V24 and M94 changes, May 01, 2011

[Token]

Hello all,

It has been a while since I submitted an update on Korean numbers stations V24/M94.  Unfortunately, it may be a while longer before I submit a good, full update.  For the past several years, and as near as I can figure for the last decade or more, V24/M94 has been using start times that end in 00 and 30, in other words at the top and bottom of the hours, on the hour and the half hour, with one notable exception, there was an occasional 1620 time slot used.  Around 1 January 2011 V24/M94 stopped using 1620 and went to only 00 and 30 start times.  For the past three months I have been working on a new schedule to predict V24/M94 after this change.  As of last month the schedule was complete and averaging about 95% accuracy.  Last month I was confirming it before putting it out on the web.  And, in the middle of this past month, V24/M94 again changed its habits and schedules.

It appears that V24 and M94 are now using XX00, XX20, and XX40 time slots and several new songs have been added to the lead-in music line-up, XX30 may or may not still be in use, I have not been able to confirm.  At this time the schedule I had built, that was 95% accurate last month, appears to be less than 25% accurate today, indicating that the majority of transmission windows have changed.  As of this writing and after the schedule changes I have not yet heard M94 so I do not know if both V24 and M94 have changed, or if it is only V24.  I also have not heard any XX30 time slots used, but I do not know if that is because the sample set is too small or if XX30 has been abandon.  Similarly, I have not yet heard any M94 since the schedule change, but again it could just be because so few M94 transmissions are sent each month and the sample set is still small.

To make matters worse, this time of year propagation on these frequencies fades badly for me about 1500, so I cannot confirm any of the time slots from 1500 on.

The end result is, for right now and starting sometime in April, 2011, that V24/M94 appears to still be active from 1200 to 1630 UTC on frequencies of 4500, 4600, 4900, 5115, 5715, 6215, 6330 and 6730 kHz.  Lead-in music for some transmissions have changed, new transmissions in new time slots sometimes include new and previously unheard music.  New start times are in use for many transmissions.

T!
Mojave Desert, California, USA

[Token]

Hello all,

A further update to my May 1, 2011 posting about recent V24 / M94 schedule and habit changes.  It appears at the time I wrote that particular entry that V24 and M94 were not done with their changes.  So pretty much forget everything I wrote about V24 and M94 on May 1, 2011, as it appears to have all further changed later that day and since then.

On May 1 I wrote that the old schedule was only about 25% correct, today it appears less than 15% correct.  Most transmissions seem to have changed.  And some frequency / time combinations have new music, possibly indicating that although the frequency and time are the same the recipient might be different.

On May 1 I also wrote that although V24 / M94 was in transition the frequencies used and time frames were the same as before, 4500, 4600, 4900, 5115, 5715, 6215, 6330, and 6730 kHz between the times of 1200 to 1630 UTC.  This is incorrect after May 1 (although was correct up until that day, through the end of April).  While I can not yet confirm all frequencies (only 4600, 5715, 6215, and 6330 have been used so far this month that I have been able to receive) I can for sure say V24 / M94 has moved outside the 1200 to 1630 time frame it has used for years.

This morning there were transmissions at 1100 (6215 kHz), 1120 (5715 kHz), and 1140 UTC (6215 kHz) in addition to transmissions inside the 1200 to 1630 time frame.  Nine transmissions total in one day, all V24, from 1100 to 1500 UTC, I have never seen V24 / M94 send that many in one day before.  And I did not start looking until 1100 UTC, so there could have been transmissions earlier.

Because of this I can say only a few things about V24 / M94 at this time, and most of them are statements of what I don’t know, vs what I do.

V24 / M94 has shifted to using time slots outside the traditional (for them) 1200 to 1630 UTC window.  Exactly what these time changes are is unknown at this time, but includes multiple transmissions before 1200 UTC.  I have not been able to confirm any transmissions after 1630 UTC, but because of propagation I may not be able to confirm them even if they are happening.  The transmission times seem heavily weighted to earlier, instead of later.  Most of the transmissions for the last few days appear to be before 1400 UTC.  It is possible this weighting of times is caused by my propagation conditions and I might be missing latter transmissions.

V24 has started using time slots ending in 20 and 40 (such as 1120 and 1140), something it has not done in the past several years, and possibly has never done.  Time slots ending in 00 and 30 (such as 1300 and 1330) are still being used but so far the 30 time slot has not been seen in combination with a preceding 20 or a following 40 time slot.

Since May 1 no M94 transmissions have been noted, in the same time frame last month there were two.  The two M94 time slots and frequencies that should have happened did have transmissions, but they were V24 instead of M94.  However, this happened January 1, 2011 also, and eventually M94 fell back into its old time slots.

It is simply going to take some time to figure out the details of all of these changes.  In the mean time look for V24 / M94 on all of its old frequencies and in any time slot from at least as early as 1100 and as late as 1630 (and maybe outside of these times as well).


T!