venerdì 15 settembre 2017

Glenn Hauser logs September 14-15, 2017


** CUBA. Further chex for RHC and allied station anomalies, which may or may not be attributable to Hurricane Irma, since something is always wrong at RHC:

Sept 14 at 0547, RHC English audible on 6230 leapfrog, 6145, 6060, 6000, but 6100 is off. At 0552, 5040 is off already, and 5025 Rebelde is just barely modulated.

Sept 14 at 1421 tune-in, 11760 open carrier/dead air, and then off*

UT Sept 15 at 0120: 5025 OC S9+20 with trace of mod; 5040 off; 6000 S9+20 with fading, low mod; 6060 Spanish OK at S9+20; 6145 S9+10 but JBM; After 0125, 7340 is S9+10 but undermod; 9535 OK; 9580 CRI relay VG; 11760 VG; 11840 VG with parasites VP on 11830 & 11850 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** OKLAHOMA [and non]. Hepburn maps show no tropo enhancement at all around here the morning of Sept 14, but there is: RF 48, KOCY-LP, OKC, our last NTSC station, is visible in snowy color with Estrella TV, steady signal well enough to see it default to black screen erratically with three different error messages floating around: no signal, no program, and audio only! Just what feed is being put into this transmitter, that gets lost so much? As usual, the same programming requiring busty ladies goes out on a subchannel of full-power RF 29 KTUZ, as virtual ``48-1`` (but Suddenlink Enid somehow avoids having to propagate it cablely on any tier).

Also in are DTV RF 45, 31 and 26 from Wichita and lots of Bads, including 35, 22, 19. RF 20 KQCW-LD decodes as 19-1; local K17JN-D Enid does not decode due to DX QRM.

RF 43, Bad DTV is most intriguing, as there are four translators in western Oklahoma: Altus, Elk City, Lawton, Seiling, all less likely now than KCTU-LD, 2.7 kW in Wichita KS.

Tropo burned off, later at 1930 UT, I am trying to watch PBS Create on a TV in another room with nothing but rabbit ears into the STB converter (another channel Suddenlink cable somehow avoids providing). Usually I can get RF and virtual 13-3 KETA OKC by careful manipulation of the ears (not necessarily the same configuration as other OKC channels, mostly UHF), avoiding breakup caused by the 214.2 MHz second harmonic of KNID 107.1. 

But I am also tuning around on the PL-880 handheld with whip only, to check on WRMI (and finding 21525 back on), only to discover that the SW receiver, less than 3 meters away, tuned to the 13m band causes the TV to lose channel 13 signal. Evidently the PL-880 too is putting out a harmonic from IF, enough to QRM the TV as I can correlate by turning the SW off and on (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SAUDI ARABIA. 17895, Sept 14 at 1416, BSKSA with Qur`an at S9-S7 // 17615 at S7-S5, and the other non-Qur`an Arabic program on 17705, S9-S7. Best heard in a long time on 16 m, equinoxial propagation looking up? Easily the SSOBs, way more signals than uprunners 17775 KVOH, 17730 RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U K [non]. 7305, Sept 14 at 0544, BBC Hausa at S9, keeps mentioning Nigeria. Current 250 kW daily usage by BBC of 7305 per HFCC:
0330-0430 Farsi  35 degrees from UAE, since 26 March
0430-0500 French 85 degrees from Ascension, since 13 July
0529-0600 Hausa  55 degrees from Ascension, since 13 July
0600-0629 French 70 degrees from Ascension, since 16 August
0629-0700 Hausa  55 degrees from Ascension, since 16 August
The different angle for French in between Hausas is accomplished by a 15 degree shift in the slew, so maybe no break in transmission (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 1895 monitoring: confirmed Thu Sept 14 at 2330 on WBCQ 9329.95v-CUSB, fair. Next:
Fri 2330   WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
Sat 0630   HLR  6190-CUSB to WSW
Sat 1431   HLR  7265-CUSB to WSW
Sat 1930v  WA0RCR 1860-AM ND
Sat 2230   WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
Sat 2300   WRMI 11580 to NE
Sun 0200   WRMI 11580 to NE
Sun 0315v  WA0RCR 1860-AM ND
Sun 1030   HLR  9485-CUSB to WSW
Sun 2330   WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
Mon 0300v  WBCQ 5130v Area 51 to WSW
Mon 0330   WRMI 9955 to SSE
Mon 2330   WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
Tue 0030   WRMI 7730 to WNW
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. Further checking for the revival of WRMI up to 14 transmitters:

Sept 14 at 0541: 9955 JBA carrier, 9455 JJBA carrier, 9395 inaudible, but all presumably still on, propped out in the nightmiddle. At 06, K-index would be 2, following S1 level minor solar radiation storms.

Sept 14 at 1300, 9955 goes from `Radio Eslovaquia Internacional` // 9455 with its own WRMI ID, to `Informativo G24` ---- yes, by 1302 clearly the same old file every Thursday since May about the Buenaventura paro!

Sept 14 at 1305, 9455 now // 9395 with music, apparently Oldies rather than `The Power Hour`.

Sept 14 at 1953, 21525 is now on! With Radio Africa Network gospel huxters in English, and a good signal, much better than usual JBA, so must have lucked into an unpredictable sporadic-E boost. By 2013 it`s faded way down again. Don`t hear any SSB on ``15`` meters. Still no WRMIs on 15 or 11 MHz channels.

Later I find this on WRMI FB: ``1545 UTC Thursday, September 14 - We are happy to say that 21525 kHz is back on the air to Africa at full power. The schedule for this transmitter is 1400-2100 UTC daily. Still no Internet at the site, so our webstream is offline``

Sept 15 at 0124, still no signals on 5, 7 or 11 MHz channels; 9455 with BS, 9395 JBA carrier so still not restored to full power, 9955 with radiogramish beeping at S9+10 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. 7505-, Sept 15 at 0125, WRNO is back on after missing a week or so? VG signal, slightly on the low side with gospel huxtress in English, no drama and no Chinese at this hour (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

This report dispatched at 0316 UT September 15