lunedì 4 febbraio 2013

Glenn Hauser logs February 3-4, 2013

** ALASKA [and non]. 7355, Feb 4 at 1237, very poor in English, mentioning the term ``BC`` rather than ``BCE`` so probably Christian sectarian. Talk is mixed with music; 1238 ID as ``Your New Life Station, KNLS``, so this English hour is indeed on 7355 as Harold Sellers, BC has noted, despite KNLS` own Russian website schedule showing English at 12-13 on 9615 for B-12 if they have only one transmitter going, and 9615 plus 7355 if they have two. At 1240 something JBA is on 9615. KNLS English page sked,http://www.knls.org/broadcasting-front.html
claims to be on 9615 only. Ditto B-12 Chinese website English page:http://www.smzg.org/Schedule_in_English.htm

When you have only two, or even one funxional transmitter, why is it so hard to get your act together and put up an accurate schedule????

And what about MADAGASCAR? We are *still* waiting for any signs of their long-awaited and much-promoted new ``Madagascar World Voice``
Searching the knls.org website on Madagascar, there is no news about MWV since Sept. 2010 when they expected to be on air in 2011 or 2012.

For that we have to go to parent organization, World Christian Broadcasting, for the first quarter 2013 update:
http://www.worldchristian.org/Updates/LatestNews/updates.php

``Station MWV, Mahajanga, Madagascar --- The construction is complete. We only lack the transmitters that are in Houston, ready for shipment. We continue to wait for one more signature to renew our communications agreement with the Madagascar government.

The 10/40 window will be one focus with broadcasts from Madagascar.  97% of the unreached people in the world live in this area. 750 million Muslims, 750 Hindus and 200 million Buddhists live here. This area that drastically needs to hear the gospel of Christ will receive a strong signal once broadcasts begin.

Arabic, Russian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and English for Africa will be broadcast from station MWV. India, the Middle East, the western part of Russia, the south and west portions of China, Africa and South America will be our target audience.``

Googling around for this, I was amused to see some DX website in Portuguese claim that MWV broadcasts ``commenced`` in Feb 2012!

The Madagascar project has been going on for at least seven years. In recent past seasons, frequencies were even registered, but there is nothing in B-12 HFCC for it. How about A-13? Someone in the current Mad government is really reluctant to OK this, non-Christian? And/or needs bribe? (Glenn Hauser, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** AUSTRALIA. 21740, Feb 3 at 2137, RA excellent local-like signal in Monday morning news magazine, story about possibility of elexions being called. This is inbooming every day, just about as high as you can go on shortwave, and could be easily overlooked if you assume the 13m band is going to be dead, and indeed at this hour, RA is the OSOB (only station on band).

DON`T YOU BELIEVE: the RA website frequency guide,
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/waystolisten/abc-radio-shortwave-frequency-guide.pdf
which doesn`t even show 21740 or 19000, way outdated!!

HFCC reveals 21740 is at 21-01 UT, 100 kW, 70 degrees from Shepparton;
Almost as good: 19000 at 23-03, 100 kW, switching from 65 to 70 at 01

Program schedule shows, and let`s hope this is current:

UT Sunday-Thursday:
2100-2130 `AM` is Australia's most informative morning current affairs program. AM sets the agenda for the nation's daily news and current affairs coverage. Presented by Tony Eastley.

2130-2400 Live talk with Phil Kafcaloudes

UT Monday-Friday:
0000-0200 Live talk with Isabelle Genoux and Heather Jarvis, for the Pacific

0200-0300 The World Today --- a comprehensive current affairs program which backgrounds [a verb], analyses, interprets and encourages debate on events and issues of interest and importance to all Australians. Presented by Eleanor Hall.

UT Friday:
2030-2200 Saturday Extra --- Focuses on international politics and business. Saturday Extra covers developments on the world stage and the ways in which they matter to Australians. Presented by Geraldine Doogue.

2200-2230 Pacific Review --- A comprehensive roundup of the major stories from the region and the people involved and affected by them. Presented by Bruce Hill.

2230-2300 World Football Weekly [never mind]

2300-2330 Asia Review --- keeps you up to date with the latest events in the region using key political, business, economic and social newsmakers, as well as some of the finest analysts on regional affairs.

2330-2300 Download This Show --- Your weekly access-point to the latest developments in social media, consumer electronics, digital politics, hacktivism and more. Presented by Marc Fennell.

UT Saturday:
0000-0100 Background Briefing --- an agenda-setting current affairs radio documentary program.

2100-2200 Australia All Over --- Ian MacNamara speaks with Australians from all walks of life and relishes the chance to travel the country.

2200-2230 Correspondents Report --- the ABC's overseas reporters give their interpretation and analysis of the week's major events. Presented by Elizabeth Jackson.

2230-2300 Innovations --- A showcase of Australian design, discovery, invention, engineering and research skills. Presented by Desley Blanch.

2300-2400 ABC News Radio --- The latest from Australia's only national, continuous news network, delivering factual, independent and opinion-free coverage of news.

UT Sunday:
0000-0100 ABC News Radio continued

Newscasts surely occur every hour on the hour delaying the start of these programs until 5 after, not worth noting by RA (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BOLIVIA. 6134.8, UT Mon Feb 4 at 0058, R. Santa Cruz on unique frequency, fairly good with romantic music, ``historia de amor`` in lyrix, song continuing past hourtop; was gone last night when checked a few minutes later (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 11635-AM, Feb 3 at 2135, mechanical YL Spanish 5-digit spy numbers, no digital interruptions at the moment. A regular during this hour; some have reported it on 11640 so I reconfirmed it`s 11635.

17580, Feb 4 at 1419, RHC is off, still on 17730; before 1400, 17580 was on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** HAWAII. 5000, Feb 4 at 0645, WWVH with propagation minute, by real male voice instead of synthetic female on WWV; he starts a few sex late and doesn`t enunciate clearly, but I think the SF was 111, A4 and K0. Still I prefer humans to robots, as `she` tends to swallow some syllables and doesn`t know how to stress a phrase humanly. Both of them would have plenty of time to repeat each number, greatly increasing chances of readability, but refuse to do so any more. WWV was JBA at this time on 5000 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA [non]. 9500, Feb 4 at 1243, poor signal with flutter, S Asian song, 1248 announcement and another song. Aoki shows it`s CVC International, Hindi via Tashkent, UZBEKISTAN at 11-14. So CVC may have abandoned Africa and America on SW, but not yet Asia. Also heard some Chinese CCI, which is CNR1, Shijiazhuang 723 site (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAN. 15300, Feb 4 at 1435, found some music to accompany a doze attempt, fair signal but soon started talking, and cut off mid-word at 1437*. HFCC shows it must have been the VIRI Dari service scheduled 0830-1430, 250 kW, 84 degrees from Ahwaz. Except languages scheduled to start at 1430 on other frequencies include Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Hindi, Pashto, Russian; but hardly any from Ahwaz except 9685 for Russian, per WRTH, which says Ahwaz has only 2 x 250 kW transmitters. It`s a site we don`t often run across, and in fact HFCC B-12 registrations account for only one transmitter active there (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** JAPAN [non]. 15190, Feb 4 at 1306, good signal with 1 kHz tone, 1310 cuts to NHK IS, off at 1312:30*. Likely GUIANA FRENCH testing this for some reason, not likely to be direct at this hour. 15190 is the regular frequency for English at 1200-1230 via GUF. It would be nice if they moved this relay an hour+ later, when lots more North Americans are awake.

BTW, as I was listening to the tone on headphones, I couldn`t help yawning, during which I noticed the pitch of the tone shifted slightly, and even caused a beat between my left and right ears. Then I forced some more yawns and it kept happening: apparently because of slight pressure changes in the inner ears. Thank you, NHK, for leading to this amazing discovery, which I suspect you never anticipated! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. 2910, Feb 3 at 0050 and 1215 chex, JBA carrier, presumed XEVT Villahermosa, Tabasco, as previously IDed, 3 x 970; am not spending long hours on this anymore with several other 2 MHz band harmonix to chase (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NEW ZEALAND. 11725, Feb 4 at 1256, surprise to hear English report here about Flying Doctors of America, arranging medical aid expeditions to Majuro, Marshall Islands. Rudely cut off air in progress at 1258. Bet it`s RNZI, since it`s a frequency of theirs some six hours earlier, mistake? Then I tune to 5950, which cuts on at *1258:45 with Bell Bird (still not killed by cat population explosion!), 1300 timesignal, and opening RNZI Pacific Regional News.

No, 11725 is not a mistake, but: ``1059-1258 11725 AM 9870 DRM AM for Timor + NW Pacific, DRM > Central Pac 11725 Test Transmission``
per
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/listen.php
The How-to-Listen page which still bears dates of 27 October to 24 March, since they claim it`s impossible to insert effective dates when updated, even tho the content of frequencies can obviously be changed.

The 11-13 bihour in B-12 was originally on 17675, strangely hi for the nightmiddle even in summer, so they must have finally found it not propagating to targets. 11725 is certainly a great improvement for us beyond.

Ivo Ivanov reports that the test period for 11725 is Feb 4-10, and that it`s on the 325 antenna for Timor, NW Pacific. Sure seemed 35 degrees to me (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PERU [and non]. 5980, after hearing R. Chaski`s overtime pentaminute at 0100 six nights in a row, Dentro Cuban Jamming Command is back blocking it on Feb 4; in fact at 0047, Cuban pulsing noise is atop the CNR1 jammer; at 0100 I can`t even hear its closing timesignal, let alone R. Chaski, Urubamba. The Cuban jammer of course is only ``needed`` at 07-13 UT when R. Martí is on 5980, making Chaski a totally impossible morning listen. Does the Cuban radio war not even bother inside Perú? If I were picking a frequency for a new SW station, it sure wouldn`t be one that is jammed by Cuba at ANY hour; but the previous Chaski was apparently licensed for 5980 in the late 90s, really on 5981 then (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SPAIN [non]. REE via COSTA RICA is still running DRM noise on two channels at once, Feb 4 at 0048 check, 11810-11815-11820 for S America, and much stronger 9625-9630-9635 for N America. The former is for one hour from 00, the latter for two hours. Thus guaranteeing the smallest possible audience for both, and in fact 9630 is the only frequency they admit to using for N America at all in Castilian, tho 17595-AM weekend mornings only, direct, certainly sounds USward. Shhh (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 17755, Feb 4 at 1314, VOT German service, fair signal, but incomparably better than English at 1330 on 12035, unless they forget to change from 17755, not today: Frage des Monats from Die Stimme der Türkei, reminding me it`s a new month and so a new Question is available in English too (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 2660, Feb 4 at 0050 UT check, very poor with music, presumed usual KGLD Tyler TX, 2 x 1330 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 5085, Feb 4 at 0057, WTWW-2 is finally back on with country gospel music, huge signal, after missing for a week or so.

5830, Feb 4 at 0646, a bit of a problem I notice on WTWW-1: SFAW with double audio from two different programs, almost at same level! Still/again the case at 1300 with a double dose of two different PPP talks starting (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. Trans-Pacific carrier search circa sunrise here Feb 4: not a full bandscan, but checking some prime frequencies, JBA carriers audible with BFO at 1328 UT on 774, 1329 on 747, 1330 on 882 kHz (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 960, Feb 4 at 0600-0605 UT, dominant signal during KGWA Fox-hole is blues music, again suspected from WABG Greenwood, Mississippi. Instead of my usual supine position abed for this, I have found a `hot spot` elsewhere in the house near a window on the DX-398. Or should I say `cold spot`, i.e. seem to get a better null on the KGWA carrier (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 2240-, Feb 4 at 1213 UT I am alarmed to awaken and turn on to pre-tuned 2240 in anticipation of the harmonic I have been hearing, since on Feb 1, it apparently came on circa 1215. At first there is nothing, but carrier and modulation cut on at *1216:30 with announcement seemingly in Spanish, but too weak to copy, shortly into music. The signal is immediately degrading, to JBA carrier when I give up at 1228. Seems like earlying sunrises will soon impossiblize this.

The 1215 sign-on smax of a US station where the official FCC February sunrise time is then. Mexicans don`t seem to bother with such quarter-hour rounding precision, as in the IRCA Log you can see almost all of them which are not 24 hours schedule starting and stopping at hourtops. Sure wish I could find my set of SR/SS maps designed for MW DXing.

So I need to find a 560 or 1120 station in the proper 1215 UT Feb sunrise strip. Assuming it`s Spanish, the best possibility on 1120 in NRC AM Log is WXJO Douglasville GA, 1 kW daytimer with a CP for 10. But its Feb SR is 1230 UT, close but not close enough. WNWF, Destin, NW Florida in CST zone is also 1230 UT. And so is WKCE Maryville TN, 1230 UT. And AFAIK, not Spanish. So much for 1120. How about 560, x 4?

There are no known US SS stations on 560. WMIK, Middlesboro KY? Also 1230 UT. WRDT Monroe MI? 1230 too. This approach is not working. Based on the LSR time, the 2240 transmitter would have to be a bit further east than all of the above.

Back to Mexico: on 560 the only station in IRCA with a nominal sign-on of 1200 UT is XESRD, La Tremenda, in Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango, 5/0.25 kW.

On 1120 there are three at *1200: XEZB, La Mejor, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, 2/0.25 kW; XEPOP, Fórmula 11-20 AM in Puebla, Puebla, 1/0.1 kW; and XERUY, R. Universidad, Mérida, Yucatán. 1/? kW. This is going to be solved only by some more good clues from monitoring, if I can yet pull enough signal at sign-on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 2932-USB, Feb 4 at 0051, colloquial Spanish 2-way talking about need for a mecánico, maybe only hearing one side. Smax of a poacher or narco boat, but this is an aero band. Who cares if you`re illegal anyway? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 4700, Feb 4 at 0052, again two JBA carriers on slightly different frequencies per BFO, one likely R. San Miguel, BOLIVIA, but I`d sure like to know what the other is, a 5 x 940 harmonic? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 4719-USB, Feb 4 at 0053, another very colloquial Spanish 2-way, first words heard upon tuning in being ``puta madre`` --- your mother`s a whore, a rather impolite curse frequently uttered by lowlifes. One of them has ``engine noise`` behind. Good signals QRMing BOLIVIA on 4717 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 4835, Feb 4 at 0056, one JBA carrier, vs CODAR chirping just before WWCR blasts on 4840. So far R. Ondas del Suroriente, Quillabamba, Perú evades us on new frequency ex-5120 reported by Pedro F. Arrunátegui. If regularly on, it`s just too weak here. Or the JBAC could be Sikkim: the Turkistan trio were much stronger on best 5060 Chinese, also 4980, 4850. No chance of OA after 0100 if it`s still on, nor in the morning vs VL8A co-channel (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)