Interesting information on LW 279 kHz Watan Radio:
The transmitter in Turkmenistan is working, but modulation (sound),
judging by the posts on the forums, is very rare (or very quiet).
Personally, in two years I heard modulation only three times, and then
more than a year ago.
Judging by the sound quality, somewhere in the sound channel there is
a device like a noise suppressor, whose settings have drifted away over time, and it began to completely crush not only the noise, but also the useful signal. Why the workers of the radio station for several years have not been able to find a fault and have wasted heating the air is a mystery.
The transmitter most often turns on at about 2 am UTC (5 am Kyiv time), then turns off during the day. The work schedule is irregular, but a 4-day period can be traced. It seems that the duty shifts work in a “day after three” mode, and each has its own work schedule, which is also unstable. One of the shifts often leaves the transmitter on overnight. Today is just such a night, the next – from 16 to 17 October.
https://forum.ukrtvr.org/index.php?topic=678.msg140754#msg140754
I don’t know how true this is, but it may well be. I wonder why they won’t eliminate it? If there really is a squelch, then adjust, replace or remove it altogether.
Nikolaev Gvozdenis, Ukraine
http://www.radioscanner.ru/forum/topic30247-413.html in RUS-DX via WOR groups.io (2020-10-18)