooper in DXLD 12-39 mentions an unidentified outlet:

``A shortwave radio station with links to the Yau Yau rebellion says
the group is fighting the government in reaction to abuses committed
during a state disarmament program.``

Could this refer to VOSSR, and if not, to what? The complete report has been reposted in numerous places, including:
http://www.gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ctl/ArticleView/mid/519/articleId/7867/South-Sudan-Accuses-Sudan-Of-Supplying-Arms-To-Rebel-Group.aspx
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** THAILAND. 9795, Sept 29 at 1313, jazzy piano music, 1314 English outro to R. Thailand Japanese service, bells IS, pause, bells IS and English opening of Mandarin service. Carrier stays on as they are shifting the Udorn antenna from 54 to 30 degrees. Axually the #226 antenna is at 30 degrees, but slewed +24 for the Japanese, and again for the Thai from 1330. It seems to be a bit weaker after the de-slew but maybe imaginary as 30 should really be closer to USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 15310, Sept 29 at 1326, BBCWS with news about flooding from the rain in Spain, poor signal but the best it could do on 19m, i.e. 250 kW, 63 degrees from OMAN at 14-16. Checked 21470 at 1334, but it was not // with pop music, i.e. 250 kW, 175 degrees from CYPRUS at 12-17; the 13m signal has been improving lately, both nowhere near USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1636 monitoring: confirmed on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB, starting at 0135 UT Saturday Sept 29. AWWW ran a bit over after a discussion of Ed Bolton`s amazing recreations of Amos `n` Andy, and closing prayer. Inserted between AWWW and WOR was a quick ID for ``Radio Free Mount Airy, 87.9``. AWWW is // 7490 and even 9330-CUSB [best here], but not WOR.

Next: UT Sunday 0400 on NEW 5745 WTWW-1.
On WRMI: Sat 1730, Sun 0800, 1530, 1730, Mon 0500, 1130
On HLR: Sat 1630 on 7265 (if again like last week), Tue 0930 on 5980
Also on WRN via SiriusXM 120: Sat & Sun 1730, Sun 0830
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 550, Sept 29 at 0601 UT, ``Farm Radio 550, KFRM`` ID. KFRM Salina KS is a local in the daytime with 5 kW and great ground conductivity, but at night it`s only 110 watts, so hearing it depends on absence of CCI. Night pattern
http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/573266-73617.pdf
is a blob favoring SW, but ranging from WNW to SSE and we are close to due south. Its daytime coverage map, contour not calibrated, reaches way into Oklahoma past Enid.http://www.kfrm.com/our_station.php
I often check their regional AccuWeather radar map which includes most of OK, and certainly Enid:http://www.kfrm.com/weather.php
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. I previously mistakenly mixed KXOL 1660 into my 1650 unID log, so corrected:

1650, Sept 24 at 1204 UT, romantic music in Spanish, ``la música continúa sin comerciales, en María(??)``. Not at all sure of that name, probably wrong. Seems to be from east-west, but I also need to null local KFXY 1640 which is SSE, so that may be skewed. Could be KSVE El Paso TX, NRC AM Log listed with romántica format; not the other US SS station KBJD Denver which is religious. Could DXer Vance in El Paso confirm activity status of KSVE?

However, it`s hard to imagine such stations announcing proudly as non-commercial. New XEARZ in Mexico City has been doing just that, per reports. As in non-profit, per Cantú: ``1650 XEARZ Zer Radio 5,000 watts. Permisionada (sin fines de lucro) pero parte de Grupo Zer``

Still no definite logs of that known from north of the border, altho Bryan Clark has heard it (very) south of the border, in New Zealand, August 23 at 0609, 0658, so it is (or was) all-night. Definite logs of KSVE are just as rare (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 6945-AM, Sept 29 at 0525, poor signal with rock music, probably pirate R. True North again (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)