** ANGUILLA. 6090, Sept 6 at 0552, Caribbean Beacon is off, as you would expect with huge Hurricane Irma hitting the island. Has Dead Doctor Gene finally met his match in an even bigger blowhard?? Richard Langley noted that the night frequency never came up after day frequency 11775 closed a few minutes after 2200 Sept 5.
11775, also CB absent, Sept 6 at 1241 check, uncovering a very weak carrier presumably listed AIR Tibetan/Nepali via GOA, or jamming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** ASCENSION. 5960, Sept 6 at 0555, African language with hum, i.e. Dandal Kura scheduled during this hour to Nigeria. Other ASC frequency, 6005 with BBCWS in English, is hum-free, so apparently moved it to 5960 or swapped transmitters (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CHINA [and non]. 11985, Sept 6 at 1237, soft jazz with piano and bass, hit by ChiCom echo jamming with flutter. HFCC blinders show nothing at all on 11985 at this hour, but Aoki reveals it`s RTI in Chinese from 100 kW Tamsui transmitter, 352 degrees this hour only (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** INTERNATIONAL WATERS [non]. 7268-LSB, Sept 6 at 0550, and several earlier random chex, nothing happening on the Hurricane Watch Net night frequency. Finally at 0605, VG signal from WF4H, calling for check-ins, with call-signs only, but no replies heard. Then he calls some specific stations, again without answers, such as KF4BY. Says this is a ``directed net``. Inviting any station with weather data for relay to National Hurricane Center. 0613 calls CM8GR, no answer. ARRL/FCC lookup for WF4H shows: Greenberg, Dwight A, WF4H, 5320 Shadwell Ave, Cocoa, FL 32926.
You might think the HWN frequencies would really be hopping now, but most of the time there is nothing.
14325-USB, Sept 6 at 1229, very poor signal from unID HWN station with NHC conditions as of 12z: 185 mph across Anguilla, 918 millibars == 27.11 Hg inches. 20m is mostly dead during near-blackout.
Say, hams really need a voice band halfway between 40 and 20 meters. The newish 30m band above 10100 is non-phone only. Give them another 200 kHz for that! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. WORLD OF RADIO 1894 monitoring: confirmed Wednesday Sept 6 at 1030 on WRMI 5850, VG S9+30/10; but JBA carrier on // 9455. Not confirmed Wed Sept 6 at 1315 on WRMI 9955, which is a JBA carrier during blackout. Next:
Wed 2100 WBCQ 7490v-AM to WSW
Wed 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
Thu 2330 WBCQ 9330v-CUSB to WSW
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. 9395, 9455, 7780, 7730, 7570, 5850, Sept 6 at 1248, no signals from WRMI during severe geomagnetic storm, but some could also be off the air. 9955 is JBA carrier, 11580 algo probably FE station, 11825 Chinese ditto, 15770 VP carrier. (Instead of blasting in, The Power Hour, poor S8 on 7490 from WWCR.) At 1306 I do get JBA carriers on 9395 and 9455 from WRMI.
WWV reported at 1245:
``Space Weather Message Code: SUMX01
Serial Number: 115
Issue Time: 2017 Sep 06 1245 UTC
SUMMARY: X-ray Event exceeded X1
Begin Time: 2017 Sep 06 1153 UTC
Maximum Time: 2017 Sep 06 1202 UTC
End Time: 2017 Sep 06 1210 UTC
X-ray Class: X9.3
NOAA Scale: R3 - Strong
Comment: Source was Region 2673
NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation
Potential Impacts: Area of impact consists of large portions of the sunlit side of Earth, strongest at the sub-solar point.
Radio - Wide area blackout of HF (high frequency) radio communication for about an hour`` (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
WRMI PLANS FOR HURRICANE IRMA: WRMI have just written on Facebook:
Hurricane Irma: Thank you to all of our listeners who have inquired about our hurricane plans. At the moment (early Wednesday local time), it appears that the eye of Hurricane Irma will come right over or very close to Okeechobee by Sunday or Monday. We will stay on the air as long as possible and as long as it's safe. Our transmitter building is quite prepared to withstand most hurricanes, and our antennas have survived many hurricanes in the past with little damage.
However, electrical power generally goes out during or after most strong hurricanes, and our generator will only power our lights, computers and air conditioning. Unfortunately we don't have enough generator power to operate 14 x 100-kilowatt transmitters. So if the power goes out, we are off the air. We may have enough power to maintain one frequency on the air even during a power outage, and it looks like this will probably be 9455 kHz. At the moment, our Internet is down, but we hope it will be back up soon, although it could go out again later. We'll keep you informed as best we can. Thanks again for your interest (via BDXC-UK yg 1438 UT Sept 6 via DXLD)
** U S A. 5935, Sept 6 at 0556, WWCR is very poor about S7, while 5890 is inaudible, off? 4840 and 3215 remain very good. WWV report at 0600:
``Geophysical Alert Message
#
Solar-terrestrial indices for 05 September follow.
Solar flux 121 and estimated planetary A-index 12.
The estimated planetary K-index at 0600 UTC on 06 September was 2.
Space weather for the past 24 hours has been moderate.
Solar radiation storms reaching the S2 level occurred.
Radio blackouts reaching the R1 level occurred.
Space weather for the next 24 hours is predicted to be strong.
Geomagnetic storms reaching the G3 level are likely.
Solar radiation storms reaching the S1 level are expected.
Radio blackouts reaching the R1 level are expected.``
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
UNIDENTIFIED. 11410-USB, Sept 6 at 1245, presumed Indonesian QSO pirates, spirited talk but no singing, whistles, tones, talking over each other. Often there are multiple channels heard in the 11.4-11.5 MHz range, but the only one this time. 25m is dominated by E Asian signals, hardly anything from nearby. RHC 11760 with heavy CCI from CRI English SE out of Kunming (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report dispatched at 1559 UT September 6
