Trenton Volmet off the air?

[Edgar Souse]

I used to live in pretty reliable about a week or so since I've heard them on 6754. Gander is still active but nothing from Trenton. Any ideas?

[ThaDood]

Oh yeah... I haven't heard them for over a year. I've wondered about that myself. They were a great indication on propagation on that FREQ range. Did Trudeau cut to funding to them as well?

[Edgar Souse]

I heard them as recently as last week. I know they use another frequency around 15 MHz but haven't checked it. Gander is still on the air, so there's at least one Canadian station still active.

[Ct Yankee]

I know they use another frequency around 15 MHz

That would be 15034 usb but I missed the opportunity to receive them this evening.  I tried 6754 usb at 0045 - nothing.  Quite surprising, usually booms in here.

[Ct Yankee]

Tried 15034 at 1025 utc (scheduled 1010-0000 utc) 16 July and no reception, very curious.

[Edgar Souse]

I'd guess just a technical error but I'm not sure how to confirm.

Edit - Just emailed an inquiry to Nav Canada. Maybe they can provide some information.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

They had some issues earlier this year with storm damage in southeastern Ontario and they were off the air for a few days but that was months ago.

I use them as beacon as well, checking them almost daily, and lately (in the past month) I have noticed more erratic behavior; sometime they would be present and sometimes not. I remember a break of about 2-3 days approximately 2-3 weeks ago.

More recently I also noticed that there hasn't been the familiar male announcer voice however the transmitter is still on. I can tell because of the usual scratchy background noise from their audio feed is present. This is the same background noise that you would hear in the normal audio break between ~1 minute and around ~12 minutes of the hour, after which they resume the normal VOLMET voice program.

Here is the their usual audio feed noise, recorded 16 July: https://voca.ro/1mIbHD3Usd3K

So all that's happened is that, for whatever reason, they don't have the usual audio programming. Everything else is still active.

[~SIGINT~]

00:20 UTC 18 JULY 2022 - I can hear the transmitter on 6754 kHz USB but no audio. The MET reports are computer generated and the "voice" is stitched together from pre-recorded words / sentences. Everything at the transmitter site, including monitoring and telemetry, is remoted via microwave circuits.

They had some issues earlier this year with storm damage in southeastern Ontario and they were off the air for a few days but that was months ago.

Negative on that. That would have been CHU. "Trenton Millitary" is in a totaly different geographical area.

Here is some info on the site:
http://www.milspec.ca/canforce/facilities/macs/macs-trenton.html

[Edgar Souse]

Charlie,

I hear that same noise too on some SDRs but not at home. I wasn't sure if it was just qrm of some sort

[Pigmeat]

I thought you guys were talking about Trenton, N.J.?

[Edgar Souse]

If Trenton, NJ had a VOLMET station, the voice would be a lot less soothing. On the other hand, it would've been a good way to immortalize Paulie Walnuts.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

If Trenton, NJ had a VOLMET station, the voice would be a lot less soothing.

"Da whetha? What ya want da whetha for? Go fly yur plane somewhere else, Ohkay? Badda-Bing, Badda-Boom. "

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

Charlie,

I hear that same noise too on some SDRs but not at home. I wasn't sure if it was just qrm of some sort

Understood. It's low enough to be mistaken as QRM, especially if you have never heard it before, but when the signal is very strong, it's hard to ignore.
 
You will hear this noise during long pauses on normal transmissions. They must be using an audio compressor with a long "release" somewhere along the line and when the voice is not present, the gain increases and the only signal left to amplify is the scratchy noise that we hear. When the voice returns, the gain reduces (compression) and the scratchy noise is deep in the background and inaudible.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

00:20 UTC 18 JULY 2022 - I can hear the transmitter on 6754 kHz USB but no audio. The MET reports are computer generated and the "voice" is stitched together from pre-recorded words / sentences. Everything at the transmitter site, including monitoring and telemetry, is remoted via microwave circuits.

Gee, you mean that announcer guy isn't there live on the mic 24 hours per day, while simultaneously also doing Gander Radio's voice too? SHOCKING. Next you are going to tell me that maple syrup comes from trees. 

Negative on that. That would have been CHU. "Trenton Millitary" is in a totaly different geographical area.

I've spent quite a bit of time in the area (Belleville, Kingston, Brockville, Cornwall, Ottawa). They are about 120 miles/190 km apart. I don't know if I would call it a "totally different geographic area" and someplace 200 km away could have similar weather. In any case, you are right that it was CHU that shut down briefly.

[Pigmeat]

I used to know a guy whose Dad was an air traffic controller at Gander during WWII. Every day on his shift, this First Nations woman would bring coffee and sandwiches up to them and then sit there watching Dad. Never said a word to him for months. Dad finally figured out she was sweet on him. They ended up getting married towards the end of the war. When the war ended they went back to the UK and had bunch of kids they raised in Manchester.

Mom got homesick as the kids got older, and she took the younger ones back to Gander. These were now English city kids and as soon as they got old enough they beat it out of the boonies for destinations across North America. Jeff ended up in the U.S., joined the Army and went to Vietnam. When he got back to the States it was the late-60's,so he grew a bushy, long beard. He had his Mother's hair color and skin tone, all his friends started calling him "Fidel" and it stuck. He took up smoking cigars to go with his new image and headed to the West Coast to be a smoke jumper. The last I heard of him he was retired and living on the Olympia Peninsula. I doubt if he looks Latino anymore, but when he did those looks and that Northern English accent could really throw you.