sabato 18 ottobre 2014

Glenn Hauser logs October 17-18, 2014

** BERMUDA [non]. 7268-LSB, Oct 18 at 0535, Hurricane Watch Net by NCS N4NVI, a ``directed net`` with calls approximately once a minute for any weather info to be relayed to National Hurricane Center, from Bermuda, where Hurricane Gonzalo has just hit. Never hear any replies from VP9, where 2/3 of the island is reported powerless; 0542 finally a call I can`t hear, if co-channel, from KG4KXY, who is not in Guantánamo Bay as once would have been obvious before extraterritorial prefixes were jumbled, but dentro-conterminous in Richmond VA. Occasional heavy ACI from some other ham on 7272-LSB.

N4NVI has VG signal way over here. Never heard location, but ARRL/FCC lookup says: HARRIS, DAVID A, N4NVI, 8545 E HIGHWAY 16, SENOIA, GA 30276. Senoia is just south of Atlanta beyond Peachtree City. At 0556 he mentions there will be a change of NCS at top of hour.

7268-LSB, at 0620 UT Oct 18 I find that ``N8BHL in Ohio`` is now in charge, giving Gonzalo 0600 eye position as 33.5N/63.9W, some 100 miles NE of Bermuda moving NE at 17 mph, and barometer is 955 mb.
ARRL: ``BROADWAY, GORDON S, N8BHL, 3677 Peel Rd, Radnor, OH 43066``

Tnx to tip from John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, USNY, earlier in evening UT Oct 18 about 7268-LSB:

``Amateur radio hurricane watch net. Conversation giving current NHC conditions to Bermuda ham operator (VP9NI - John running 35 watts!) and latter describing ambient situation and barometric pressure at 0144 GMT. VP9NI will be checking back into the net with a further report at around 0210. Net control is having trouble raising VP9NI (John) in Bermuda at 0320. I did hear him briefly in response to net control's call, but signal was very weak and then not heard. VP9NI had mentioned in a previous (0144z) transmission that he was running on battery power, at that time starting with a QRP signal generating 12 watts. When he realized net control was having trouble copying him, he briefly raised power to 35 watts. That transmission was easily readable at my QTH in upstate NY. His brief response to net control's call around 0320 sounded much weaker. John Figliozzi, Halfmoon, NY, Eton E1XM, A/D DX Sloper`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CUBA. 6165, Oct 18 at 0136, RHC ``English`` is open carrier/dead air on usual VG signal, while English is nominal on 6000, and 5040 is back in correct language, Spanish. I leave the PL-880 on 6165 while continuing bandscanning on DX-398. Finally RHC audio cuts on 6165 at 0148:16, just in time for `Arts Roundup`. At 0543, 6000 is off the air. It`s always something wrong at RHC, the laughingstock of `major` SWBC stations (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** CYPRUS. 9519-9542, Oct 18 at 0124, OTH radar pulses over this 23-kHz range, now with no Spain in the 9535 way, possibly from Cyprus (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** DIEGO GARCIA. 12759-USB, Oct 18 at 0113, checking again 24 hours after last AFN reception, but nothing heard; however, by 0155 as I am wrapping up this session, a trace of music has audiblized itself (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 12070, Oct 18 at 0116, R. Cairo, VG signal but extremely distorted music with rhumble in Spanish service

11710, Oct 18 at 0116, R. Cairo, `Spanish` carrier seems unmodulated, just hetting Argentina 11711-, which is modulating some music

9965, Oct 18 at 0116, R. Cairo, VG level and sufficient Arabic modulation, but heavy flutter and rhumble, whine

9315, Oct 18 at 0116, R. Cairo, fair with flutter, and just barely modulated music in Spanish service

13850, Oct 18 at 0526, R. Cairo, good with flutter, but overmodulated and distorted Arabic (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** GREECE. 9420, Oct 18 at 0121, ERTOpen is on tonight, rock song in English, good with flutter, // 9935 but the latter with buzz which occasionally infests that transmitter. 9420 still on at 0530 check, now Greek music, good but heavy flutter; while 9935 is off but 0532 // 11645, poor with heavy flutter (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NORTH AMERICA. 6935-USB, Oct 18 at 0128, pirate music with good signal; 0132 live announcement by Renegade Radio referring to reports being posted at hfunderground; mentions a ``mobile unit not too far away hearing us``; also acknowledges Chris Smolinski, William Hassig and Jim Farley, three of the big pirate radio fans. Says there are peskies on 6930 but not too much QRM either way. At 0135 has an in-studio guest drinking beer who doesn`t say much, but maybe he will after few more. 0136, ``Warren Devon right here on Renegade Radio``, intro to music. Still on at 0155 check as I quit. More reports of this at:
http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,18956.0.html
I was not hearing any 6935 CCI PSK ute or STANAG as some of them mention (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SRI LANKA. 11905, Oct 18 at 0115:18.5, mistimesignal ends after musical prélude of SLBC, but it`s chopped to only two pips instead of three. Fair but fluttery signal as ever, transpolarly (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** TURKEY. 11980, Oct 18 at 0530 past 0545, TRT with always enjoyable Turkish music, good signal with some flutter. As usual in B-seasons, this 310-degree transmission toward western Europe and consequently North America beyond will shift to 9700, replacing Romania and run one UT hour later, 0500-0655 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1743 monitoring: confirmed Friday Oct 17 from 2130.5 on WRMI 7570 and 15770: this time, signals are about equally good here. This follows some nice fill music, one Rudy Espinal ID and some more music; fortunately WOR plays to conclusion at 2159.5.

Also confirmed after 1430 Saturday Oct 18 via Utwente receiver in Netherlands on Hamburger Lokalradio, via MV Baltic Radio, Göhren, Germany, 7265-CUSB: good strong signal sounds like a lot more than 1 kW but meter shows considerable fading. Next:

UT Sunday 0131 on KVOH, 9975
Sunday 1000 on WRMI, 5850
Sunday 2300 on WRMI, 11580
UT Monday 0300v on Area 51 via WBCQ, 5110v-CUSB
Tuesday 1100 on WRMI, 9955
Wednesday 0630 & 1430 on HLR, 7265-CUSB
Wednesday 1315 on WRMI, 9955
Wednesday 2100 on WBCQ, 7490v
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9330v-CUSB // weaker but sufficient and synchronized 7490v, UT Sat Oct 18 at 0118, WBCQ with `Allan Weiner Worldwide` running well over an hour from 0000, as AW is reading e-mail from Jason that he will be imitating Wolfman Jack on a Hallowe`en special tribute Friday night Oct 31 [UT Sat Nov 1], to be on 94.7, i.e. WBCQ FM, which is apparently now known as Kixx FM, as per contact e-mail
kixxfm@gmail.com and will also ``take over some SW frequencies`` at the same time as AWWW, which means after 0000 UT, but not specified which will be which.

Back to the present: tonight, unusually, 5110v-CUSB is not // the others for AWWW which normally occupies all three or four transmitters, but with some other music.

AW next answers an inquiry about how is Dr. Scott Becker doing? He`s fine but back in Kansas following death of his father 6 days ago; expected to return to Florida (is Allan already there for the winter?)

AWWW finally wrapping up at 0129 after his prayer; while 5110 unknown show is talking graphically about stripteasing. By 0131 they are all split: 9330 with a pseudo-Amos & Andy montage mixed with discussion of where to put chickens, music, a typical Area 51 filler bit; 7490 playing some unknown music, still on at 0153 recheck by when 9330 is off, and 5110 music is swing. No sign of any 15420-CUSB.

No attempt by me to measure all these variants, but the latest from Wolfgang Büschel: ``Here are some logs of tonight 23-24 UT Oct 17, via remote access to SDR unit at Massachusetts near Boston on eastern coast of US North America. USA WBCQ shortwave outlet footprints:
5110v=5109.739, 7490v=7490.255, 9330v=9330.118, 15420v=15419.980 kHz.
Checked the WBCQ frequencies Oct 17 to the closest Hertz measuring
footprint`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 11580, Oct 18 at 0125, Family Radio in Hindi giving giveaway Oakland address, so WRMI has again put it here instead of 15770 which is still on the graphic schedule, probably a good idea propagationally, as even to here, 15770 has become JBA, but I can finally make out Brother Scare there // inbooming 7570. Haven`t checked every night, but 11580 was also Hindi on UT October 14. So I asked Jeff White about it: ``Glenn: We are testing it on 11580. Have not made a definite decision yet, but will probably leave it on 11580 for the time being. Jeff`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 9265, Oct 18 at 0528, WINB is on late again when it can achieve a very good signal unlike earlier, unaccented YL interviewing strangely-accented OM gospel huxter explaining how tithing only 10 percent is not enough, and you have to give to God (e.g. his ministry) first before spending what`s left of your paychex. Could not stand to listen long enough to pin down the accent or get his or program`s name. Still nothing about this on
http://winb.com (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1280, Oct 18 at 0606 UT, ``Tri-state area --- talk 1280 WGBF``, then fade out. I wasn`t sure of the W+ calls but this is the one that slogan matches in NRC AM Log, WGBF, Evansville IN, 5/1 kW U2, which means direxional only at nite. NRC Pattern Book shows one of its three lobes is westward, enough for us. Has anyone compiled how many ``tri-state areas`` there are in the US --- a lot! Hardly distinctive --- and how many axually go by that monicker? There are even more bi-state areas but no one seems to care about them (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 1580, Oct 18 at 0559 UT, ads for barracuda.com and Australian Dream, then ``KREL, Colorado Springs, 15-80 sports, all sports all the time``. Dominating frequency despite ``140`` watts at night vs 10000 watts day power, both non-direxional. Listed as ``ESPN 1580`` but I did not hear ESPN mentioned in this ID (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VIETNAM [non]. 12005, Oct 18 at 0128, no signal from VOV relay via Woofferton --- is it not propagating? No, it`s merely the inexplicable break between English and Vietnamese semihours, as Viet is reaudible at 0142 check, fair with flutter. All three segments are in HFCC as with exactly same parameters, but 2-minute breaks between them:
12005 0100 0128 8 WOF  250 282 -12 618 1234567 Eng G VOV BAB 17474
12005 0130 0228 8 WOF  250 282 -12 618 1234567 Vie G VOV BAB 17475
12005 0230 0300 8 WOF  250 282 -12 618 1234567 Eng G VOV BAB 17476
And effective dates for all are 160814 261014, so something changed on 16 August, altho 12005 had been in use from beginning of A-14. 8 is the CIRAF target = eastern USA; 250 the kW; 282 the azimuth; -12 the slew to reach that azimuth; 618 the antenna type; BAB = BaBcoCk, and the final 5 digits, the registration entry numbers. No, a check of HFCC as of 30 June finds identical parameters, except effective from 16 May, so perhaps they just renew it every few months? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 1170, Oct 18 at 0610, with KFAQ Tulsa nulled and in a fade, something in Spanish with distorted modulation, possibly preaching. Closest Mexicans are XERT in Reynosa and XEMDA in Monclova (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 5371.5-USB, Oct 18 at 1256, ham in conversation, 1-way as I never hear his contact if on same frequency, until a trace at 1300. Numerous transmissions with nary a call ID until 1304 quickie, maybe N0KPP or maybe N0KBB. No such former call and the latter is nowhere in the nearby zero-call area, but where else:
Beebe, Kevin S, N0KBB
2277 Sorrento Circle
Winter Park, FL 32792

Nothing about 60 meters on his QRZ.com page, just an image of him and his Hum-V mired in the mud:
http://files.qrz.com/b/n0kbb/n0kbb.jpg

He does say he has been hearing a 5W1 (Samoa) on Channel 5. I can`t remember what frequency that is or I would seek him too. ARRL about ``60 [sic] meters`` at http://www.arrl.org/60m-channel-allocation
``Table 1
Channel 1: 5330.5 kHz
Channel 2: 5346.5 kHz
Channel 3: 5357.0 kHz
Channel 4: 5371.5 kHz
Channel 5: 5403.5 kHz``
BTW, 5371.5 = 55.85 meters using the 300 conversion factor, nowhere near ``60`` which obviously (?) has to be below 5000 kHz
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

UNIDENTIFIED. 15230-15235-15240, Oct 18 at 0528, sounds like DRM noise as I am checking 15240 for R. Australia which is inaudible. Nothing scheduled now in any mode. Possibly a KTWR test, which does have DRM capability and uses 15235-AM later? Or some local noise source just resembling DRM? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 1829 UT October 18