venerdì 24 aprile 2015

Glenn Hauser logs April 23-24, 2015


** ALBANIA [and non]. 9850, April 24 at *0126:15, R. Tirana carrier on and IS until 0130 theme and sign-on in English. Poor signal, noisy band, and I can also detect a LAH (low audible heterodyne). Despite our best efforts to have R. Tirana on a clear frequency for its North American service, Aoki now shows one or three others on 9850 during this semihour:
9850 PBS Qinghai, China, 2250-0600 in Tibetan, 50 kW, 206 degrees from Xining
and 
Sound of Hope, Xi Wang Zhi Sheng, *could* be on here any time between 2130 and 1550 in Chinese/Cantonese, 100 watts from Taiwan, but more importantly, requiring CNR1 or Firedrake jamming by the ChiCom. 

It`s probably only Qinghai, and the het caused by Shijak being off-frequency, measured recently by Wolfgang Büschel on 9849.973. Note that none of this is shown in HFCC!

The QRM is not a big problem here, but it could be worse elsewhere, and RT really needs an absolutely clear frequency to compensate for its low modulation level (and low signal level by the time it gets to deep North America).

So now it looks like the 0130-0200 broadcast, like the 2300-2400 in Albanian to North America, would be better off on 9855 where there is no conflict shown in Aoki, nor anything on adjacent 9860 (as long as Egypt stays on 9315 instead of woodenly registered 9860). I suggest ALR make the shift to 9855, but it may take a while to get it implemented (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BOLIVIA. 4410-, April 24 at 0058, since RSC is in so well on 6134.8 and Daqui [BRAZIL] in so well on 4915-, it`s time to look for something more exotic. And I do detect a JBA carrier here, which matches Carlos Gonçalves latest report from Portugal of:
``4409.8 R. Eco, Reyes, 2325-2339, 19/4, castelhano, canções; 45332``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BOLIVIA. 6134.8, April 24 at 0054, fair signal with song in Spanish, no doubt R. Santa Cruz; if R. Aparecida is there too, it`s too weak and/or too close to make much of a het tonight. 

5952+, Pio XII/Siglo XX, is also audible before 0100 with talk, 0102 with music. Its totally split frequency requires nothing further to identify it (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** BRAZIL. 4915-, April 24 at 0101 UT, slightly on the low side compared to WWV, best 60m S American signal is here (nothing from Pará 4885, off again?) with rock music past 0100; 0101 quick announcement starting with beeps, copied only this in Brazuguese, ``1,230``, and back to vocal romantic music. 1230 is enough to match it to 10 kW R. Daqui, Goiânia, ZYF691, whose AM side per WRTH 2015 is indeed 1230, ZYH756 --- rather than the other 4915 Brazilian, 25 kW R. Difusora Macapá, unless it also happens to be on MW 1230. But not among the many ZYs listed there; finding where it really is on MW is out of the question among pages and pages of stations, and the WRTH-listed website, http://difusora.ap.gov.br does not connect. 

Guess what, it requires a www. and RDM is on 630 AM, with no mention of SW/TW. More about the latter which I did *not* log this time:
lengthy history of the station, mentioning that from 1957 to 1964 it was only on onda tropical, but never states the frequency! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** COLOMBIA. 5910-, April 24 at 0140, very poor signal slightly on the low side, with music in noise level, must be HJDH, which I continue NOT to hear after 0500 when NHK/France is finished with its 0300-0500 blockage. Nothing else scheduled before 0300. Also at 0140 there is a LAH on 6010, presumably the other HJDH vs ZYE521, both off-frequency (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** EGYPT. 9315, April 24 at 0104, R. Cairo in Spanish, fair and somewhat distorted

12070, April 24 at 0104, R. Cairo in Spanish, good signal with more distortion than 9315

11935, April 24 at 0105, R. Cairo, fair signal but just barely modulated. Occasional peaks are barely matchable to 12070 Spanish. No het from 11935 Brasil, off again? QRM de jammer pulses bleeding from Cuba 11930 against nothing (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** FRANCE. 17570, April 23 at 2000, ``Bonjour`` from a station in French, poor with flutter, so is it morning there? No, it isn`t even daytime, from AWR to Africa via Issoudun (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDIA [non]. 9900, April 24 at 0113, poor-fair pronouncing TWR.IN address in English; it`s via UZBEKISTAN, of course. HFCC lets it go as ``multilingual`` at 0030-0130, leaving it to specific Aoki to reveal it`s in Bhojpuri, M-F at 0045-0115.

Where does Bhojpuri fit into the huge scheme of things? Wikipedia classifies it as the leading ``other`` language with 33 or 40 megaspeakers per the 2001 census (2011 census figures not yet released; what`s taking so long??). This places it at about #13 by population. Yet another roster down to only 1 megaspeaker completely omits Bhojpuri --- maybe it`s a.k.a. some other name, but nothing similar by spelling. Main area spoken is north India and Nepal, also some overseas spots such as Suriname. All about Bhojpuri:
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** NORTH AMERICA. 6876.0-AM, April 24 at 0142, having encountered not a single pirate above 6900 now or in the previous half-sesquihour, I do find music here, on the well-established frequency of a single station, poor to fair with YL vocal, 0144 ``Go ahead and shoot; do me a favor``, clip from movie or oldtime radio, and DJ says ``Heartbreak Hotel``, theme for the evening? Not that axual song heard now; and: ``on The Crystal Ship from the TCS shortwave relay network`` --- so is there really more than one transmitter site? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA. 97.1, April 23 at 2015 UT, ``The Sports Animal`` slogan makes it on the PL-880 despite strong adjacent 96.9 KQOB ``Enid``. WTFDA FM Database searching on frequency and slogan leads right to only one: KYAL Muskogee OK, 100 kW, 600m HAAT. I suppose it`s // 2.5 kW 1550 KYAL Sapulpa OK with same slogan in NRC AM Log but no mention of an FM there. Likewise, no mention of an AM // in the WTFDA listing. Could they be non // but with same slogan? AM 1550 is barely audible here, less signal than closer 250-watt KKLE Winfield KS (Glenn Hauser, Enid, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OMAN. 9500, April 24 at 0118, Qur`an on good signal, so RSO is on correct frequency tonight for western Europe, also USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SRI LANKA. 11905, April 24 at 0114, OC is on, very poor with flutter; music prélude starts at 0114:46.5, but NO timesignal is heard circa 0115:19 before SLBC sign-on announcement starts at 0115:23 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 13563.5, approx., April 24 at 0133, can barely make out the Madison WI HIFER beacon with continuous slow CW ID as GNK, vs CODAR and ISM hash, on the PL-880 but not on the DX-398. No other beacons audible on the band at this time (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1770 monitoring: confirmed Thursday April 23 at 2100 not only on scheduled 7570 WRMI, which is JBA in noise level, but also on much better // 15770, altho schedule continues to show 7570 only at this time. So we need to continue checking both, such as at next airing on WRMI, Friday 2130. 

Meanwhile, WRMI has put up a new program schedule grid for 9955 as of April 22, showing WOR is no longer at 1230 on Thursdays, so if I had tuned in a few minutes earlier April 23, I should have heard R. Slovakia International instead, now at 1230-1300 M-F, with WOR shifted an hour earlier to 1130 Thursdays. Other airings remain the same, but some other programs and DX programs will have been moved around, and there may be additional changes. Next WORs on SW:

Fri 2130  WRMI    7570 and/or 15770
Sat 1930v WA0RCR  1860-AM
Sun 0315v WA0RCR  1860-AM
Sun 2100  WRMI   15770 
Sun 2300  WRMI   11580
Mon 0300v WBCQ    5110v Area 51 
Tue 1100  WRMI    9955 
Wed 1315  WRMI    9955 
Wed 2100  WBCQ    7490v 
Thu 0330  WRMI    9955 [or 1771 if ready in time]
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 12105, April 24 at 0117, WTWW-3 is on with laughter during a PPP sermon, but WTWW-1 and WTWW-2 are nowhere to be heard on 9475, 5830, 9930 or 5085. #2 is usually off, but #1 is usually on (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 0418 UT April 24