Miscellaneous

Germany

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The antenna masts on Felsberg are history.
For decades they were landmarks on the German-French border: in Saargau everyone knows the four masts and the building of the former radiostation Europe 1 [183 kHz]. These masts on Felsberg near Überherrn are now definitely history. The last two antenna masts were blown up on October 27th.
Source: SR3 Saarwelle
Eric Znalesniak in A-DX Fernempfang fb group (2020-10-27(

Sunspots

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New sunspot AR2778 sharply increased in size overnight, and it is now crackling with C-class solar flares.
A pulse of radiation from this flare briefly ionized the top of Earth’s atmosphere, disturbing shortwave radio propagation around the Indian Ocean: blackout map.
The sunspot has been producing similar flares every few hours since then (0615 UT on Oct. 27th).AR2778 is the biggest sunspot of young Solar Cycle 25 with nearly a dozen dark cores sprawling almost 100,000 km across the solar surface.
Spaceweather.com
Mike Terry to WRTH fb group (2020-10-27)

Afghanistan

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1296, R. Ashna at 1715 can be heard in Central Europe under COPE in this period of the year.   As the grey line progresses, the signal from Spain gets stronger. But sometimes R. Ashna can even dominate the frequency at the time mentioned. At around 1715 there seems to be a litle break in their transmission of news in presumably Dari and they play a jingle giving the ID. So 1715 is a good period to look for R. Ashna.
Zeljko Crncic, Germany (2020-10-25)

India

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After waiting for a pretty long time, the first signals from India this fall – at least in my location –  appeared on different channels.
On 747 AIR Lugnow could be heard at 1725 with local ads and into news in English at 1730, SIO: 333.  
918, AIR Suratgar was heard at the same time with film-music, SIO: 222.  On 1206 AIR East, Bhanipatna came in lower but clearly readable with traditional mx. On all channels at 1730 news in English were broadcasted.
Zeljko Crncic, Germany (2020-10-25)

United States

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KDKA Centennial -The birth of Commercial Radio.
November 2, 2020 marks the centennial of radio station KDKA going on the air for the first time. Their first broadcast, considered by many to be the birth of commercial broadcast radio, was to report the election results of the Harding-Cox presidential race. KDKA has been on the air continuously ever since.
To celebrate this historic milestone, Pittsburgh area amateur radio operators, also known as hams, will take to the airwaves with a series of special event stations. Their goal is to contact as many other ham radio operators across the United States and around the world. They will be celebrating the centennial of KDKA for the entire month of November.
KDKA originally began operations in 1916 as an amateur radio station, call sign 8XK, operated by Dr. Frank Conrad, Assistant Chief Engineer of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. During World War I, amateur radio operations were ordered to be suspended because of national security concerns. After the war, the operators reorganized the station as a commercial AM radio station. The first transmissions of KDKA were from a makeshift studio on a roof of the Westinghouse K Building in East Pittsburgh.
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2020/october/kdka-centennial-the-birth-of-commercial-radio.htm#.X5V0voj0mM8
Southgate Amateur Radio News (2020-10-25)

Mexico

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The IFT (Mexican equivalent of FCC) has received 25 additional new applications for AM stations – 12 commercial and 13 “social.” I haven’t found any details yet.
Tim Hall to MWDX – The National Radio Club fb group (2020-10-23)

Sweden

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On United Nations Day, October 24th, 2020, the SAQ transmitter in Grimeton will again send out a message to the whole world on 17.2 kHz CW.
Programme:
On air & YouTube Live Stream
16:30 (14:30 UTC): Startup and tuning of the Alexanderson Alternator SAQ.
17:00 (15:00 UTC): Transmission of a message from SAQ. We are proud to announce that this year’s message has been composed by Anders Tegnell – Chief Epidemiologist Public Health Agency of Sweden.

Only on YouTube Live Stream
17:20 (15:20 UTC): Live music concert from the transmitter hall.
Anna Louise Ekman www.annalouiseekman.se will perform Swedish and Italian songs, accompanied by a pianist.The entire transmission event and the following concert can be seen live at our YouTube Channel starting at 16:30 (15:30 UTC).
Mike Terry to WOR groups.io (2020-10-23)

Germany

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Two of the antenna masts from Europe 1 in Felsberg are now history. They were taken down yesterday.
“There was a bang when the masts 11 and 12 of the Europainsender in Berus were blown up at 2 p.m. A deer and a hare at full gallop quickly got to safety in the fields in the neighborhood, some small children in Ittersdorf and Düren cried in shock on their mothers’ arms, although they had previously been warned of the expected bang….”
More in this article (in German) in Saarbrücker Zeitung
Christian Ghibaudo (2020-10-21)