sabato 31 agosto 2013

Glenn Hauser logs August 29-31, 2013

** ANGUILLA. 6090, August 31 at 0553 check, ``Caribbean Beacon`` is off the air. Back on 11775 with usual Asian CCI at 1336 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CANADA. Re my previous report of CBKF-1, Gravelbourg, Sask., Aug 30 at 0539 UT, presumed as the only French station on 690:

Glenn, I thought that the CBC French language station in Sask. had moved to FM already. Someone closer will need to confirm this. 73, (Walt Salmaniw (presently in northern Ontario), Aug 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Walt, Hmm, it sure is hard to find any frequency info for SRC-Sask on the web. Possibly CBU (a rarity here) momentarily interviewing someone in French to be translated, or with a heavy Québec accent? Or even EWTN WQNO Nouvelle Orléans doing the same? Await confirmation whether CBKF-1 is still on 690 (Glenn Hauser, ibid.)

Local late afternoon, no trace of 690. Other Saskatchewan stations are audible and certainly visible so I'd say 690 isn't on (Don Moman, Lamont AB, 2328 UT Aug 30, dxldyg via DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Hi Barry, As you may have seen, I was hearing québecois on 690 last night, so assumed it must be CBKF1 in Gravelbourg, Sask. It has been suggested that station has already moved to FM. It is still on your lookup listing all Sask stations.
http://topazdesigns.com/ambc/
Do you have anything definite on whether it is still on 690? 73, (Glenn Hauser, Oklahoma to Barry McLarnon, Ont., via DXLD)

As far as I know, the 690 transmitter is still on, and I'm not aware of any plans to move CBKF1 to FM. I'm pretty certain that's who you heard. Cheers, (Barry McLarnon, Ottawa, ON, ibid.)

Recheck later tonite and I do hear French talk there on eastern wires, CBU dominant on most everything else (Don Moman, Lamong AB, 0510 UT Aug 31, ibid.)

Unless a very short clip, I can't imagine CBU either. Sorry for the confusion. I was sure that I had read about them leaving AM sometime in the last year (Walt Salmaniw, Victoria BC, Aug 31, ibid.)

** CHINA. Firedrake [non] CNR1 jamming scan August 31 circa 1255 finds nothing at all 12-18 MHz, except perhaps 13830 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CHINA. 9410, August 31 at 1245, weak Chinese instead of noise blob, so CNR5 is apparently back in whack today. Replying to my recent musing that the noise could be irregular jamming against Fu Hsing Broadcasting, Taiwan, Ron Howard replies:

``A few random thoughts - It should be noted that the 9774 frequency never had anything like the 9410 blob/noise, so suspect the blob is not a jamming noise as such from China. If that were the case, then I would expect China to also jam 9774, as that is a long standing frequency also used by Fu Hsing BS and China could easily use the blob/noise there to block them or perhaps even distort the CNR2 audio to block 9774, but as I say, that has never happened before to the best of my knowledge. So I am not positive as to just what the blob/noise is on 9410. If it is a faulty CNR5 transmitter (as I had previously thought), then it certainly malfunctions rather randomly, which does not make a lot of sense! A mystery!!``

I can only point out that the CNR1 (mostly ex-Firedrake) jamming of Sound of Hope also defies logic in that it is mostly turned off during the first quarter to third of each hour letting SOH thru (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUAM. 5765-USB at 1250 and 13362-USB at 1253 August 31, no signals from AFN; Ron Howard also reports both missing lately. It`s quite sporadic, but we are always apprehensive that one day it will go off and never come back, like happened to the other AFNs in Hawaii, Iceland, Italy, Key West, Puerto Rico. Guam and Diego Garcia are the only ones left (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** KUWAIT. 15540, August 31 at 1710, YL in south Asian language, fair, mentions Pakistan, pop music. It`s R. Kuwait`s Urdu service at 16-18, aimed eastward until 1800 switch to English northwestward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 1120, August 29 at 2035 UT check on caradio, KEOR is off again. August 30 at 1900, it`s still off. Only KMOX audible August 31 at 1221 altho there is a weak SAH from algo when it`s nulled.

Regarding KEOR`s irregular late sign-on time (when not cheating all-night), Kevin O`Brien writes:

``Critical Hours - whatever that is? Glenn, In your show this week you talked about a station near you apparently coming on late as a daytimer, and it has critical hours license. It is likely following its license with its start time.

Critical hours is a third operational period for AM radio stations, not many have it as an issue, but critical hours are a period of up to 2 hours AFTER sunrise and BEFORE sunset --- that a station operates in its third mode. These are listed as DA-3. Just as some are DA, DA-N or DA-2.

Most appear to be newer stations and those that upgraded facilities.
You can see why this may be needed when there are times that a distant station can be heard for a period of time before sunset at your location. If you can hear something from a location then that location could be bothered from a signal from your location. Hope this helps``

Yes, but FCC ought to specify exactly when the CH are in effect in each case (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA [and non]. Re previous report of getting ch RF 42 from Tulsa to decode, but not ch RF 45:

Here is a possible ``why`` --- the KOTV-45 signal would have decoded but is being interfered with by KSNW-45 Wichita. It`s about the same distance, and not unusual for area tropo to be in play both from Tulsa and Wichita. In the NTSC era, two full-power TV stations would never have been assigned on the same channel in cities so close. When there is CCI, we cannot see that; only decoding is prevented. (Except in rare instances where the signals are really equal, there may be a tiling mixture, frozen.)

But that`s not all; there is a low-power 45 in OKC, KOHC-CD with 15 kW, rarely boosted enough to see here, but maybe enough at times to mess up other 45s. Consulting the W9WI.com listings by channel, there are more low-power OK 45s in Lawton, Elk City and Enid!

K45EJ is Licensed with 25 kW analog in Enid as a relay of KSBI-DT 50, and K45EJ (no suffix) is also an Application for 11 kW DTV in Enid. In reality K45EJ has been off the air for YEARS, but still appears on the legal ID slide of KSBI. Do they really not know at OKC HQ that this station has been off the air all this time, or is it a Big Lie to preserve its ``presence``? Like an AM station, would the license have been deleted long ago due to inactivity, if the FCC knew?

KSBI is received well enough on RF 50 direct like the other full-power OKC stations, none of which see any need for an Enid translator either, so I seriously wonder whether KSBI will ever get K45EJ back on the air. I hope not! (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** PALAU [and non]. 9930, August 31 at 1256, good signal from YL gospel huxter in English, 1259:36 cuts on and off for most of a minute during attempts to play ``Onward Christian Soldiers`` IS, as if T8WH is changing antennas, and indeed it is, from 318 to 345 degrees per Aoki. 318 is across mid-China entering around Amoy on my NGS globe, while 345 runs just west of Koreas.

Between 10 and 14, 9930 is on air Sat & Sun only (plus Quê Me, Vietnamese clandestine Fri 1200-1230, endorsed by some big-name US politicians), so collides with WTWW during the final hour, which cuts on with Brother Scare ex-5085 at *1302:34 (a bit after WTWW-1 5830 had already QSYed to 9479), WTWW 9930 now totally blocking World Harvest Radio. Aoki also shows the Sat 1245 program is `Mission for Christ`, on Angel 3, and at 1300 `Truth for the World` on Angel 5 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RWANDA [non]. 17870, Saturday August 31 at 1700, strumming & singing music for the first 5 minutes, 1705 announcement could be French, or maybe French-like intonation upon Kinyarwanda, for this is the new monarchist clandestine that Ludo Maes gave advance notice of via the TDP yg, altho his company is now Broadcast Belgium.

Radio Inyabutatu it is called, tho I never caught such an ID, Saturdays only at 1700-1800 on 17870 via unspecified site. Wolfgang Büschel suspects Issoudun, FRANCE is most likely. Still does not appear in latest HFCC as of August 29. I compare it to Issoudun with RFI, 500 kW, 153 degrees on 17850, which ought to be about the same azimuth necessary for 17870: 17850 is quite a bit stronger. 17870 is better than BBC Ascension 17830, and much better than VOA Sri Lanka 17895 (site until 1730 switch to Greenville). About the same as 17745 Sudan Radio Service via Woofferton.

17870 has deep fades, but in the next few minutes improves at stronger peaks, now definitely not French, so presumed Kinyarwanda, mentions Rwanda, and Kigali; 1707 starts interviewing someone on phone.

Bill Bingham in South Africa was hearing it better until 1729: ``Good, varying s9 to s9+20. Which probably fits with Issoudun as source, since we are more or less in the same general direction here in Jo'burg`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOUTH CAROLINA [non]. 5085, August 31 at 0227, dead air from Brother Scare (hey, it rhymes!), back on at next check 0550 via WTWW-2. 5085 BS still going at 1247; 9930 cuts on at *1302:34 blocking another religionist in English from Palau, q.v. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** THAILAND. 5820, August 31 at 1249, very poor signal must be BBCWS as now scheduled Saturdays and Mondays only at 12-14, instead of 5875, 5840 or 5980 other days of week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1684 monitoring: Scheduled 0200 UT Saturday airing on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB did not happen, as monitoring webcast, I kept hearing music past 0215. Turned out there was an automation ``hiccup`` which delayed start until 0232. I hope everyone stayed tuned.

Next: maybe Saturday 2330v on WTWW-2 9930 or Sunday 0000v on 5085 (tho recently TOM has been on during this time); UT Sunday 0401 on WTWW-1 5830; Sunday 2330/Monday 0000 on 9930/5085 which did happen last week (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9330-CUSB, August 31 at 1240, WBCQ has Chuck Swindoll [no crax about another way to spell that] on `Insight for Living` (presumably part of the Good Friends Radio Network package) preaching about King Solomon. Of interest only because I could also barely make out an echo of his words a few seconds later; print-thru from old reel tape? IIRC, one technique to minimise this was to store tapes tails-out (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 15610, 13830, 12050, all three WEWN transmitters are still AWOL, August 30 at 2138. Finally resumed by 0554 August 31 with Radio Católica Mundial ID on 7555, much weaker // 11870 and 11520 English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 550, August 31 at 1211 UT, skywave is gone from the lowend, groundwave KFRM Salina KS with ``The Food Chain``, promoting ``food sovereignty`` by urban farming (also eating bugs). Host is interviewing family members in different parts of country; sounds rather unspontaneous. His website:
http://metrofarm.com/food-chain-radio/
Only 14 broadcast affiliates are listed:http://metrofarm.com/food-chain-radio-affiliates/
On KFRM it`s 7-8 am CT Saturdays (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 690, UT Saturday August 31 after 0505, KGGF is still on with sports talk, not play-by-play but maybe a break in some late game, since still going at 0605 with the K-State Sports Network closing at 0607, local ads, 0608 dead air, no KGGF sign-off or Taps or America the Beautiful. Coffeyville KS station normally stops just after 0500 with Taps, but leaves carrier on all-night. Friday evenings are favorites of DXers who can stand high school football as many stations cheat, but KGGF doesn`t need to and this was obviously collegiate (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1070, August 31 at 1219 UT, KNX Los Ángeles remains barely audible after sunrise with KLIO Wichita nulled, already promoting a 2-hour show on Thursday, Oct 3, ``Health Care Uncovered`` on how to get involved in the Affordable Care Act (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Some area tropo the morning of Saturday August 31, UT:
1422 on 28, trace of NTSC video from north, no doubt KWKD-LP Wichita, 8 kW Daystar, as DTVs are also in from there on 45, 26, 20, 19, 12, 10, 8, altho the lower ones not decoding. And on the DTV STB tuner a `bad` signal at the same time on 28, most likely Ion`s megawatt KTPX Okmulgee/Tulsa OK.

1422 on RF 42, KMCI on PSIP ID as 38-1. That`s Lawrence, KS, obviously trying to relate to Kansas City and its airport.

1423 on RF 18, KCPT with ID as KCPT-1 on 19-1, public TV from Kansas City (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)