FAPSI AMERICAS STATIONS
Jacques d'Avignon made another study of the FAPSI Field stations in the Americas utilizing the procedures of "Hindcasting" that he developed. (See May 2000 issue of SHORTWAVE MAGAZINE.) I provided him with frequency information gathered during late Spring and on into Summer 2000. Based on the propagation charts prepared by Jacques, Station WFO is located in an area between the Southern border of Mexico and the Northern border of Panama. Thus the location is quite likely to be the Russian Embassy in Managua, Nicaragua as has been alleged in the past. It appears that this same general area could be the location of station KRN. This station which receives on 17414 previously had regular daily skeds and did receive a considerable amount of traffic from the Cuba HF Rellay Station. Then in the early Fall of 1999, KRN was reduced to one sked per week, that being on Thursdays at 1735 UTC. The possibilities of country location for KRN could be Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras or Costa Rica.

During August the 1445 sked normally had Cuba on 16271 and Managua on 13423. The 2145 sked normally had Cuba on 14455 and Managua on 13423. When the stations experienced reception difficulties they would tell each other to QSY. On 17 Aug at 2145 Cuba told Managua to QSY 16?93 and then QSY 14378 and back to 13423. On 23 Aug Managua told Cuba to QSY 15649, then 14788, and then 12196 where Cuba sent his tfc. On 29 Aug at 1445 Managua told Cuba to QSY 14457. Above times are UTC and frequencies are in kHz.

SVR TRANSMISSION
On 17 Aug at 2200 on 16217 kHz in auto CW - 289 289 289 T T T T T was sent until 2205. The five dashes indicate there is no traffic for addressee 289.

UNIDENTIFIED TRANSMISSION
This activity was observed on 04 Aug from 1455 to 1510 on 13234 kHz in RTTY 76/870. A string of Ys was sent at what appeared to be the end of a message and the Ys were followed by KFGNDBY OOSTLAD OSTLAD OSTLAD OSTLAD PEVQBM UM PEPQBM UM PEVQBM UM PEVQBM TKIB and into garbage. Note: I separated some of the characters so the identical groupings could more easily be seen. At the end of the message another sequence of Ys was sent followed by KFGNDBYT X FK(on separate lines and repeated 3 more times) HIMFEUXG Z JRGRG (repeated on 3 lines) and into garbage.

I am sorry I was unable to provide any more loggings this month. Numerous Happy Harry Homeowner projects simply did not allow much time for monitoring. I am hoping the situation will be better in September.

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