January 2011 changes for V24 and M94

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Hello all,

It has been a while since I have reported anything at all, radio has taken a serious back seat in recent months.  However, I have encountered some new habits/activity with V24/M94.

Last year around the first of the year V24 and M94 went through a couple of changes, they dropped all activity on the lower four frequencies, 4500, 4600, 4900 and 5115 kHz, moving most of these into empty time slots on the remaining four frequencies, 5715, 6215, 6330, and 6730 kHz.  They also greatly reduced M94 transmissions, to just a few slots for each month, I commented at the time that it looked like M94 might be on the way out.  Well, this January 1st marked another change.

Starting January 1 of this year V24 appears to have reactivated at least 4600 and 4900 kHz.  The 4500 kHz frequency has a 24 hour a day digital mode on it, that signal has always been there and made reception for me of the V24 transmissions on 4500 problematic, although I did hear a few.  The 5115 kHz frequency is clear for me, but I have not heard anything on it this year, and it was an M94 only frequency when it was used.

So far I have seen no M94 activity on these newly reactivated frequencies.  All of the transmissions I have caught this year on the new frequencies are V24 only.  In fact, since the 1st of the year I have received no M94 transmissions at all and there should have been two different M94 messages in the last week and a half.  On the 1st and 2nd of the month at 1300 UTC on 5715 M94 should have gone with ID 1017, and today (the 10th) M94 should have gone at 1400 UTC on 6330 with ID 935, none of them were received at my location.  Today’s M94 was replaced by a V24 in the same time slot, but on 6730 kHz.

It is naturally too early to tell, but it may be that M94 has been discontinued.

At this time I am hearing regular V24 messages on 4600, 4900, 5715, 6215, 6330 and 6730 kHz.  I have been recording the entire spectrum from 4500 to 6900 kHz but have not seen any new frequencies in use, just reactivation of old frequencies.  The schedule is about 50% in line with what it was at the end of last year.  As soon as I have a feel for the new schedule I will update my web pages and my posted schedule as well as the HFU listings.

T!
Mohave Desert, California, USA