[Lowfer] 518 kHz Navtex transmitter screwups

[Garry Hess]

Two nights ago a station (probably area 4, U) failed to correctly dekey 
and instead sent mark tone for a few hours. Last night after 2232Z 
another station (probably area 4, P) didn't dekey at all and instead 
sent idle tones for several hours. Navtex must have a really poor system 
for remote controlling their transmitters. Monitored 490 kHz for awhile 
instead, but back on 518 kHz did decode one message from Greenland, area 
4, station M at 0600Z. It was the commonplace "no message on hand", but 
in English this time. Because the message was so short it just beat out 
station P keying up again (and dekeying correctly this time). West coast 
decodes were made from stations C,Q, and W as usual and Bermuda and 
Puerto Rico were in there as usual too, but signals didn't seem as good 
as they had been.
-- 
73, Garry, K3SIW, EN52ta, Elgin, IL