[IRCA] TAs, TPs, LAs to OK

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

** CROATIA [and non]. Bandscanning on the way home from an Enid Public Schools 6-band concert and fiesta dinner (i.e. taco salad), UT Nov 20 at 0115, I was hearing tell-tale hets on the caradio 10-kHz-only tuning, indicating Trans-Atlantix were in on 1215, 1134 and 756 kHz, so ahome I quickly switched to the direxional DX-398, set-to-9-kHz-on-MW, and on battery power to minimize line noise. 

1134 immediately provided musical and talk audio at 0120 and // 7375 via Germany, so Hrvatski Radio, the number-one TA, is a definite. Monitoring on a single receiver, I could not evaluate the delay. Also // at some further chex, 0139, 0150. However it faded in between, leaving nothing but IBOC noise, presumably from KMOX 1120, tnx a lot!

Between 0120 and 0200 I repeatedly scanned the MW band and detected many more TA carriers, but no audio. I could make educated guesses about the most likely sources, but will refrain. I will put them in frequency order here, not the order heard, most more than once:

549, 621, 639, 693, 711, 819, 855, 882, 891, 909, 972, 999, 1089, 1179, 1215, 1251, 1269, 1341, 1359, 1431, 1521 (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) See also JAPAN [and non]

** JAPAN [and non]. After detecting all the TA carriers the previous evening --- see CROATIA [and non], I was motivated to look for Trans-Pacific MW the morning of Nov 20. Again with the DX-398 set on 9-kHz spacing, and on battery power inside the house with some noise but in the quietest spot I could find, too cold outside, I stepped thru all the channels with BFO on, and could hear the same pitch het on most of the appropriate frequencies, except as noted, but too weak for any audio, except as noted. (The LSB/SSB is slightly offset on this receiver, which is convenient for this purpose, altho I could zero it by taking off the faceplate and adjusting a pot.) It helped to switch between LSB and USB to minimize QRM from the NAm 10-kHz-spaced stations. In two or three scans between 1230 and 1245 UT, all these carriers were looping NW/SE more or less, using internal ferrite antenna only, just as the TA ones had been NE/SW:

558, 567, 576, 594, 603, 648, 666, 693, 702, 711, 729, 738, 747, 756, 774, 828, 846, 855, 873, 882, 891, 945, 972, 981, 1008, 1044, 1053, 1134, 1143, 1179, 1242, 1251, 1323, 1475, 1593.

The strongest ones were on 774 and 972, so I went back and listened to those for a while to see if I could pull any audio. Now I have plugged in the AC adapter, since the batteries are getting weak.

747, at 1252, yes! Bits of clearly enunciated English by YL, apparently language lesson, mixed with Japanese, and music riffs, cues to speak in the lessons.

972, at 1254, some audio, think it was Korean as expected but not positive.

1098, circa 1300 add another frequency with a carrier.

855, at 1308, stepping thru the scan with BFO on, this one was a different pitch, obviously off-frequency, not sure which side.

774, at 1310, definitely in Japanese.

The big 500 kW NHK Radio 2 stations on 747 and 774 were expected to be the easiest catches here in deep NAm, as they have been before. This is the educational network which includes some foreign languages, altho WRTH 2009 does not mention LL: English. 747 is JOIB Sapporo, Hokkaido and 774 is JOUB Akita, on the far side of northern Honshu.

855, the off-frequency one is surely KOREA NORTH, as in http://www.myradiobase.de/mediumwave/mwoffset.txt

``855.055 KRE KCBS Pyongyang Pangsong (Sangwon) 2100-2030 [855.0454-]         20090110``. WRTH 2009 lists this as 500 kW in the Asia/Pacific list; not in the domestic sexion page 253-254, but in the international sexion page 446, as apparently for S Korea and // SW 3250, 3320, 4405, 6250, 6285, 6400, 9325 and several MW frequencies.

972 is surely the 1500 kW KBS station HLCA in Dangjin, KOREA SOUTH.

1475 (definitely not on-channel 1476) is surely the 700 kW RTM Labuan, in Tuaran, Sabah, MALAYSIA which per WRTH is only on air at 1100-1330.

Could make educated guesses about many of the others, but I`ll stop there. Local sunrise was 1314 UT (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** MEXICO. As I was MW-bandscanning for TA carriers, I was distracted by some Mexicans on even frequencies which further east are dominated by Cubans. 

710, Nov 20 at 0143, atop the het from 711, quite an adstring, phone numbers, typical Mexican addresses --- street names such as Reforma, Cuauhtémoc, Obregón appear in every Mexican town so are of no use at all in local IDing below the country-level. Never could get anything more definite. 0145 to live announcer who talked for a few minutes. I thought I heard an ID go by just as I tuned in, last letter of callsign being -M (or maybe -N), but that doesn`t fit. Direxion roughly SW from OK, which points to one station each listed by Callarman in Chihua2, Sonora, Sinaloa. XEDP Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua is closest, and I was also getting that state on 1180, but 710 is supposed only 100 watts at night; not enough to go on.

Another one on 1180, atop the het from 1179, where it`s nice to hear neither Cuba nor Cuba [non], Nov 20 at 0131, timecheck for 6:31, temp 18 grados centígrados, so it`s in the MST zone. At 0156, ``Romántica 11-80`` slogan, 0200 YL DJ. Callarman 2008 list shows the only 1180 with that slogan is XEDCH, Ciudad Delicias, Chihuahua, which is in MST, and the temp is credible for that area SE of Chihuahua city. WRTH 2009 upbacks these assumptions (Glenn Hauser, Enid OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Note: these logs are in the format which makes the most sense to me. Club editors are welcome to publish them, excerpt them, or reformat them as needed (gh)


      

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