2019 DGPS Massacre Update

[ChrisSmolinski]

From the USCG Local Notice to Mariners:

Decommissioning of Mequon WI DGPS site:
The DGPS tower in Mequon WI has suffered a critical failure and is no longer able to broadcast. Since decommissioning of this tower was scheduled for September 2019 and repairs have been determined to be cost inhibitive it has been decided to decommission this DGPS site immediately

NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-DGPS DISCONTINUANCE
In accordance with the DGPS Discontinuance FRN, the termination of the DGPS signals at Cape Mendocino, CA, Lincoln, CA, and Point Loma, CA will cease 30 Aug 19. For more details or comments contact LT Ruth Sadowitz, 510-437-3801 or ruth.a.sadowitz@uscg.mil.

These are all the notices I could find, nothing about the other stations scheduled for closure this year. Not only is the operation of DGPS apparently a low priority, so is their closure.

[skeezix]

I found a few more and updated U.S. Coast Guard to discontinue service from remaining Differential GPS sites

However, the east coast districts had either a general notice or nothing at all.

[ChrisSmolinski]

Thank for finding the others.

I was receiving Lincoln CA on the Sep 2-3 overnight recordings but not since. Last decode 1046z on the 3rd, about the normal time for it to fade out. Last solid decodes from Fort Stevens, OR and Appleton, WA the morning of Sept 1st

Cape Mendocino, CA was always a rare catch here, it will be missed.

[ChrisSmolinski]

Another 2019 DGPS Massacre (with full orchestration and five part harmony and stuff like that) update

Pretty sure these stations are gone, based on recent logs. Well, lack of recent logs:
Whidbey Island, WA
Appleton, WA
Fort Stevens, OR
Cape Mendocino, CA
Lincoln, CA
Point Loma, CA
Wisconsin Point, WI
Mequon, WI

These two vanished when Hurricane Dorian came up the coast. Mequon suffered a tower failure a few days ago and the USCG decided to shut it down early rather than repair it, so who knows what will happen with them:
Driver, VA 
Kensington, SC 

Driver is a local here, and not on the air now (2011 UTC 7 Sep 2019)
Kensington should be coming in now, and isn't.

[ChrisSmolinski]

I just realized these stations vanished on the September 3-4 recordings. They were present September 2-3.

Card Sound, FL
Tampa, FL
Cape Canaveral, FL
Driver, VA

[Josh]

We'll be in great shape when gps fails.

[ChrisSmolinski]

We'll be in great shape when gps fails.

We can always use LORAN... oh wait.

[skeezix]

Oh holy cow. You just had to say that. I am still very bitter about that, but not as bitter as the commercial fishermen.

[ChrisSmolinski]

I think I have caught Detroit in the process of getting shut down. I was looking at the SDR waterfall in real time, getting ready to stop recording, and noticed the signal for Detroit (319 kHz) looked weird. Listening to it, it sounds like alternating mark and space symbols?

Checking my decoding so far, the last decode was at 10:00:43 UTC. I went back and listened to the recording, and that is the time the signal changed from the usual DGPS warbling to this other pattern.  Just after the TOH, so maybe this is when the tech arrived to do the deed.  I'll let the SDR continue to record since I can usually get Detroit past sunrise. Occasional the signal goes off the air and then back on. Pretty quick transitions, so I think it is being switched off and on, vs fading.

Too bad they can't send some sort of "GOODNIGHT" message like spy station E10 did when they went QRT.

Perhaps when he is done in Detroit he's driving to Cheboygan and then Upper Keweenaw next? Then Youngstown, NY (I used to live a few miles away from there in fact).

Here is what it looks like:



Hmm, at around 1220 it switched back to the usual signal.

[skeezix]

My last decode from it last night was at 09:53:22. It rarely comes in here during the day so this is nothing unusual.

Yeah, it would be kinda fun if they had some special transmission to say goodbye.

[ChrisSmolinski]

It's still going this morning as of 1001 UTC. The band is very quiet even though it is still dark outside.