[HCDX]: Hauser's SW/DX Report 98-40

["Glenn Hauser" <wghauser@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

        GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 98-40, Sept 17 1998

THIS WEEK ON WORLD OF RADIO 957: See the topic summary at:
http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/Wor957.html

CONTINENT OF MEDIA ON THE WEB. Due to popular request, our 
monthly supplement to World of Radio, broadcast only on RFPI, is
now available for download at DXing.com, thanks to Harry Helms.
As it's the first audio available at his site, both Harry and I
would like to hear from others how well it works. You'll need
a RealPlayer 5.0 or G.2 player, which may be downloaded from the
site. Only the latest edition will be available, currently
September. Go to http://www.DXing.com/ContinentOfMedia.html 

AUSTRALIA. Radio Australia since 13 Sep has a new home page 
and it's a lot better than the old one. It can be found at
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/rahome.htm (Dave Howship, British DX 
Club via Hauser) Took a quick look at the new RA URL and found a 
grid program schedule much easier to refer to, but not if
printed out in monochrome. It's at 
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/proguide.htm (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF 
RADIO 957)

BRAZIL. Some pols missed a great opportunity for worldwide
publicity: Sept 15 at 1045 tune-in to 11780, heard repeating tape
loop: "Radio Nacional da Amazonia -- horario reservado a 
propaganda eleitoral gratuita. Voltaremos a nossa programacao
normal as 7 horas e 50 minutos" but this continued until 1051.
("RNA - time reserved for free electoral advertising. We will
return to normal programming at 7:50") (Glenn Hauser, WORLD OF
RADIO 957 which has a tape of this)

COSTA RICA. I was the final caller to RFPI's Fiesta on the Air,
UT Sept 17 at 0250, as the lowest frequency on the air, 15049,
had been fading out; it was gone around 0200-0230, but recovered
to fair with heavy fading after that. James Latham has been
working heavily on getting 30 kW 6975 back on the air, and hopes
to have it back any day now, but he's having to check it "diode
by diode" to find the problem. I suggested it would be a good 
idea to revive the USB unit at night on 7385 as a backup, and he
agreed, but work on 6975 has to come first. The small curtain
array antenna could be used for that. USB on 21460 in the daytime
sometimes cuts off when wind blows the fan the wrong way--back
pressure causes the switch to cut off the transmitter, the same
problem WWCR once had, but this feature can and will be bypassed 
soon. T-storm season is still underway--lots of lightning; a few
days ago there was a brown-out, but fortunately the low voltage
did not damage the equipment. With four transmitters (including
the FM) something is always breaking down, keeping James busy
rather than allowing him to do more programming as he would like.
A grant for an assistant to help research the Far Right Radio
Review accounts for the website ad for a new position; there have
been lots of applicants, but it's not filled yet (Glenn Hauser)

COSTA RICA. RFPI update from this week's Mailbag with James 
Latham off mike, Joe Bernard, and guests, first aired at 2032 Fri
Sept 11 on 15049, 21460-USB. The quad antenna for 6975 is quite
large "like a house" and difficult to move around. The 30 kW
transmitter has had few serious problems since James Latham built
it, but lately had parasitic oscillations, which could cause a
meltdown, so it was taken off the air while the problem was 
troubleshot. Turned out to be a $50 resistor, which must be
replaced. The 3 hp motor for the fan, essential for cooling the
20-30 kW of power, was rebuilt recently but is acting up again,
so is being sent back for proper fix. But 21460 has just been 
reactivated on USB, 2 kW at 1800-0200 but may fade out earlier. 
15050, 10 kW is scheduled 1700-1200 according to announcements
a few days later (Glenn Hauser)

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. "Desde Bonao, Ondas del Yuna," easy ID soon
after tune-in 1006 Sept 15 on 2700 = 2 x 1350, USB a must due to
ute on low side; gone by 1030 recheck (Glenn Hauser, OK)

ECUADOR. La Voz de Su Amigo, Esmeraldas, 4020 = 3 x 1340, Sept 15
at 0958 announcer talking over continuous music; 1001 zero-beat
SSB net QRM for a few minutes in Spanish; 1007 answering a letter
from Colombia, with family advice. Not the best morning, with
static crashes, but good signal and audio has punch - you'd never
guess it is a harmonic, and maybe deliberate. 1008 mentioned
"Ciudad de Esmeraldas"; 1025 closing program with ID in passing,
Esmeraldas addresses; 1028 time check and music. 1059 amid news
with 6 am timecheck; 1100 "aqui en Esmeraldas," SSB QRM on high
side (Glenn Hauser, OK)

GERMANY. High Adventure Ministries, broadcasting to Europe 
at 1800-2200 UTC from Julich Germany has made a slight change of 
frequency effective immediately. The new schedule is:
1800-1959 UTC  6,015 KHz, 2000-2159 UTC  6,010 KHz
(60 second break at 1959-2000 for antenna switch). HAM continues 
to broadcast daily to South Asia from Julich Germany at 1330-1530 
UTC on 15,715 KHz. (Peter Darg, UK Administrator, High Adventure 
Ministries, Hereford, England, Sept 16 via Hauser)

GUAM. Punching Cuban presets on my ATS-909 at 1330 Sunday Sept 13
looking for the best frequency for RHC's Spanish DX program, what
do I hear but the Wavescan theme--yes, it's KSDA 13720, fair
signal, but old edition 191 "for the week of August 23" featuring
Falklands; held up till end of program at 1356 (Glenn Hauser,
WORLD OF RADIO 957)

IRELAND [non]. RCI screws up the program feeds again: not that I
have the least interest in the silly sports play-by-play which
when heard later was so rapid I couldn't have understood it
anyway - but perfunctory check of previously publicized 
frequencies for the Sun Sept 13 only special at 1429 found 13690
Sackville with CBC This Morning Sunday already on, //13650! 
Whilst 21745-best and 21670 from other sites were correctly with 
RTE. Between 1434 and 1440 fans were treated to dead air, bits of 
RTE and bits of CBC switching back and forth, then presumably 
stayed with RTE relay. Will the same happen Sept 27? (Glenn 
Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

JAPAN. Radio Tampa, Tokyo, is being heard well on all three // 
freqs 3925, 6055, and 9595; tuned in-progress 0945 UT and heard 
past 1230 with music & JP programming; some spot IDs in EG. All 
channels are in the clear except some ham QRM on 3; overall, 6 is 
best here. 73 de (John H. Cobb, Jr., Roswell, GA, Sept 14, REVIEW
OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

NEW ZEALAND. Hi Everyone - RNZI will be 50 years young on 
September 25 1998 and by coincidence also the New Zealand DX 
League. We will be marking this occasion with a special 2 hour 
broadcast at 0530 - 0705 UTC on 11905 kHz and at 0705 - 0730 on 
9700. The programme will be repeated at 0905 - 1100 UTC on 9700 
kHz. A special commemorative QSL is being printed for reception 
reports of RNZI from September 25 1998.

The programme will be presented by Myra Oh who usually presents 
our Mailbox programme - Adrian Sainsbury, RNZI's Frequency 
Manager will be lending a hand. It will trace the history of 
RNZI through archival material and with the help of veteran 
broadcasters like Rudi Hill, Tony King and Ian Johnston amongst 
others!

All being well we hope also to have the show available live on 
the Internet. Check our Web site nearer the time -  
http://www.rnzi.com  Highlights from this show will form the 
major part of our fortnightly Mailbox programme for the week 
commencing Monday 28 September. It is hoped Mailbox will be 
available for download as a Real Audio File from our Audio Store.
Mailbox plays on Monday 2135, Wednesday 1735, Friday 1930 UTC

On Monday 28 September - There will be additional broadcasts of 
Mailbox at 0430 UTC on 17675 and at 1130 UTC on 9700 kHz.

(Adrian Sainsbury, Technical Operations Manager, Radio New 
Zealand International, via REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING 
and WORLD OF RADIO 957)

U K O G B A N I. I checked BBC's Last Night of the Proms UT Sun
0300 on 9895, tho I expected to tape it 5 hours later on KMUW-FM.
Recheck at 0330 to my surprise did not cut off in the middle of
"Land of Hope and Glory", but program stayed on this VOA relay
frequency until almost over at 0359. Somebody finally got the
message that when Proms are on, transmitter switch to 6175 should
be delayed (Glenn Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

U S A. George Thurman reports disappointing reception of WBCQ in
Houston, so we dusted off the NGS globe with geometer and figured
out the approximate beam center for 245 degrees from WBCQ:
Buffalo-Columbus-Evansville-Little Rock-Shreveport-San Antonio-
Laredo-Durango-Tuxpan-south of New Zealand (Glenn Hauser)

U S A. At the end of his UT Sat Sept 12 broadcast on WBCQ, 7415,
around 0055, Al Weiner ran down the program schedule as then
planned and revised, times and days here converted to UT:

Tue-Sat 0000-0100 Al Weiner Worldwide (time for sale)
Tue-Fri 0100-0400 The Hour of the Time with William Cooper *9/21
Tue-Sat 0400-0700 Watchmen of the Night 
Sat     0100-0400 Friday Night Live with Gary Bourgois
Sat     2330-2430 [unnamed yet] music and commentary by Rob Wells
Sun     0030-0100 American Dissident Voices [neo-Nazi]
Sun     0100-0400 Radio Free New York
Sun     0500-0530 American Dissident Voices [neo-Nazi]
Sun     2300-2400 Le Show - music, comedy and conversation
Mon     0000-0400 Radio Newyork International

Glad to see Al took our suggestion about Le Show! - That's 
satirist and The Simpsons voice Harry Shearer, but it didn't 
start yet Sept 13. Note that ADV times have changed, FNL expanded 
to 3 hours, and RNI to 4 hours compared to previous announcement. 

Conversing with a caller earlier, Al said he'd like to fill time
with Jean Shepherd, the great storyteller, which is apparently
available on Borgois' satellite network.

He also said Randi Steele is moving from NY to Monticello to be
primary operator of the station. And she is in for a real 
winter. I get the impression Al wants to spend more time in 
Kennebunk, and maybe originate some programming from there, but 
he's somewhat vague about this (Glenn Hauser)

U S A. Caught a bit of Al Weiner Worldwide on WBCQ 7415 Monday
eve, UT Tue Sept 15. Answering a caller, said they got some lucky 
breaks; station made it to air by getting a lot of used equipment, 
a new antenna design that worked even better than calculated, and 
money from personal loans. If WBCQ has been sounding a bit weak 
for 50 kW, that's because they have only been running 15 kW! Al 
announces the nominal power, but John Gorski, who built the 
antenna, tells me the reduced power is necessary because of a 
problem in the isolation transformer Al is still working on.
More from this broadcast I taped: John Gorski, engineering 
consultant called and explained that on the 7 MHz band, 14.14 dbi 
gain amounts to an ERP of 1.3 megawatts. At 13 MHz (so that must 
be the daytime band contemplated, not exactly harmonically 
related to 7), would be 1.6 MW. Al thanked John for turning him 
on to the antenna they are using, which is not labor-intensive, 
and looks good, in contrast to curtains. It has nice smooth 
bandpass and perfectly matches transmitter. Al said family and 
friends had helped fund WBCQ, as there is no way a bank will make 
loans for a SW station. Construction started in late April and 
was constant work for Al since then, day and night, all summer, 
to keep in budget. FCC has not yet inspected though they are 
entitled to, anytime they want. (Glenn Hauser, OK)

U S A. As everyone knows WBCQ signed on 9/8/98 at 8 pm EDT. The
signal was well received in all parts of North America, as well 
as Europe, with several reports coming from Germany. In spite of
some transmitter components heating up, thereby causing power to
be reduced to 15 kW, the station has enjoyed a trouble-free week
of operation. Power should be increased to 50 kW in the next few 
days. Allan Weiner, president of WBCQ, stated that "the station
has exceeded all expectations, the antenna system went together
without a hitch, and has provided a perfect match to the 
transmitter. Reception reports have confirmed that the antenna
is working perfectly despite our temporary low power. Without
this antenna we could not have built this station. It was like
taking the other guys' antenna bids and dropping the last zero 
from their figures. Everyone has been so supportive on this
project. I still have to pinch myself to see if I am dreaming, or
if this is for real."

>From our part, we are proud to be a part of this project and
introduce this new antenna to the SW community. This antenna with
its low cost and superior performance should enable those that
previously could not afford to build a shortwave station to now
do so. We certainly are looking for a breath of fresh air on
shortwve, which WBCQ seems certain to provide. For more info,
contact us at (319) 472-5102 voice or fax (John L. Gorski &
Associates Consultants, Vinton IA, Sept 15 via Hauser)

U S A. WBCQ, 7415, Al Weiner Worldwide, UT Wed Sept 16, heard 
bits in the 0000-0205* period: Call from Randi Steele, and 
interesting discussion of city street lighting, and the damage 
caused by mercury vapor lamps. Randi said her vision is defective 
except for color scale, which you can see in the WBCQ QSL card 
she designed posted at http://theplanet.wbcq.net - but no program 
sked, it seems. Al received some carts with new WBCQ IDs by Frank 
someone with a deep "official" radio voice. Scott Becker is 
expected to visit next week, when they may discuss radio ships, 
etc. There is a new morning program at 1300-1400 also on 7415, 
missed details such as start date (but it was not on Sept 16, 17), 
and name (but has "Family" in it). Tune in before 0000 for the 
WBCQ tuning signal, which on Sunday night featured Johnny 
Lightning talking over it. (Glenn Hauser, all: REVIEW OF 
INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)

U S A. I make a tentative claim to having heard WWBS; thanks to
Hans' Cumbre tip, I was monitoring 11910 from 2300 on Sept 11.
Nothing but noise except for a few seconds around 2301 a weak
open carrier appeared. Maybe the transmitter immediately crashed!
Nothing more during the following hour, but if they're staying
on 11910, a clash with R. Budapest is inevitable after 0000, and
when rechecked at 0128 there was some weaker Spanish religion. At 
0230 Budapest is back on in English (Glenn Hauser, OK)

U S A. Now I'm sure I heard WWBS Macon GA testing; Sept 15 at 
2349 checked 11910 again and this time there was a strong 
carrier, no modulation except for a whine. Subaudible heterodyne
erupted at 2356 when Budapest carrier came on, but overlap was
only two minutes as WWBS went off at 2358* almost as if they 
knew Budapest was there (Glenn Hauser, OK, WORLD OF RADIO 957)

U S A. WGTG was testing transmitter #2 again Sept 15 at 2330 on
USB with tape loop: "This is the international voice of WGTG,
McCaysville, Georgia. We're currently testing transmitter number
two on 9.505 MHz shortwave. Transmitter number 1 can be heard on
9.400 MHz shortwave. This is the international voice of radio 
station WGTG, McCaysville, Georgia, fifty thousand watts of 
freedom of speech worldwide, testing new transmitter number two, 
9.505 MHz shortwave. This is the international voice of WGTG, 
McCaysville, Georgia, 9.505 MHz shortwave."

While this was going on I talked to Dave Frantz on the phone. 
Says carrier on this is 12 dB down and that 9505 is only a test
frequency, will not be used for regular programming, but 
instead 6890, and at night only. During next two months of burn-
in period, will operate 6890-USB // 5085-full AM with commercial
programs. Religious programs Sat and Sun daytime will be on 9400-
AM. Dave has had it with listeners using cheap unselective radios
and plans to promote SSB by selling Sangeans 818 and 909; running
SSB will also save 2/3 of the $4000 power bill. Stayed on past
0000 but now no BFO needed as Spanish station (BBC?) was on 9505;
and after 0041 mixing with WYFR in English until about 0100 
(Glenn Hauser, OK)

U S A. KOKC, 1490, Guthrie OK is back on the air, first noted 
Sunday afternoon, Sept 13, with TalkAmerica network show It's Your
Money after local noon; at 12:59 ID was "The Metro-Talk 14 Network,
1400 KNOR, Norman-Oklahoma City, and 1490 KOKC, Guthrie-Edmond.
We had heard KNOR was planning on getting KOKC back on to complete
its coverage of the OKC metro area, and now it makes it easily as
far as Enid; presumably all duplicated, including WORLD OF RADIO
Saturdays at 7 am CDT = 1200 UT (Glenn Hauser)

U S A. KVLH, Pauls Valley harmonic heard last week on 2940 = 2 x 
1470 is now gone, no sign of it before or after 1100 Sept 15, and
actually already missing a few mornings before in brief spot
check (Glenn Hauser, Enid)                                   ###


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