domenica 5 gennaio 2014

Glenn Hauser logs January 4-5, 2014

** CHINA [and non]. 12045, Jan 5 at 1432, Firedrake good with flutter, CCI, against VOA Chinese via Tinian; no thoro search, but noticed one other FD as usual during this hour, 6145, plus lots of stronger CNR1 jammers at the usual spots on 9 and 7 MHz bands (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 11880, Jan 4 at 2245, ``Ed Newman`` on RHC, `Music with a Message` presenting two (obscure?) protest songs by John Lennon, ``Women, Niggers of the World``, i.e. treated like slaves; and ``Gimme Some Truth``. At least I had never heard of them. Hard to make out the lyrix beyond the titles. Closing 2258, says this alternates weekly with `Jazz Place` on Saturdays, part 2 this week and part 3 in two weeks.

11860, Jan 4 at 1421, brief check of RHC down from 11880 PCJ WRMI, surprised to hear Ed Newman again, in English, intro, cut to outro of mailbag // 11750, turns out just to be a promo within RHC Spanish for its other language services, Portuguese also mentioned, back to philately (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 5025, Jan 5 at 1152, R. Rebelde stable transmitter now with ranchera music, and not on alternate 5050 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EQUATORIAL GUINEA [non]. 15190, Jan 4 at 1943, I am checking for R. Africa, Bata, during the hole 1930-2000 when neither Philippines for WRMI should be on frequency: nothing, except at 1955 I detect a JBA carrier on the hi side, presumably Brasil. At *2000:11, WRMI cuts on with opening music from its R. Africa Network (altho it was inaudible/unpropagable at 1955 check on 17790). Afroprop is OK with DRM noise as usual from Nigeria 15115-15125, and BBC 15420 is even atop WBCQ. Don`t you believe my previous remark that Bata had not been heard on 15190 this year: I myself picked it up Jan 2 at 0730 during an unusual night opening from Africa; but indeed not heard so far in the 19-23 period (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GUATEMALA. 4055, Sunday Jan 5 at 1148, R. Verdad already on in Spanish, very poor signal. Used to sign on later on Sundays, and their program schedule © 2009 *still* hasn`t been updated:
http://www.radioverdad.org/programaci%C3%B3n
showing Sundays from *1255, weekdays from *1100, despite opening circa 0930 for more than a year now (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TAIWAN [non]. 11880, Sunday Jan 5 at 1327, PCJ 6-note IS, about to start another broadcast via WRMI (as well as 9335 via Sri Lanka, but apparently not any more 5995 via Germany); opening music is the old WYFR theme! Keith says this time also on R. Australia`s FM frequency in Port Moresby, 101.9 where it`s after midnite (not really, UT +10). Right into `Focus Asia Pacific`, Andy Sennitt introducing several correspondent reports; are these specials to PCJ or rounded up from various other sources? 1344 only commercial of the hour, for China Airlines.

1345 into `Happy Station`, which is another live edition since Keith Perron enjoyed so much doing it live last week. This time to give away a C Crane CCSW pocket radio to someone who e-mails phone number and answers it later in hour. Mailbag acknowledges several writers, without specific replies, including people in Lexington USA, and Lebanon USA. Like a true non-American, Keith ignores states, which are essential to identifying US locations, as there are several Lexingtons and Lebanons (and I would be hard-pressed to decide which ones are biggest, primaries worthy of state being assumed; at least I happen to know which states these L & L individuals are in. There are even a few Enids, but our Oklahoman is certainly the greatest Enid of all.)

A couple of music breaks, including Everly Brothers, and again the low bitrate is showing (and the opening timesignal was several seconds late again, delayed due to internet feed). Larry Zamora in DFW answered his phone just in time to win the radio. QSLs for reports to pcjqsl @ pcjmedia.com --- I still haven`t received an e-reply for the last two weeks, mis-sent? directly to Victor G. (BTW, Victor says he`ll cover postage costs for those really wanting a tangible QSL.)

Keith says he`ll be back again next week on 11880 with another live show, so maybe this will become a weekly regular. Reception sufficient, but not completely solid, like BS was on 11825, 9690; some fading, and lite CCI after 1400 from IBB. I wonder which antenna azimuth is on 11880. 1430 closed with WYFR theme again until off at 1431.5* (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 15420, Jan 4 at 1943, BBCWS, `Science in Axion` about space, is atop CCI from WBCQ with off-frequency het, and most of `Global Spirit Proclamation` gone if listening on LSB only. // 12095 is good & clear, both a lot better than Dec 30 when I was trying to monitor myself on `World Business Report`. At 1950, 12095 still good and I compare it to 11735 Zanzibar, finding that to be very poor with flutter; at least ZBC is on the air today.

There are too many variables to be certain, but improved signals on 12095 & 15420 make me wonder if these are still from doomed SEYCHELLES site, especially since neighbor Zanzibar is incoming so poorly. Altho official shutoff of the IORS is not until Marchend, could they already be transferring some services to other sites, like Rwanda, South Africa or Ascension, normally propagating better to here? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9955, Jan 4 at 1952, WRMI seems off, unless it`s the JBA carrier, unlike the BS on 9930 and 9980; the carrier could also be a jamming pilot. At 1955 also no signals on 17790, just not propagating, nor on 7730, while 11825 with BS has only a fair signal instead of usual VG one (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1702 monitoring: confirmed from 0029:44 UT Sunday January 5 on WTWW-2, 5085, usual excellent signal; next airing at 0501 Jan 5 on WTWW-1, 5830 also confirmed, but propagation dropping out here; how was it further west? By 0634 check, 5830 back up to very good signal.

Jeff White told me later that WRMI ran WOR at two additional times: Sat 2130 on 7730, and UT Sun 0030 on 9495; these may or may not continue following weeks. Current graphic frequency schedule shows these two blox are color-coded as RMI programming rather than TOM: 21-22 on 7730, 44 degrees toward Europe; and 00-01 on 9495, 181 degrees toward S America.

Next known WOR airings: UT Monday 0400v on Area 51 via WBCQ 5110v-CUSB (hoping no internet outage this week); Tue 1200 on WRMI 9955; Wed 0730 & 1530 on HLR 7265-CUSB (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 670, Jan 5 at 1159 UT, WSCR Chicago ID as also on ``104.3 HD2 in FM quality``. That would be WJMK, K-Hits, a.k.a. Jack FM, with only 4.1 kW total H & V, per WTFDA FM database. Minuscule coverage compared to 50 kW U1 on 670, big deal. 670 is also running IBOC noise, but I don`t hear them promoting that! Merely QRMs 655-685 here and it must be awful in Chicago, also from WBBM 780 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report despatched at 1719 UT January 5