RAI MW Time Signals Can be Decoded

Courtesy of our friend Patrick Lindecker, F6CTE - developer of Multipsk and the UDXF newsgroup.

"For information, Paolo (IZ1MLL) made a list of RAI frequencies. Normally each RAI transmitter transmits at the end of each hour a time signal (decodable with Clock the companion of Multipsk located in the Multipsk package):"

The updated situation of the italian RAI transmitters divided by frequency (kHz) and power (kW) is the following:

567 Bologna (60 kW), Caltanissetta (20)
657 Pisa (2x55), Napoli (50), Bolzano (25)
693 Potenza (20)
819 Trieste (20)
846 Roma (50)
873 Taranto (1)
900 Milano (600)
936 Venezia (12), Trapani (10)
999 Volpiano/Torino (50), Perugia (25), Rimini (6), Capo Vaticano (2)
1035 Pescara (10), Lecce (2)
1062 Cagliari (60), Catania (20), Ancona (10), Trento (2)
1107 Roma (6)
1116 Cuneo (20), Palermo (10), Bari (5), Aosta (2)
1143 Sassari (10)
1314 Matera (2)
1431 Foggia (2)
1449 Squinzano (50), Biella/Belluno/Bressanone/Brunico/Como/Sondrio (2), Cortina (1)
1575 Portofino/Genova (50), Gorizia (2), Campobasso/Nuoro (1)
1584 Terni (2)

Thanks Patrick for sharing this information with the rest of the radio community.

Mystery Time Ticker on 5100 kHz

Last evening on the UDXF newsgroup, Jon in Florida posted a message regarding an apparent mystery time signal transmitting on 5100 kHz. From Jon's post:

"UnIDed station on 5100 kHz sending time pips and top of minute tone. No voice heard. I've noted this station on 5100 every night i've checked since first heard in early Dec (perhaps a bit earlier). 99.99 % sure its not a image or mixing productbecause i've checked useing 3 different types/brands of receivers. R75, WJ-8716 and Racal ra-6790/gm. heard on all 3. and using 2 different antennas. a t2fd cut for 3 MHz at 20 ft (and oriented for N/S signals), and a 21 ft verticle... Suspect something South-american.."

This morning I have fired up the San Antonio VEN DXTuners and it is there ticking away. Here is some of my observations that I just posted to the list of this station:

"Good signal at 1346 UTC. Will continue to check on some of the other receivers for other prop paths outside of South America, but that looks like a safe bet for now. Couple of notes: it appears this time signals is off about 7-8 seconds (slow) from NIST time. I am hearing the top of the minute tone off by that much. And I though there "may" be some sort of voice iD in there every few minutes but the audio modulation was way under the time tick if it is. I believe there may have been one just announced right before 1353. But I am not sure.

More...soon! Nice mystery." Any takers on who we have here. Email me at larryvanhorn @ monitoringtimes.com.