[Lowfer] 518 kHz Navtex

[Garry Hess]

One wouldn't think it terribly hard to control when a TX was 
transmitting and when it was off. But apparently that's an issue with 
some Navtex equipment. Last night the Puerto Rico station was blasting 
out idle tones for hours. It cleared by around 0700Z, which is 
fortunately because conditions were pretty good until the 1050Z time 
slot for R. This time it again failed to shut down but instead sent 
continuous space (high) tone. It was still going at local sunrise, but 
not strong enough to prevent area 4 H from decoding. This is at least 
the 3rd time an area 4 Navtex stations failed to properly shut off in 
the last couple years.

During the lull, conditions were excellent. Decoded area 4 stations 
A,C,E,F,G,H,M (Greenland),and N. Area 12 stations decoded were C,O,Q, 
and W. O in Hawaii was the big surprise at 1020Z. Tuned to 353 kHz after 
noticing that and copied the NDB there weakly on LSB (LLD, -402 Hz, 8.53 
s interval).
-- 
73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL