Space Weather

Cannibal CME Sparks Strong Geomagnetic Storm.
STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM: Multiple CMEs hit Earth’s magnetic field on Dec. 1st, sparking a strong geomagnetic storm. In the USA, red auroras were photographed as far south as Arizona and California. The storm is subsiding now, but geomagnetic ‘aftershocks’ could ignite more auroras during the night of Dec. 1-2. Full story @ Spaceweather.com

Ydun Ritz (2023-12-01)

Lithuania

SM Radio Dessau has announced a serie of tests in coming December on each friday at 15:30- 16: 00 UTC on 1386 kHz -vst/ Lithuania
https://www.smradio-dessau.de/

Ausstrahlungen über den Mittelwellensender Viesintos, Litauen
1., 8., 15., 22. & 29. Dez. 2023
[jeden Freitag im Dezember]
Wann 15:30- 16: 00 Uhr UTC
Wo? 1386 kHz Hierbei handelt es sich um Testsendungen.

You can send reports to:
maxberger@smradio-dessau.de
Max Berger, Saalestraße 44, D- 06846 Dessau

Mauno Ritola to WRTH FB group (2023-12-01)

Netherlands

LPAM-station Impact AM has returned to the airwaves on 819 kHz from Wassenaar. Power is 100 watts. The station has been off air for some weeks.
LPAM-station Extra AM has closed down. The station, broadcasting on 1332 kHz with 100 watts from Amsterdam, had already announced that it would close down on Januari 1st, but due to a problem with the antenna the station has decided to close down earlier.

Piet van der Vooren (2023-11-30)

Space Weather

GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (G3): Three and perhaps four CMEs are heading for Earth following a series of explosions on the sun this week. Estimated time of arrival: Nov. 30th and Dec. 1st. The biggest of the CMEs, launched on Nov. 28th, could sweep up some of the earlier, lesser ones, forming a Cannibal CME capable of sparking strong G3-class geomagnetic storms with mid-latitude auroras.
https://spaceweather.com/

Ydun Ritz (2023-11-29)

United States

Entravision has surrendered the license of Spanish Sports “TUDN 710KBMB Black Canyon City/Phoenix AZ.
The shutdown follows the sale of the 46.4 acre home of its seven tower array to Arizona Metals Corp. in August for $2.5 million. The Canadian company purchased the land adjacent to its Kay Mine Deposit to grow its mines for copper, gold, zinc, and silver.
KBMB was located north of Phoenix with a 22kW day/3.9kW night pattern since 2002. The station has mostly aired national Spanish Sports network programming as part of “ESPN Deportes Radio” from 2006 until its shutdown in September 2019. It would then join Univision’s “TUDN Radio” network in 2020. In between it aired Ranchera/Norteño music under the “Jose” brand name.
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/261485/entravision-surrenders-phoenix-am-for-mining-purposes/

Lance Venta, RadioInsight (2023-11-28)

Denmark

DR Kalundborg 243 kHz Information and Program Schedule.
The carrier is switched on some minutes before the start of the interval signal (IS) and stays on for some time after the end of each broadcast.
For a fine reception, you should use the very sensitive Danish SDR (Softwave Defined Radio) located near Skanderborg in Eastern Jutland: www.85.191.35.22:8073
Also, there is generally very good reception using the University Enschede Twente SDR receiver, and north German SDRs.

About the programs:
The interval signal (IS) at the start of the broadcasts is a recording of the mechanically played IS and is an old Danish song, “I dreamt a dream tonight about silk and rich clothes…“. It was used for the first time on August 28, 1931.
The other interval signal heard is composed for the long wave broadcasts.
Weather forecasts: They were broadcast directly from the Danish Meteorological Office. The forecasts terminated at 11.45 CET on november 1st, 2023 and were replaced by a short info program and
interval signal.
The News relays are taken from DR’s P4.
The Church Service is broadcast live from the Cathedral of Copenhagen, but remotely controlled. Also broadcast on DR P2 and DR TV channel 2.
The Excercises, “ Body and Movement“, are a number of old recordings, each lasting 10 minutes.
Marine Intelligence, broadcast from the Defence Operations Center, including gunnery practices at the end. The information is repeated.
The very last broadcast is on December 31, at 17.40-approx. 18.30 CET. Information in Danish about the closure of 243 kHz: www.dr.dk/am (use Google translate).

Erik Køie (2023-11-27)

Hong Kong

“Voice of the Great Bay Area” (CNR-7), to Hong Kong/Macau and surrounding areas, is the famous service of China National Radio(CNR). There is another CNR’s service exclusively to Hong Kong – CNR-14 “Voice of Hong Kong”, which is not mentioned in WRTH2023.

Their recent schedule and frequencies; 24H except Monday 1605-2005UT
FM 87.8MHz Mt.Wutong transmitter site, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province
AM 675kHz RTHK Peng Chau transmitter site, Peng Chau Island, Hong Kong 10kW

The service was started in 2011, when RTHK(Radio TV Hong Kong) set up digital radio channels. CNR joined  as “CNR-14 Voice of Hong Kong”, and had been broadcast on Channel 32 of RTHK digital radio between 2012-2017. On September 4, 2017, when RTHK terminated the digital radio service, “Voice of Hong Kong” moved to 675kHz (RTHK AM radio channel 6), replacing BBC World Service 24H relay. On November 1, 2017, FM transmission from Shenzhen was added for better coverage. After “Voice of the Great Bay Area” was set up in September 2019, the role of ”Voice of Hong Kong” seemed to be absorbed by this new service. At present there are only 4 own programs, other programs are all from “Voice of the Greater Bay Area” (simultaneous or re-broadcast).

URL  http://rtgb.cnr.cn/  (shared with “Voice of the Greater Bay Area”, but outdated)
Streaming on RTHK site  https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radiocnrhk 
Checking on 675kHz by Kiwi SDR, located at Waterfall Bay in Hong Kong Island, only 10km far from the transmitter in Peng Chau Island, the signal strength was not strong with some noises. The reception was worse than on RTHK 567 and 621kHz from Golden Hill transmitter site. It is said that Peng Chau transmitter site is being rebuilt and is using temporal transmitting antenna at least until the end of 2023.

Takahito Akabayashi to WOR iog

United States / Alaska

Alaskan beacons missing or gone?

I’ve noticed that the Alaskan Beacons on 529 and 530 appear to be gone.  I don’t think it’s just conditions, either.  I can hear 525 ICW Nenana (near Fairbanks) all evening, but nothing out of 529 SQM, which is usually very powerful here all day long, 529 FDV Nome, and 530 ADK, Adak which normally is also heard quite well.  So, possibly permanently off?  Compared to just 2 or 3 years ago, the LW NDB band is really emptying fast!   

73,  Walt Salmaniw to irca iog (2023-11-26)

VTR 350 will eventually go away.  It was off awhile back and they were having trouble getting parts for it. There will come a time soon where it get broken and not be repaired.

Paul B. Walker Jr. to irca iog (2023-11-26)