What a coincidence! Moments after writing the previous blog post about a breakdown on S30 (the Pip) I turned on the radio and tuned to S32 (Squeaky Wheel, a station strongly connected to S30 and also S28) and it also endured a breakdown of it's own! This one, however, doesn't break down in the same wind-down fashion of S28 & S30 but instead the channel marker repeatedly turns on and off in a sporadic manner. This malfunction occured between 0113z and 0239z, a whole hour and 26 minutes until it stabilised!

This is the second time I have caught the S32 channel marker failing, though this failure seems much more problematic than the previous one in which the marker turned off, moments later returning with the normal pitch and tempo but missing one of it's two tones. The error must have been noticed quickly by technicians as the marker was quickly taken off air, only to return seconds later in standard working order. A few moments later the marker went down again but this time a voice message was given - though when the messge finished and the marker resumed service it did fail again by missing a few cycles, soon resuming normal service and providing no further problems. Coincidentally this occurance was exactly 7 months ago to the day (below stated date and time for transmissions are in UTC, making both occurances in the early hours of the 25th day of their respective months).

Linked below are recordings of the previous breakdown and the recent, for the sake of space saving I have cut a sample of the recent breakdown as the full recording is an hour and a half in length. I have also linked the cutting from the recording where the marker finally stabilises once again.

Previously observed breakdown on April 24th 2012 - /media/58104/s32-3828usb-20120411-2118z-breakdown-bygwraspe.ogg

Currently observed breakdown on November 25th 2012 - /media/60928/s32-3828usb-20121125-0113z-breakdown-bygwraspe.ogg

Channel marker stabilises after 1 hour and 26 minutes at 0239z - /media/60950/3828u_wheel_finally_stabilises_an_hour_and_a_half_after_breaking_down.ogg

This gives further weight to the idea that S30 and S32 are co-located and backs up that the stations are co-related at least, adding to the facts that in good radio conditions you can hear the S30 channel marker in the background of voice transmissions from S32 and that S32 transmits in the voice flash message format 4 minutes after each time S30 transmits such a message (though only the message format is identical, the content differs between the two stations).

SK

Gwraspe

Gwraspe@priyom.org

Recordings by Gwraspe.