PEMEX Adds ALE Frequencies

PEMEX, Petroleos Mexicanos, the Mexican national oil company, has finally put up more Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) frequencies to go with the original three. Three freqs isn't much of an ALE net, but now it starts to look like the real thing.

These are the frequencies that various people have reported. The ones I can verify personally have a * :

2182.0 * (1)
3700.0 *
4078.8 *
4487.5
4900.0 * (2)
7450.0 *
8291.1
8242.9
9265.0
11095.0 *

Notes:
(1) This is an international maritime calling and distress frequency, and it is doubtful if Pemex is allowed to sound there for any length of time.

(2) 4900 has so far only had Mexican military here, but I'm keeping it in the scan because others have heard Pemex.

USCG NMN (Norfolk) to Drop On-Call Sitor-A

And it is probably only a matter of time before other CG stations do similar.

ZCZC GA82
USCG CAMSLANT HF ON CALL SITOR TERMINATION ADVISORY
1. USCG CAMSLANT CHESAPEAKE VA (NMN, SELCALL NR 1097)
WILL TERMINATE ALL HIGH FREQUENCY (HF) RADIOTELEX (ON CALL
SITOR) SERVICES EFF 2359Z MAR 31, 2008. SHORE
RECEIVE FREQUENCIES 6262.8, 8386.3, 12488.3, 16694.8,
AND 22298.8 WILL NO LONGER BE ACTIVE AFTER THIS DATE.
2. AMVER AND NOAA METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS WILL CONT TO
BE RECEIVED AT NO CHARGE THRU SHIPCOM HF RADIOTELEX
(NBDP) SERVICE VIA WLO NEAR MOBILE, AL OR NOAAS SEAS
(SHIPBOARD ENVIRONMENTAL (DATA) ACQUISITION SYSTEM)
PROGRAM OVER INMARSAT C. AMVER REPORTS MAY ALSO BE
SENT AT NO CHARGE THRU GLOBE WIRELESS.
3. BROADCASTS OF MARITIME SAFETY INFORMATION FROM
CAMSLANT CHESAPEAKE VA BY HF SITOR (HF NAVTEX) ON
FREQUENCIES 6312.3, 8414.8 12577.3 AND 16804.8 WILL
NOT BE AFFECTED BY THIS ACTION.
4. CANCEL AT TIME//040001Z APR 08//

NNNN

New PC-HFDL Data File

The new pchfdl.dat file for HFDL system table #33 has been installed to the config directory of PC-HFDL, and it works. The frequencies now show in kHz again, instead of just the numbers.

The file has been copied to the Utility World web site. As always, shut down PC-HFDL first. Go to the config directory, and rename the existing pchfdl.dat something like oldpchfdl.dat or pchfdl32.dat. Copy the new file to this directory, make sure it is still named pchfdl.dat, then restart PC-HFDL. If you're lucky, the system table will show as #33, and the frequencies will appear in kHz.

This doesn't always work for everybody, but this file as usual is the one on the Yahoo HFDL group, and works for most users there. As always, don't worry that a text listing of the file looks like gibberish, with binary data and fragments of ACARS messages. The system table is in there somewhere.

Once again, I thank this group for getting the data up in such a timely manner. I might get a system table live on the air here in The Land That Short Wave Forgot, and I might not.

New HFDL System Table

About 24 hours ago, ARINC put out a new system table for its HFDL system.

The new table is number 33, or 21 in hexadecimal.

The only changes are to the Molokai ground station (number 02). The old frequencies of 5538, 5529, 5508, 3001, and 2878 kHz have been deleted. They are replaced by 13324, 13312, 6565, 5514, and 4687 kHz.

The new pchfdl.dat file will be uploaded to the Utility World web site as soon as it is tested and verified working here.

Sunspots Hit Absolute Bottom

Recent pictures of the solar disk often show something we don't see often. This is a solar disk completely free of sunspots. In fact, the daily sunspot numbers have as often as not been zero in the past couple of weeks (a condition reported as SPOTNIL by people who are into these things). These numbers are not obtained by counting visible spots, but by counting visible active regions as 10, and individual spots as 1. Therefore there can't be any active regions either for 0 to be reached.

Today there's one active region, I think. It's a pretty weenie one. The recent fluctuations in the A and K index are due not to sunspots but to a coronal hole and southward interplanetary magnetic field (Bz).

Daily solar uncorrected solar radio fluxes from the observatory used by WWV have been running in the 68 range. Folks, it just doesn't get very much lower than this. It can't, with these laws of physics.

Today was the first time in a while that HF propagation was absolutely putrid. Let's face it. It sucked the big one.

All this is further evidence, as if we needed any, that Cycle 23 is ending. Yes, there's no where to go from here but up.

NASA Gives "Go" For Space Shuttle Launch On March 11

Feb. 29, 2008

Candrea Thomas
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468 candrea.k.thomas@nasa.gov

Michael Curie
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4715
michael.curie@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 08-072

NASA GIVES "GO" FOR SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH ON MARCH 11

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA senior managers completed a review Friday of space shuttle Endeavour's readiness for flight and selected March 11 as the official launch date for the STS-123 mission. Commander Dominic Gorie and his six crewmates are scheduled to lift off to the International Space Station at 2:28 a.m. EDT.

During the 16-day mission, the crew will deliver and install the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency's two-armed robotic system, Dextre. Five spacewalks will be conducted during the flight.

Endeavour's launch date was announced after the conclusion of Friday's Flight Readiness Review. During the two-day meeting, top NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle's equipment, support systems and procedures are ready for flight.
Gorie will be joined on STS-123 by Pilot Gregory H. Johnson and Mission Specialists Robert L. Behnken, Mike Foreman, Rick Linnehan, Garrett Reisman and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi. Reisman will remain on the station as a resident crew member, replacing station flight engineer Leopold Eyharts of the European Space Agency, who will return home on Endeavour.

For more information about the STS-123 mission, including images and interviews with the crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

-end-

VP6DX: Not Really Ute, But Interesting

The last couple of nights, the gray line has really been blasting in here. For example, the first major ham radio DXpedition of 2008, VP6DX, is right now S6 on 10106 kHz CW into L.A. for the second evening in a row. (Never understimate gray line... It's how I nailed Clipperton on 100 watts to a simple inverted vee...)

VP6DX is on Ducie Island. It's an uninhabited piece of land to the east of Pitcairn Island, the place the Bounty ended up. Any time a place makes Pitcairn look like civilization, you KNOW you are nowhere. He'd actually worked 30 meters out for a time, but now he's running stations again, and actually getting stronger. Come on you guys in SoCal, you've got to have a signal, here's a new one.

More at ARRL.

UPDATE 0321 UTC: VP6DX is also on RTTY, 10148.9 kHz, taking calls down 10. You have to love ham radio.

First STS-122 Landing Opportunity on Wednesday

From NASA Public Office:

NASA managers will evaluate weather conditions at Kennedy before permitting Atlantis to return to Earth. Wednesday landing opportunities at Kennedy are at 9:07 a.m. and 10:42 a.m. EST. There are additional opportunities at 12:12 p.m. and 1:47 p.m. at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., a backup landing site. The shuttle's other backup site for landing, White Sands Space Harbor, N.M., will not be activated Wednesday.

Press Release: US Coast Guard Continues HF Weather Broadcasts

Press Release
DATE: February 07, 2008 14:39:41 EST
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Office of Public Affairs
U.S. Coast Guard

Contact: (202) 475-3555


US Coast Guard Continues HF Weather Broadcasts

WASHINGTON - Last April the Coast Guard asked for public comment on the need to continue broadcasting high frequency (HF) high seas weather forecasts for single sideband voice, facsimile charts and text messages over radiotelex (e.g. HF NAVTEX). The Coast Guard required public comment because the infrastructure necessary to provide these services had exceeded its life expectancy and significant costs were involved to continue these services.

After reviewing and analyzing the substantial public response that overwhelmingly urged the continuation of these services, the Coast Guard's "business case study" concluded that it was necessary to continue HF weather broadcasts. The business case study, "An Impact Assessment of Discontinuing USCG High-Frequency Radio Broadcasts of NWS Marine Weather Forecasts" is posted at:
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/high_frequency/HF-WX_notice.htm

The study concluded:

"The responding public collectively perceives that the USCG HF broadcasts are essential to their safety. There is no viable alternative to the USCG HF broadcasts because present alternatives are perceived by the public to be out of financial reach. Also, marine weather forecasts available through these alternative sources may not guarantee the same level of accuracy, timeliness, and/or sufficiency as provided by the USCG HF broadcasts."

While the Coast Guard does not have funds necessary to replace all of its HF transmitters, funds are available to replace the 20 transmitters used for weather broadcasts.

###

The U.S. Coast Guard is a military, maritime, multi-mission service within the
Department of Homeland Security dedicated to protecting the safety and security of America.

------------

The full report is here. It is very comprehensive and informative, and worth the time to get and read it.

------------

Here's more from USCG Navcen:


The Coast Guard's HF infrastructure

The Coast Guard's HF infrastructure consisting of 123 10KW transmitters are no longer supportable. Repair parts are increasingly difficult to find, more expensive, and take can months to obtain. Funds should be available to replace many, but not all of these transmitters. Consequently all but the most essential HF services are or will be terminated. However, due to responsive received from the public and the conclusions of the business case report, the Coast Guard has decided to continue HF broadcasts of high seas weather forecasts and warnings without interruption. Transmitters used for this purpose will be included among those recapitalized.

The Coast Guard uses 20 high power transmitters to broadcast HF weather facsimile, voice and text (SITOR) high seas weather forecasts to mariners. Three additional Navy transmitters are used to broadcast weather information from Guam. The cost to replace one of these transmitters is ~$200K with installation ($4M total for those used for weather broadcasts).

Reliable, high power transmitters are needed to ensure mariners can reliably receive weather information anywhere within the National Weather Service’s area of responsibility.

[Presumably the services to be affected by the phase-out of the other transmitters include those on this list that are not required by GMDSS or other treaties. More when it happens. -Hugh]

USCG Will Not Drop HF!

This news item has been up for over a week on the Mscan Meteo homepage, though I just ran across it today. It's the first news I've seen of the Coast Guard's decision on its HF services. The news, apparently, is good:

7 February 2008

I just received word that thanks to the feedback of the cruising community around the world, the future of HF radio services is saved! The Coast Guard concludes The responding public collectively perceives that the USCG HF broadcasts are essential to their safety. There is no viable alternative to the USCG HF broadcasts because present alternatives are perceived by the public to be out of financial reach. Also, marine weather forecasts available through these alternative sources may not guarantee the same level of accuracy, timeliness, and/or sufficiency as provided by the USCG HF broadcasts.

More to come......

NASA Updates 2008 Shuttle Target Launch Dates

Feb. 14, 2008

Allard Beutel
Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 321-867-2468 allard.beutel@nasa.gov
Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington 202-358-3749
katherine.trinidad@nasa.gov

Kyle Herring
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kyle.j.herring@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 08-056

NASA UPDATES SHUTTLE TARGET LAUNCH DATES

HOUSTON - NASA officials on Thursday revised the target launch dates for space shuttle flights during the second half of 2008. The space shuttle and International Space Station programs agreed to the changes during a meeting at NASA's Johnson Space Center to evaluate options following the STS-122 mission delay.

The next two shuttle flights, STS-123 on Endeavour targeted for March 11 and STS-124 on Discovery targeted for April 24, are being assessed and coordinated with NASA's international partners. Any decision on those launch dates will take place after the current STS-122 mission lands.

Late 2008 shuttle mission target launch dates are: Aug. 28 - Atlantis (STS-125) to service the Hubble Space Telescope Oct. 16 - Endeavour (STS-126) to deliver equipment to the International Space Station Dec. 4 - Discovery (STS-119) to deliver the final set of solar arrays to the station.

Flights beyond 2008 have not been assessed. Both shuttle and station program officials are considering options for scheduling the remainder of the shuttle flights.

The shuttle launch manifest is available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/iss_manifest.html
For details on upcoming shuttle missions and their crews, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

-end-

STS-122 Update 1725 UTC

The crew has suited up and boarded Atlantis, which has no technical issues that would prevent launch. However, weather is now up to a 70% of violating launch criteria due to a persistent cold front.

Larry Van Horn has updated MT's NASA content. See his posting to his MT Milcom Blog.

STS-122 Will Try Again Tomorrow

The oft-postponed launch of the STS-122 shuttle mission to the International Space Station is on for Thursday, February 7, at 2:45 PM Eastern (1945 UTC). An issue with a bent radiator hose has been sufficiently resolved to allow a safe flight.

Booster Recovery Vessels are currently deploying downrange.

Weather at Cape Canaveral has a 40% chance of preventing launch.

SAQ To Transmit on 17.2 kHz Wednesday

SAQ, Grimeton Radio in Sweden, is planning a test transmission at 1000 UTC on Wednesday, February 6. The 1-hour broadcast will be made with a 200 kW Alexanderson alternator, basically a large electric generator which produces RF instead of low frequency AC. The frequency is 17.2 kilohertz. Not megahertz, kilohertz. That's low.

This is a radio museum with an original, Marconi-era, maritime coastal station in operating condition. The antenna is enormous. This transmitter is audible worldwide with the right equipment and low noise conditions.

Review: Two ACARS Log Analyzers for Windows

(This was originally part 1 of the post below, but I split it off to make the posts shorter.)

Along with the Dynamic Data Exchange path described in the post just below, some listeners are adding ACARS log analyzers to crunch the data from acarsd.

What you do here is run acarsd with yet another DDE server active, and add yet another client application! That's five simultaneously running programs, for those with the courage to keep count, and yes, you still have to start them in order of the data flow. It all works, at least on my hot dual-core XP Professional system with 2 gig of RAM. All these ones and zeroes churn around inside the machine. Messages appear on screens at various intervals, and ultimately get written to the analyzer database.

I'm not sure these analyzers are worth it for HF, though. I tried two of them. Some people love each of them, so they obviously work well enough to fill their needs. Once again, the price is right, as in free. However, I'm more oriented to DXing and finding new catches than plane spotting, and I'm not sure either program added that much more to acarsd to justify the increased level of complexity.

For a start, neither program seemed to contain an easy way to display the ICAO 24-bit hex addresses, though I understand from various Internet chatter that this may be added soon. My real problems seemed to come from both programs' heavy reliance on various data handling features in the Windows operating system itself. Those of us who have spent years fighting with these know what a mess THAT can create!

After the glowing review that another MT column gave the first one I tried, known as ACARS Log Analyser (British spelling), I couldn't wait to get it going. For whatever reason, though, my results weren't as good as his.

It's possible that my problems were caused by Windows DLL conflicts. It's fine for radio freeware to want to replace multiple shared DLLs with older ones. However, it's also my policy not to let these installers do so, because the resulting unpredictable problems with other, more important (or expensive!) apps can really be a mess.

Perhaps this is why the Log Analyser was so fussy, not to mention prone to all manner of arcane error messages, some of which crashed the program. After working through several truly bizarre logic bombs, I finally got the DDE working, sort of.

I never did get my older logs to import. Only one format worked at all, and this one corrupted all the records to have dates 20 years from now. Since I doubt even the NRD-545 can hear into the future, I finally put this program out of its misery with a full uninstall. Since this is Windows, there were a few harmless dregs left in the Registry, but nothing too critical.

Next up, I tried Acars Analyser (Australian spelling). It's right here. This one is a bit slicker, with pretty little icons and an interface generally more to my personal liking. Even better, its installer didn't ask to change any DLLs at all.

I also like the way the software is structured into two parts. One of these is a DDE client, which (like acarsds) connects to any number of programs and then sits happily in the background. The setup screen for this client is accessible, and comprehensive. The other part is the actual analyzer. It works with an external database using Jet (the MS data engine, not an aircraft type). Many items are stored, and these can be massaged in a truly impressive number of ways.

Unfortunately, that's all I can really say about this program. It never got a fair trial on my machine. It, too, seemed fussy. I never got past the initial stages of file not found errors and an occasional hang when I tried to access the database.

This might have been my fault. I became confused during the installation, and later I was able to find multiple database file paths in the Registry. It's possible the code became confused too. Also, according to the programmer, the public databases that make several of the better features work suddenly stopped being maintained, crippling these until an alternative is found.

At this point, I decided that I really wasn't going to use this program very much for what I was doing, and I uninstalled it. The end of this project is at hand, with Posfix and acarsd doing the job just fine. I've come to like these a lot.

Happy buzzing on HF!

Review: Several Windows ACARS Programs

It all started when the hard core HFDL enthusiasts on the Yahoo! group told me that you could connect Charles Brain's great PC-HFDL program to other data processing applications via Windows DDE.

If this last sentence is total gobbledygook to you, well it would also have been to me about three months ago. I would imagine one of the fancy (and pricey) high-end ACARS packages would do all this stuff with a fraction of the geeking, but fortunately I like to geek. After all, this is amateur radio.

Acarsd and PC-HFDL

I'd read good things about a free program suite called acarsd. You can download it at acarsd.org. It's a rather comprehensive ACARS package, with all the features that the hard core aviation geeks have come to expect, such as real-time fetching of aircraft data, including photos, from plane spotting sites.

Acarsd contains a decoder, but for HF I really wanted to continue using PC-HFDL for the transport layer. You need the commercial PC-HFDL version to do DDE. It's a nice little program, especially in its newest 2.041 beta, which adds some features and generally improves the decode.

Unfortunately, Vista broke it, along with most other shareware/freeware sound card radio decoders. This is a problem since Charles, as of last year at least, didn't have access to a Vista box to develop the fixes. Users of GOOD operating systems, such as Windows XP Pro, will have no problems, though it definitely likes some sound cards more than others.

Getting back to acarsd, it's a remarkable package for the price (free, though donations are encouraged). It also has a Linux version. It is configurable to do just about anything, mostly by manually tweaking the self-documenting .ini file. Other documentation is pretty minimal.

In order to send PC-HFDL decodes to Acarsd, you need the "SkySpy Socket Collector," an accompanying DDE server application which is called acarsds. This program, which is bundled with newer versions of acarsd, works like a charm. Its documentation, though, is extremely out of date.

For example, you are told to download acarsds separately, and install it to its own directory. You don't have to. You are told that you need a specific Visual Basic runtime library. Unless your Windows is ME or older, you almost certainly don't. Finally, you are told not to even bother downloading it if you have Windows XP, because this OS isn't supported by SkySpy. Even if, years later, this is still the case, it's irrelevant for us.

The DDE setup is a complete no-brainer. Soon, you have this neat little server happily passing your ACARS messages to the cool acarsd graphic user interface. Not long after, you notice that many of the interesting HFDL downlinks don't display, because technically they are HFNPDU PERFORMANCE messages, not ACARS. Too bad, because most of these have the position of the aircraft.

POSFIX

Fear not. This is where POSFIX comes in. It's also free, and you get it right here. The latest version in January 2008 is 2.34, though a newer version that adds SBS and some other features is in beta. Posfix is also minimally documented at best, though the help does tell you how to make the program work.

What Posfix does is to reformat the HFDL positions into pseudo-ACARS messages which get sent to acarsd and displayed. Acarsd gets a lot more interesting, and your logs get bigger faster, though you also get a lot of NO-REG for missing registration numbers.

What you do is to set Posfix as a DDE client for PC-HFDL, and then set acarsds as a client for Posfix. This results in the following DDE path:

PC-HFDL > Posfix > acarsds > acarsd.

Also, things crash if you don't start servers first and clients second. This means you start PC-HFDL, get it going on a frequency, then work left to right along the path shown above. Posfix connects to PC-HFDL, and messages start appearing in its window. Acarsds connects to Posfix, and messages appear there. Acarsd connects to acarsds, and messages appear there, in its slick formatting, and including the position checks. Also you can plot with Posfix, though unless you're monitoring the North Atlantic run you'll want to make some more maps. Fortunately, this is stupidly easy.

This took me a couple hours of tweaking to get right, but the results are worth it.

UPDATE: This post has been split into two parts to decrease its length. The second part should be above.

V2x Is Again Nine-Less

Haven't heard any at all since that one transmission.

Oh, well.

Meanwhile the digital SK01 transmissions continue.

HAARP HF Earth-Moon-Earth Echoes!

The HAARP project in Alaska has been transmitting 3.9 megawatt carrier in the direction of the moon, so that a receiving site in another location can take data on the lunar surface (and just below) by analyzing the echoes received.

HF lunar echoes are not the kind of thing one hears every day. THIS is DX.

On the second night of the test, January 20 UTC, echoes were received here in California on the second frequency (7407.5 kHz CW) for a considerable period around 0740-0800 UTC. Here is a typical spectrogram as received on a PAR End-Fedz wire and plotted with Spectrum Lab:



The HAARP carrier is being keyed down for 2 seconds (and received here via the ionosphere) and then a 3-second silence is provided to listen for the delayed (and slightly Doppler shifted, apparently) lunar echoes. The HAARP (ionosphere) reception is at 40, 45, 50, 55, and 00 sec. The echoes are clearly seen in between, down about 10-15 dB.


More on this EME experiment is here.

V02a Has 9's!

Yesterday I noted that the Cuban voice numbers transmissions (V02a, V02c) have recently had very few, if any, appearances of the figure "9" (nueve) in the Spanish messages.

This was true until this morning.

17435 is as loud as ever at 1700, and has plenty of 9's, as if a software issue had been addressed.

Do they read this stuff?

The Woodpecker Is Dead, But Enter the Dragon

China's HF "Dragon" over-the-horizon backscatter (OTH-B) radar may be getting more troublesome for other radio services as that country continues to modernize and build out its military capability. This radar system transmits complex tone bursts spread out over several kilohertz. It has caused an enormous problem for Asian weak signal CW operations in the 40 meter amateur band, though I've never heard it here.

Developing...

SK01 Has 9's

As many people have noticed, the number "9" is rarely (if ever) heard in the V2a Cuban voice numbers broadcasts. If the encryption is random, it seems odd that there wouldn't be any 9s. Why would this figure be excluded? Why is it present in filenames/headers for SK01 (the digital file transfers)?

One more mystery wrapped in a riddle shrouded in an enigma, no pun intended. (After all the German ENIGMA code had 9s.)

Is Cuba Going RDFT?

Probably not, but it's sure increasing, in a manner suggesting it may now be operational. From Jon in FL, as posted to Spooks, ENIGMA, and everywhere else:

2008-01-08 at 1800z on 8097 kHz AM SK01 RDFT
1800z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
1808z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
1812z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
1817z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
1819z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
1822z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
1827z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
1832z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
1838z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
1842z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
1847z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
1852z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
1856z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes

2008-01-08 at 1900z on 8097 kHz AM SK01 RDFT
1900z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
1905z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
1910z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
1915z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
1916z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
1920z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
1925z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
1930z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
1935z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
1940z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
1945z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
1946z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
1950z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes

2008-01-08 at 2000z on 7887 kHZ AM SK01 RDFT
2000z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
2005z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
2011z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
2015z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
2021z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
2025z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
2032z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
2036z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
2040z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
2045z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes

2008-01-08 at 2100z on 6855 kHz AM SK01 RDFT
2100z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
2106z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
2111z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
2115z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
2120z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes
2125z 48762671.TXT 190 Bytes
2130z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
2137z 42645902.TXT 790 Bytes
2140z 45973423.TXT 461 Bytes

Shuttle Launch Now On/After February 7

Jan. 11, 2008

Allard Beutel
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
allard.beutel@nasa.gov

Michael Curie
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4715
michael.curie@nasa.gov

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
james.a.hartsfield@nasa.gov

MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-06

NASA ANNOUNCES SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH TARGETS

HOUSTON - NASA Friday announced Feb. 7 as the target launch date for shuttle Atlantis' STS-122 mission to the International Space Station and mid-March for the launch of Endeavour on STS-123. Liftoff of Atlantis from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., will be at 2:47 p.m. EST.

A decision by the Russian Federal Space Agency to move up its Progress launch from Feb. 7 to Feb. 5 enables both STS-122 and STS-123 to launch before the next Russian Soyuz mission in early April. This allows astronauts assigned to the space station's Expedition 16 crew to complete the tasks they have trained for, including support of the launch and docking of Jules Verne, the first European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle. Targeting Feb. 7 also allows time to complete modifications to the engine cutoff sensor system that postponed two shuttle launch attempts in December.

Atlantis' main objective during its STS-122 mission to the station is to install and activate the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory, which will provide scientists around the world the ability to conduct a variety of experiments in life, physical, and materials science, Earth observation and solar physics.

Shuttle Endeavour's STS-123 mission will deliver Kibo, the first section of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's laboratory module, and Dextre, Canada's new robotics system to the space station.

NASA managers will meet in the coming weeks to address the schedule of remaining shuttle flights beyond STS-123.

For the latest shuttle information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle


-end-

San Francisco HFDL Back On-Air

If you heard nothing yesterday on any of San Francisco ARINC ground station 01's frequencies, well no one else did either. The timing suggests problems connected to the storm which hit the Sacramento area with flooding and hurricane-force wind gusts.

10081 is operating at full power at present.

Another storm connected situation exists in a small Nevada town east of Reno, where a breach in the levee of a water canal has flooded 600 homes, requiring boat and helicopter rescues.

HFDL System Table 32/ 20 Hex Now In Use

Just when we thought maybe table #31/1F might get us all the way through the winter, ARINC has updated its ground stations to frequency table number 32, or 20 in the hexadecimal notation the HFDL system uses.

According to several posts to the HFDL group on Yahoo, the only change is to fix a frequency error in version 31/1F that had aircraft looking for Shannon on 2988 kHz, while the ground station squittered away all alone on 2998. It seems awfully coincidental that the mistake was corrected right after the frequency anomaly was discovered and discussed on this same group. It would be very cool if this hobby, and not just a coincidence, was indeed the reason ARINC fixed it. Always glad to be of service.

Let's hope that Shannon now gets more activity on those long winter nights.

The new pchfdl.dat file has been posted to this column's web site. It should be the same one as posted to the Yahoo group, and successfully installed here. Rename your old pchfdl.dat and copy this one in its place, then start PC-HFDL and it should show the frequencies instead of just numbers.

We thank the Yahoo group people for being so on top of things.

-= ADDED 0531 UTC =-

Here is the full system table, as just transmitted by San Francisco:

[LPDU UNNUMBERED DATA FM GND TO AIR BRD]
[SYSTEM TABLE]
Number of Packets in Table 6
Version 020

Ground Station ID 1 SAN FRANCISCO - CALIFORNIA UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 121 45 34 W Latitude 38 22 48 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 10
Frequency 21934000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 17919000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 13276000 Hz Master Frame Slot 8
Frequency 11327000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 10081000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 8927000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 6559000 Hz Master Frame Slot 8
Frequency 5508000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 4672000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 2947000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12

Ground Station ID 2 MOLOKAI - HAWAII UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 157 10 46 W Latitude 21 10 47 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 20
Frequency 21937000 Hz Master Frame Slot 0
Frequency 21928000 Hz Master Frame Slot 0
Frequency 17934000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 17919000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 13276000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 11348000 Hz Master Frame Slot 11
Frequency 11312000 Hz Master Frame Slot 11
Frequency 10081000 Hz Master Frame Slot 11
Frequency 8936000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 8912000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 6559000 Hz Master Frame Slot 0
Frequency 5538000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 5529000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 5508000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 5463000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 3434000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 3019000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 3001000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 2947000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 2878000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3

Ground Station ID 3 REYKJAVIK - ICELAND UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 21 50 59 W Latitude 64 4 47 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 8
Frequency 17985000 Hz Master Frame Slot 11
Frequency 15025000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 11184000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 8977000 Hz Master Frame Slot 0
Frequency 6712000 Hz Master Frame Slot 11
Frequency 5720000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 3900000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 3116000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3

Ground Station ID 4 RIVERHEAD - NEW YORK UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 72 38 22 W Latitude 40 52 47 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 20
Frequency 21934000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 21931000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 17952000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 17934000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 17919000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 13276000 Hz Master Frame Slot 5
Frequency 11387000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 11354000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 11315000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 10027000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 8912000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 8885000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 8831000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 6661000 Hz Master Frame Slot 5
Frequency 6652000 Hz Master Frame Slot 5
Frequency 6646000 Hz Master Frame Slot 5
Frequency 5652000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 5523000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 3428000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 3410000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9

Ground Station ID 5 AUCKLAND - NEW ZEALAND UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 174 48 35 E Latitude 37 1 10 S
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 10
Frequency 21949000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 17916000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 13351000 Hz Master Frame Slot 8
Frequency 11327000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 10084000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 8921000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 6535000 Hz Master Frame Slot 8
Frequency 5583000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 3404000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 3016000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12

Ground Station ID 6 HAT YAI - THAILAND UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 100 23 24 E Latitude 6 56 23 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 9
Frequency 21949000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 17928000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6
Frequency 13270000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 10066000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 8825000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6
Frequency 6535000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 5655000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 4687000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 3470000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6

Ground Station ID 7 SHANNON - IRELAND UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 8 55 46 W Latitude 52 43 48 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 8
Frequency 11384000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 10081000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 8942000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6
Frequency 8843000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6
Frequency 6532000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 5547000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 3455000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6
Frequency 2998000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6

Ground Station ID 8 JOHANNESBURG - SOUTH AFRICA UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 28 12 35 E Latitude 26 7 46 S
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 5
Frequency 21949000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 13321000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6
Frequency 8834000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 4681000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 3016000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2

Ground Station ID 9 BARROW - ALASKA UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 156 46 46 W Latitude 71 18 0 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 19
Frequency 21937000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 21928000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 17934000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6
Frequency 17919000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6
Frequency 11354000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 10093000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 10027000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 8936000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 8927000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 6646000 Hz Master Frame Slot 6
Frequency 5544000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 5538000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 5529000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 4687000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 4654000 Hz Master Frame Slot 2
Frequency 3497000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 3007000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 2992000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10
Frequency 2944000 Hz Master Frame Slot 10

Ground Station ID 14 KRASNOYARSK - RUSSIA UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 92 18 0 E Latitude 56 6 0 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 10
Frequency 21990000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 17912000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 13321000 Hz Master Frame Slot 8
Frequency 10087000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 8886000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 6596000 Hz Master Frame Slot 8
Frequency 5622000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 4679000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 2905000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 2878000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12

Ground Station ID 13 SANTA CRUZ - BOLIVIA UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 63 7 46 W Latitude 17 40 11 S
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 12
Frequency 21997000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 21988000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 21973000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 21946000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 17916000 Hz Master Frame Slot 11
Frequency 13315000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 11318000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 8957000 Hz Master Frame Slot 11
Frequency 6628000 Hz Master Frame Slot 7
Frequency 4660000 Hz Master Frame Slot 3
Frequency 3467000 Hz Master Frame Slot 11
Frequency 2983000 Hz Master Frame Slot 11

Ground Station ID 16 AGANA - GUAM UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 144 48 0 E Latitude 13 28 11 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 7
Frequency 17919000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 13312000 Hz Master Frame Slot 5
Frequency 11306000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 11288000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 8927000 Hz Master Frame Slot 5
Frequency 6652000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 5451000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9

Ground Station ID 15 AL MUHARRAQ - BAHRAIN UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 50 39 0 E Latitude 26 16 12 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 8
Frequency 21982000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 17967000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 13354000 Hz Master Frame Slot 5
Frequency 11312000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 10075000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1
Frequency 8885000 Hz Master Frame Slot 9
Frequency 5544000 Hz Master Frame Slot 5
Frequency 2986000 Hz Master Frame Slot 1

Ground Station ID 17 CANARIAS - SPAIN UTC UNLOCKED
Longitude 15 23 23 W Latitude 27 56 59 N
Squitter Version 0
Number of frequencies 8
Frequency 21955000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 17928000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 13303000 Hz Master Frame Slot 8
Frequency 11348000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 8948000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12
Frequency 6529000 Hz Master Frame Slot 8
Frequency 5589000 Hz Master Frame Slot 4
Frequency 2905000 Hz Master Frame Slot 12

New HFDL System Table?

The Molokai HFDL ground station is reporting that system table #32 (20 hex) is now current. Users of PC-HFDL will need to update their data file, and everyone else will need the new freqs, though there shouldn't be a huge change.

More details when this blog gets them.

Some MARS and SHARES ALE Hits

Copied in California during the 12/28 drill.

MARS = Military Affiliate Radio System. SHARES = SHAred RESources, a Federal interoperability pool and special net administered by National Communications System.

043NCS Natl. Comm. System, sounding on 9106 and 11217 at 1944 and 2143 UTC. Sounding on 11217 and 9106 at 2243.

ANCOPS Unk agency, sounding on 11217 at 2144, 2214, and 2315. Also sounding on 3349 and 17487 at 2144.

YXPNNN US Navy/Marine Corps MARS, sounding on 7642 at 2204.

KULNNN USN/MC MARS, sounding on 11098.5 at 2306.

6DUAFA US Air Force MARS, calling 6NEAFA, at 2332.

Note: The funny backwards MARS addresses are per interoperability committee REF A adopted some years ago, in which unique station identifiers occupy the first three characters (the ones passed in the standard ALE version 1 ID field as opposed to DAT words). YXPNNN=NNN0YXP. 6DUAFA=AFA6DU. And so on.

SHARES Exercise in Progress

Weak USB net traffic on 14396.5 here at 1850 UTC. Jack Metcalfe reports USB traffic on 5236.0 at 1607. Sounds like the quarterly drill.

More when and if I get it.

STS-122 Won't Launch January 10 Either

From NASA:

Dec. 27

The Space Shuttle Program met Thursday to assess the progress made to troubleshoot an issue with the engine cutoff sensor circuit that occurred during the recent launch attempts and tanking test. Instrumentation installed for the tanking test indicate that there are one or more intermittent open circuits in the area of the feed through connector on the external tank’s liquid hydrogen tank.

The external parts of the connector will be removed and replaced with others that have been strategically soldered to ensure pin-to-socket connectivity and allow continuous electrical flow from sensors inside the external tank to the shuttle's computers.

This work will take some time to properly accomplish and to certify the redesigned configuration before flight. While a launch on Jan. 10 is no longer achievable, no launch date has been discussed. The program will take time to assess progress of the work before setting a target launch date.

This situation has put a major bottleneck into the ISS work flow. Things will be up in the air, no pun intended, for quite some time.

Let's Go To Hawaii!

San Francisco HFDL has been red-hot lately on 10081 kHz. Plotting on Google Earth is clunky, but has advantages at times. Here are a whole bunch of lucky people on the way to Hawaii, and some less lucky ones on the way back to winter in the US:


The nice thing about Google Earth is being able to zoom in. This airplane kept updating its position over HFDL until it was literally on the runway in Honolulu:


All plots made by PC-HFDL and Google Earth.

More on Status of STS-122

From NASA:

Mission: STS-122 -
24th International Space Station Flight -
Columbus Module
Vehicle: Atlantis (OV-104)
Location: Launch Pad 39A
Launch Date: Targeted for Jan. 10, 2008
Crew: Frick, Poindexter, Schlegel,
Eyharts, Love, Melvin, Walheim
Inclination/Orbit Altitude:
51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles

A tanking test was conducted at Launch Pad 39A on Tuesday to aid in troubleshooting the cause of malfunctioning engine cutoff (ECO) sensors. Technicians spliced test wiring into the ECO sensor electrical system and used time domain reflectometry equipment to help locate the electrical anomaly. Results of the tanking test pointed to an open circuit in the feed-through connector wiring, which is located at the base of the tank. The feed-through connector passes the wires from the inside of the tank to the outside. Today technicians removed foam insulation covering the feed-through connector box, and workers from Lockheed-Martin will begin inspecting and testing the connector if approval is received for its removal next week.

Shuttle program managers will meet on Dec. 27 to further review the data analysis from the tanking test conducted earlier this week and decide on a forward plan.

Next STS-122 Launch Date is 1/10/08

Dec. 13, 2007

Candrea Thomas
Kennedy Space Center, Fla

321-867-2468
candrea.k.thomas@nasa.gov

Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-3749
katherine.trinidad@nasa.gov

Kyle Herring
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kyle.j.herring@nasa.gov

RELEASE: MO7-185

NASA TARGETS SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS LAUNCH ON JAN. 10

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's Space Shuttle Program managers have targeted Jan. 10 for the launch of shuttle Atlantis' STS-122 mission to the International Space Station.

"The workforce has stepped up to and met every challenge this year," said Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center. "Moving the next launch attempt of Atlantis to Jan. 10 will allow as many people as possible to have time with family and friends at the time of year when it means the most. A lot has been asked of them this year and a lot will be asked of them in 2008."

The liftoff date from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, depends on the resolution of a problem in a fuel sensor system. The shuttle's planned launches on Dec. 6 and Dec. 9 were postponed because of false readings from the part of the system that monitors the liquid hydrogen section of the tank.

Atlantis' main objective during its STS-122 mission to the International Space Station is to install and activate the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory, which will provide scientists around the world the ability to conduct a variety of life, physical and materials science experiments.

For the latest information about the STS-122 mission and the ECO sensor system, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

-end-

STS-122 Postpones Until January

NASA:

Dec. 9 -11:30 a.m. EST

Space shuttle Atlantis' STS-122 mission to the International Space Station is targeted to launch no earlier than Jan. 2 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The liftoff date depends on the resolution of a problem in a fuel sensor system.

Early Sunday, one of the four engine cutoff, or ECO, sensors inside the liquid hydrogen section of Atlantis' external fuel tank gave a false reading while the tank was being filled. NASA's current Launch Commit Criteria require that all four sensors function properly.

The sensor system is one of several that protect the shuttle's main engines by triggering their shut down if fuel runs unexpectedly low. Atlantis' scheduled launch on Thursday, Dec. 6, was delayed after two liquid hydrogen ECO sensors gave false readings.

Earliest STS-122 Launch Now Sunday Afternoon

NASA is targeting the launch of space shuttle Atlantis no earlier than Sunday, Dec. 9, at 3:21 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Shuttle program managers made the decision after a meeting Friday to review data on a problem with a fuel cutoff sensor system inside the shuttle and its external fuel tank.

Because of the length of the meeting, the managers agreed that targeting Sunday would allow the launch and management teams appropriate time to rest and prepare. The Mission Management Team will meet Saturday at 1 p.m. to decide whether to make a Sunday attempt. A news conference will be held after the meeting's conclusion.

Atlantis' scheduled launch Thursday was delayed after two ECO sensors gave false readings. A third sensor failed after the tank was drained of fuel. The fuel cutoff sensor system is one of several that protects the shuttle's main engines by triggering their shut down if fuel runs unexpectedly low.

(From nasa.gov)

Large Increase in Russian Military HF Traffic

Russia continues to step up its military presence worldwide. Strategic bombers are flying again, and major naval exercises have dramatically increased HF utility transmissions.

Details of the underlying issues are in this UK Telegraph article of December 6.

MT's Milcom Blog is all over this story, and has a frequency list coming in the near future.

Meanwhile, here are a few busy ones (many more on UDXF):

18.1 Navy 75-hz shift teleprinting (Bee mode), parallel transmissions all over the place, including 7657, 8130, 9044, 9346, 11468, 12741, 14411
583.0 Russian Navy, CW
3217.0 Russian military, CW, duplex with 3393
9145.0 Russian Navy, CW
10308.0 Russian Navy, CW
11155.0 Russian Navy, CW

In addition, the air defense "time stamp" broadcasts and even the old Air Force FSK Morse stations are active again.

Next STS-122 Opportunity on Saturday

Following a day of meetings, NASA set the earliest possible launch time as Saturday, Dec. 8, at 3:43 p.m. EST. Engineers concluded that more time than 24 hours was needed to deal with the fuel sensor issue.

STS-122 Scrubs for 24 Hours

During a routine fueling of the LH2 tank, a possible open circuit caused two low-liquid-level sensors to malfunction. These are a mission critical system, forcing a scrub for at least 24 hours for troubleshooting. New tentative launch day is Friday.

Swedish RF Alternator to Transmit Christmas Eve

From Ary Boender via UDXF:

SAQ TRANSMISSION ON CHRISTMAS EVE
DECEMBER 24TH 2007

There will be, as last year, a transmission with the Alexanderson alternator on VLF 17.2 kHz from Grimeton Radio/SAQ on Christmas Eve, Monday December 24th 2007.

The message transmission will take place at 08:00 UTC and will be repeated at 08:15 UTC. The transmitter will be tuned up from around 07:30 UTC, so you will get time to test your antennas and equipment during that time.

There will be no activity on amateur radio frequencies with the call SK6SAQ this time.

QSL-reports are kindly received:
- E-mail to: info@alexander.n.se
- or fax to: +46-340-674195
- or via: SM bureau
- or direct by mail to: Alexander - Grimeton Veteranradios Vaenner,
Radiostationen, Grimeton 72

S-430 16 ROLFSTORP
S W E D E N

That is not a typo. The frequency is 17.2 kilohertz, with a K. That's low.

This alternator is part of a radio museum at SAQ, a historic maritime coastal station. It's the last of a network of 200 kW General Electric rotary RF alternators that once covered the planet. They were set up to send Morse code (and, on occasion, AM voice) using truly enormous antennas. This was quite the hot setup in its time, and it had already pretty much replaced spark in coastal stations when vacuum tubes replaced both of them.

This station has global coverage, and anyone with low noise and good enough equipment on very low frequency has a shot at hearing something.

STS-122 Web Schedule

MEDIA ADVISORY: 57-07

NASA ANNOUNCES WEB COVERAGE OF NEXT SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A prelaunch webcast, live blogs, podcasts, pictures and videos highlight NASA's Web coverage of space shuttle Atlantis' STS-122 mission to the International Space Station. NASA will provide continuous online updates at:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

A live webcast featuring NASA astronaut Robert Satcher will start the in-depth coverage of the mission at 11:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 5.

A blog will update the countdown beginning about six hours before Atlantis is scheduled to lift off on Dec. 6 at 4:31 p.m. EST. Originating from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the blog is the definitive Internet source for information leading up to launch.

During the 11-day mission, Atlantis' crew of seven astronauts will deliver the European Space Agency's new Columbus laboratory, setting the stage for expanded science capabilities on the orbiting outpost. Visitors to NASA's shuttle Web site can read about the crew's progress and watch the spacewalks live from the space station.

As Atlantis' flight wraps up, NASA will offer a blog detailing the spacecraft's return to Earth.


-end-

Space Shuttle Launch This Thursday Afternoon

RELEASE: 07-262

NASA GIVES "GO" FOR SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH ON DEC. 6

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA senior managers completed a thorough
review Friday of space shuttle Atlantis' readiness for flight and
selected Dec. 6 as the official launch date for mission STS-122.
Commander Steve Frick and his six crewmates are scheduled to lift off
to the International Space Station at 4:31 p.m. EST.

During the 11-day mission, the crew will install the European Space
Agency's new Columbus laboratory. Columbus will expand the research
facilities of the station and provide scientists around the world
with the ability to conduct a variety of life, physical and materials
science experiments. The mission will include at least three
spacewalks, delivery of a new crew member to the station and the
return of another astronaut after nearly two months aboard the
station.

Atlantis' launch date was announced after the conclusion of Friday's
Flight Readiness Review. During the one-day meeting, top NASA and
contractor managers assessed any risks associated with the mission
and determined whether the shuttle's equipment, support systems and
procedures are ready for flight.

Joining Commander Frick on STS-122 will be pilot Alan Poindexter and
mission specialists Leland Melvin, Rex Walheim, Stanley Love and
European Space Agency astronauts Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts.
Eyharts will replace current station crew member Dan Tani, who has
lived on the outpost since October. Eyharts will return to Earth on
shuttle Endeavour's STS-123 mission, currently targeted for launch on
Feb. 14, 2008.

For more information about the STS-122 mission, including images and
interviews with the crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle


-end-

Colossus Breaks Code, But Loses Race

Having finally intercepted the radio messages (we know how poor conditions are in solar minimums), the Bletchley Park museum staff put the rebuilt Colossus computer to work on them, while also giving them to a Colossus emulator programmed on a common laptop PC.

The PC beat the 2000-tube, paper-tape-based Colossus, but not by much. Actually, though, another crypto type who'd written his own software already had them both beat.

Still, the clunky replica machine, which fills a large room, was able to break a long message in a complex RTTY Baudot encipherment scheme in about 4 hours, 20 minutes. Not too shabby for vacuum tubes, even though a couple of "valves" blew out toward the end.

It was the timeliness of the decipherment which made these machines so important in shortening World War II. In particular, it gave planners of the D-Day invasion useful information about German defense preparations.

BBC:

Last Updated: Friday, 16 November 2007, 13:43 GMT

Colossus loses code-cracking race

By Mark Ward

Technology Correspondent, BBC News website

An amateur cryptographer has beaten Colossus in a code-cracking challenge set up to mark the end of a project to rebuild the pioneering computer.

...

At the same time as Colossus cranked through the messages a separate team used a virtual Colossus on a laptop to read the scrambled messages. That too beat Colossus and deciphered the message mid-morning on Friday.

...

The ciphertext from the messages will also be placed on the museum's website so amateur code-crackers who do not have access to radio can have a go at breaking the signals.

UK Colossus Computer Decrypting Messages Again!

The huge, vacuum-tube- and paper-tape-based Colossus computer, widely accepted as the first truly programmable machine, will be put to work breaking Nazi coded messages again. These will be real intercepts of transmissions with the original German WWII encipherment devices by special event hams in Germany. The copy from receivers in the UK will be put through a replica of the original 10 Colossus machines that helped win the war by deciphering the Lorenz transmissions sent to the secret crypto facility at Bletchley Park.

All plans to the Colossus were destroyed for secrecy, but this is as close as anyone can get. It still uses tubes and a paper tape reader, and so it is still, uh, colossal. A standard COTS personal computer will be programmed to emulate the Colossus, and decryption times will be compared.

BBC:

Last Updated: Thursday, 15 November 2007, 14:59 GMT

Colossus cracks codes once more

By Mark Ward
Technology Correspondent, BBC News website

For the first time in more than 60 years a Colossus computer is cracking codes at Bletchley Park.

...

The re-built Colossus will be put to work on intercepted radio messages transmitted by radio amateurs in Paderborn, Germany that have been scrambled using a Lorenz SZ42 machine - as used by the German high command in wartime.

...

Speaking to the BBC, Andy Clark, one of the founders of the Trust for the National Museum of Computing, said radio problems had stopped the challenge getting under way on time.

"The radio path has not been particularly good between Germany and here," he said. "We are at a bad point in the sunspot cycle."

Signals had improved throughout the day, he added, and he hoped to get 100% of the ciphertext - the code - through soon.

Stay tuned...

More XSS

16 November (UTC):

10420.0 XSS sounding at 0017, 0047, 2358.
14782.5 XSS sounding at 0044.

17 November (UTC):

14728.5 XSS sounding at 0025.
10193.5 XSS sounsing at 0029.

Other times and frequencies are no joy. The fact that the best signals seem to come in the late afternoon local time in November would tend to rule out the UK as a source. Perhaps XSS/ DHFCS/ TASCOMM is continuing to add transmitters as the network is built out and used by the UK military.

XSS Finally Heard in Western US!

XSS is the Automatic Link Establishment address (ID) for the probable control station of the UK's new Defence High-Frequency Communication System (DHFCS). The control location is Forest Moor, England, though remotes are possible. It has been heard widely in Europe and the eastern US, but not out here on the Left Coast.

Not until today (UTC date 15 November), anyway. Several ALE soundings have been received on 14728.5 kHz. Here's the PC-ALE output:

[01:03:16][FRQ 14278500][SND][TWS][XSS ][AL0] BER 28 SN 02
[01:03:13][FRQ 14278500][SND][TWS][XSS ][AL0] BER 24 SN 02
[01:03:11][FRQ 14278500][SND][TWS][XSS ][AL0] BER 16 SN 01
[01:03:10][FRQ 14278500][SND][TWS][XSS ][AL0] BER 20 SN 01
[00:33:02][FRQ 14278500][SND][TWS][XSS ][AL0] BER 21 SN 07

PEMEX ALE Net

11095.0 kHz ALE is very busy with soundings from Pemex (Mexican oil company) facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. In the past few minutes, calls copied include ATASTA1, AKALJ2, REBOM1, ATASTA2, REBOM2, AKALN1, AKALN2, and AKALL1. All are soundings, all passing the first three characters in the TWS word, and the rest in DATA.

Oddly, the only other frequency being reported for this net is on 2182 kHz, the international USB distress and calling frequency, where it is stepping on other traffic.

Space Shuttle Landing Scheduled for Wednesday

Wednesday landing opportunities are at 1:01 p.m. and 2:36 p.m. EST. The backup landing sites at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and White Sands Space Harbor, N.M., will not be activated on Wednesday. Presumably, they will be if weather forces a wave-off until Thursday.

Hurricane Noel Forecast/Advisory #22

That's right. Noel is now a hurricane. Wouldn't you know the deadliest storm this year, and the only one to come north, would be in November. Now here's the good news:

000
WTNT21 KNHC 020239
TCMAT1
HURRICANE NOEL FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER 22
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL162007
0300 UTC FRI NOV 02 2007

AT 11 PM EDT...0300 UTC...ALL WATCHES AND WARNINGS FOR THE BAHAMAS HAVE BEEN DISCONTINUED.

A GALE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR BERMUDA.

HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 27.3N 76.1W AT 02/0300Z
POSITION ACCURATE WITHIN 20 NM

PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST OR 30 DEGREES AT 17 KT

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 981 MB
MAX SUSTAINED WINDS 70 KT WITH GUSTS TO 85 KT.
64 KT....... 40NE 0SE 0SW 0NW.
50 KT....... 75NE 60SE 0SW 0NW.
34 KT.......125NE 100SE 25SW 100NW.
12 FT SEAS..540NE 300SE 30SW 210NW.
WINDS AND SEAS VARY GREATLY IN EACH QUADRANT. RADII IN NAUTICAL MILES ARE THE LARGEST RADII EXPECTED ANYWHERE IN THAT QUADRANT.

REPEAT...CENTER LOCATED NEAR 27.3N 76.1W AT 02/0300Z
AT 02/0000Z CENTER WAS LOCATED NEAR 26.6N 76.5W

FORECAST VALID 02/1200Z 29.5N 74.7W
MAX WIND 75 KT...GUSTS 90 KT.
64 KT... 40NE 0SE 0SW 0NW.
50 KT... 75NE 60SE 0SW 0NW.
34 KT...150NE 150SE 25SW 120NW.

FORECAST VALID 03/0000Z 33.0N 72.5W...EXTRATROPICAL
MAX WIND 65 KT...GUSTS 80 KT.
64 KT... 40NE 40SE 0SW 0NW.
50 KT...120NE 120SE 0SW 0NW.
34 KT...240NE 240SE 0SW 320NW.

FORECAST VALID 03/1200Z 37.5N 69.5W...EXTRATROPICAL
MAX WIND 65 KT...GUSTS 80 KT.
64 KT... 40NE 40SE 0SW 0NW.
50 KT...180NE 180SE 150SW 180NW.
34 KT...360NE 360SE 300SW 360NW.

FORECAST VALID 04/0000Z 42.5N 66.5W...EXTRATROPICAL
MAX WIND 75 KT...GUSTS 90 KT.
50 KT...240NE 240SE 150SW 150NW.
34 KT...480NE 480SE 300SW 240NW.

FORECAST VALID 05/0000Z 53.0N 58.5W...EXTRATROPICAL
MAX WIND 70 KT...GUSTS 85 KT.
50 KT...300NE 300SE 0SW 0NW.
34 KT...480NE 540SE 480SW 240NW.

EXTENDED OUTLOOK. NOTE...ERRORS FOR TRACK HAVE AVERAGED NEAR 225 NM ON DAY 4 AND 300 NM ON DAY 5...AND FOR INTENSITY NEAR 20 KT EACH DAY

OUTLOOK VALID 06/0000Z 62.5N 50.0W...EXTRATROPICAL
MAX WIND 60 KT...GUSTS 75 KT.

OUTLOOK VALID 07/0000Z...DISSIPATED

REQUEST FOR 3 HOURLY SHIP REPORTS WITHIN 300 MILES OF 27.3N 76.1W

NEXT ADVISORY AT 02/0900Z

$$
FORECASTER AVILA

Space Shuttle Is Up

Boosters separated nominally and recovery vessels should be performing their missions. Some operation may take place on the usual Cape Radio frequencies.

Sorry for the long break in blog postings, but I'm on the road.

Space Shuttle is counting

Launch at 11:38 and 19 seconds EDT.

*Another* New US Coast Station Licensed!

From Richard Dillman of MRHS:

The repopulation of the medium frequency maritime mobile band in the US continues with the addition of a new coast station.

The FCC today granted a license for commercial coast station WFT. The station is located in Florida and is authorized for 5kW on 500kc and 486kc.

This FCC action marks the granting of two new coast station licenses in as many months. KDR in Washington state was authorized for 5kW on 500kc and 482kc in September this year.

In their applications, both stations noted the increase in the number of US ships, both commercial and historic, with the capability to use Morse in the medium frequency band. Their plan is to provide service for these ships as well as marine weather and press broadcasts.

WFT and KDR join KSM as active commercial users of 500kc, that most hallowed of frequencies, as well as working frequencies in medium frequency maritime mobile band. The intention of these stations is not to make a profit by providing radiotelegraph service to ships at sea. Clearly, those days are past. Instead, the objective is to preserve the skills, traditions and frequencies used for more than 100 years by commercial operators afloat and ashore.

Stations WLO, KLB, NMC, NOJ and NMN typically join KPH, KFS and KSM for the annual "Night of Nights" event each 12 July on MF and HF. With luck, KDR and WFT will join us for the next event.

VY 73,

RD

Space Shuttle is Go at T-9 Minutes and Holding

The final pre-launch poll has just taken place, with no constraints.

Launch should take place around 11:38 eastern.

New Web Link for AFN Short Wave Schedule

The old link for the American Forces Network HF transmitter locations, frequencies, and times is no longer working. There is a new one:

http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/ShortWave.aspx

The schedule as of September 2007 is:

USB
Station Day Night

Diego Garcia 12759 4319
Guam 13362 5765
Key West 12133.5 7812.5 5446.5 (all 24/7)
Pearl Harbor 10320 6350

Second New US Coastal CW Station Licensed

Forward from Dick Dillman, chief operator at KSM, the first new station:

A new US class 1A common carrier Morse code coast station has been licensed by the FCC!

As may remembered, I suggested earlier this year that those in the US interested in preserving 500kc for commercial operation should apply for a commercial coast station license - just as we did for KSM.

Two people made applications. One of these has been granted today (9/24).

Station KDR has been licensed to James A. Dalke in Bellevue, WA. OM Dalke is a broadcast engineer who just happens to have a 5kW MF transmitter in the garage so I suspect we will be hearing the signal of KDR before too long. Jim says he as many "interesting plans" for the station.

KDR is licensed for operation on 500kc and 482kc at 5kW.

See all information on the FCC Web site.

One other application is pending. Others have expressed interest in submitting applications.

In my view licensing stations like KDR is the best possible way to preserve 500kc for true commercial operations.

VY 73,

Richard Dillman

Coordinates given are 47-40-24.0 N, 122-10-11.0 W. Emission is 160HA1A (plain CW Morse wireless telegraphy, 160 Hz bandwidth). Antenna type is not known.

This ought to be good.

Interesting Aircraft Taskings for Gulf Cyclone 9/21

681
NOUS42 KNHC 201530
WEATHER RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHTS
CARCAH, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER, MIAMI, FL.
1130 AM EDT THU 20 SEPTEMBER 2007
SUBJECT: TROPICAL CYCLONE PLAN OF THE DAY (TCPOD)
VALID 21/1100Z TO 22/1100Z SEPTEMBER 2007
TCPOD NUMBER.....07-118

I. ATLANTIC REQUIREMENTS
1. SUSPECT AREA
FLIGHT ONE --NOAA 42
A. 21/1800Z
B. NOAA2 0510A CYCLONE
C. 21/1300Z
D. 27.4N 86.8W
E. 21/1400Z TO 2000Z
F. SFC TO 10,000 FT

FLIGHT TWO --NOAA 49
A. 22/0000Z
B. NOAA9 0610A CYCLONE
C. 21/1730Z
D. NA
E. NA
F. 41,000 T0 450,000 FT

FLIGHT THREE --NOAA 43
A. 22/0000Z
B. NOAA3 0710A CYCLONE
C. 21/2200Z
D. 28.0N 87.5W
E. 21/2300Z TO 22/0430Z
F. SFC TO 10,000 FT

FLIGHT FOUR --TEAL 70
A. 22/0600,1200Z
B. AFXXX 0810A CYCLONE
C. 22/0430Z
D. 28.5N 88.2W
E. 22/0500Z TO 22/1230Z
F. SFC TO 10,000 FT.

2. SUCCEEDING DAY OUTLOOK: POSSIBLE 3-HRLY FIXES
BEGINNING AT 22/1500Z.
3. REMARKS: AN AEROSONDE WILL DEPART KEY WEST AT 21/1900Z,
OPERATE IN THE STORM AT 3,OOO FT OR BELOW AND DEPART
THE STORM BY 22/0500Z.

II.PACIFIC REQUIREMENTS
1. NEGATIVE RECONNAISSANCE REQUIREMENTS.
2. SUCCEEDING DAY OUTLOOK.....NEGATIVE.
JWP

Pacific Hurricane Ivo Forecast/Warning #11

000
WTPZ22 KNHC 210235
TCMEP2
HURRICANE IVO FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER 11
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP122007
0300 UTC FRI SEP 21 2007

INTERESTS IN THE SOUTHERN BAJA PENINSULA SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF IVO.

HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 18.8N 113.4W AT 21/0300Z
POSITION ACCURATE WITHIN 20 NM

PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE NORTH OR 350 DEGREES AT 8 KT

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 981 MB
MAX SUSTAINED WINDS 70 KT WITH GUSTS TO 85 KT.
64 KT....... 15NE 15SE 0SW 0NW.
50 KT....... 60NE 30SE 10SW 25NW.
34 KT....... 75NE 65SE 30SW 60NW.
12 FT SEAS.. 75NE 90SE 75SW 60NW.
WINDS AND SEAS VARY GREATLY IN EACH QUADRANT. RADII IN NAUTICAL MILES ARE THE LARGEST RADII EXPECTED ANYWHERE IN THAT QUADRANT.

REPEAT...CENTER LOCATED NEAR 18.8N 113.4W AT 21/0300Z
AT 21/0000Z CENTER WAS LOCATED NEAR 18.4N 113.3W

FORECAST VALID 21/1200Z 19.7N 113.5W
MAX WIND 70 KT...GUSTS 85 KT.
64 KT... 15NE 15SE 0SW 0NW.
50 KT... 60NE 30SE 10SW 25NW.
34 KT... 75NE 65SE 30SW 60NW.

FORECAST VALID 22/0000Z 20.6N 113.1W
MAX WIND 70 KT...GUSTS 85 KT.
64 KT... 25NE 25SE 15SW 15NW.
50 KT... 60NE 45SE 30SW 40NW.
34 KT... 90NE 90SE 45SW 75NW.

FORECAST VALID 22/1200Z 21.3N 112.8W
MAX WIND 65 KT...GUSTS 80 KT.
64 KT... 25NE 25SE 15SW 15NW.
50 KT... 60NE 45SE 30SW 40NW.
34 KT... 90NE 90SE 45SW 75NW.

FORECAST VALID 23/0000Z 22.0N 112.5W
MAX WIND 60 KT...GUSTS 75 KT.
50 KT... 45NE 45SE 30SW 40NW.
34 KT... 90NE 90SE 60SW 75NW.

FORECAST VALID 24/0000Z 23.5N 112.0W
MAX WIND 55 KT...GUSTS 65 KT.
50 KT... 45NE 45SE 30SW 40NW.
34 KT... 90NE 90SE 60SW 75NW.

EXTENDED OUTLOOK. NOTE...ERRORS FOR TRACK HAVE AVERAGED NEAR 200 NM ON DAY 4 AND 225 NM ON DAY 5...AND FOR INTENSITY NEAR 20 KT EACH DAY

OUTLOOK VALID 25/0000Z 25.0N 111.5W...INLAND
MAX WIND 45 KT...GUSTS 55 KT.

OUTLOOK VALID 26/0000Z 26.5N 111.5W...INLAND
MAX WIND 30 KT...GUSTS 40 KT.

REQUEST FOR 3 HOURLY SHIP REPORTS WITHIN 300 MILES OF 18.8N 113.4W

NEXT ADVISORY AT 21/0900Z

$$
FORECASTER BLAKE

Cuban DIGTRX Numbers 9/13/07

The Cuban numbers stations, always good for a surprise, are at it again.

On September 10, Tom Sevart heard a new digital mode (for them) on 17478 kHz USB at 1600 UTC, and again on 17436 kHz USB at 1700. This is an 8-tone modulation mode with distinctive beginning and ending signals. It was quickly identified by Tom and others as Redundant Digital File Transfer (RDFT), a mode with several submodes of varying transfer speeds. It's used by hams for transferring files, usually slow scan TV (SSTV) pictures. We've written about this before.

Today, September 13, Tom and I both heard transmissions at 1700 on 17436. They were in RDFT and another digital file transfer mode called HamDRM, an amateur version of the Digital Radio Mondial broadcast standard. The program in use identified itself as DIGTRX version 3.11, a free download available on all the usual ham radio sites.

The sending station ID in the DRM transmission was RAD01. The file being transferred was called nen12.txt. Its contents are a standard V02a/M08a three-message encrypted whatever, but without the formatting into 5-figure groups. We thank Tom for sharing his decode with the Internet.

It is interesting to speculate on whether RAD01 and nenxx.txt are internal names used in the Cuban numbers operation, or just special test names. Probably ultimately futile, but interesting.

Last Humberto Advisory (#7)

ZCZC MIATCMAT4 ALL
TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM
TROPICAL DEPRESSION HUMBERTO FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER 7
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL092007
2100 UTC THU SEP 13 2007

TROPICAL DEPRESSION CENTER LOCATED NEAR 31.4N 92.6W AT 13/2100Z
POSITION ACCURATE WITHIN 20 NM

PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE NORTHEAST OR 40 DEGREES AT 10 KT

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 1003 MB
MAX SUSTAINED WINDS 30 KT WITH GUSTS TO 40 KT.
WINDS AND SEAS VARY GREATLY IN EACH QUADRANT. RADII IN NAUTICAL MILES ARE THE LARGEST RADII EXPECTED ANYWHERE IN THAT QUADRANT.

REPEAT...CENTER LOCATED NEAR 31.4N 92.6W AT 13/2100Z
AT 13/1800Z CENTER WAS LOCATED NEAR 31.0N 92.9W

FORECAST VALID 14/0600Z 32.3N 91.0W...INLAND
MAX WIND 25 KT...GUSTS 35 KT.

FORECAST VALID 14/1800Z 32.9N 88.6W...INLAND REMNANT LOW
MAX WIND 20 KT...GUSTS 30 KT.

FORECAST VALID 15/0600Z 32.9N 86.4W...INLAND REMNANT LOW
MAX WIND 20 KT...GUSTS 30 KT.

FORECAST VALID 15/1800Z...DISSIPATED

REQUEST FOR 3 HOURLY SHIP REPORTS WITHIN 300 MILES OF 31.4N 92.6W

THIS IS THE LAST FORECAST/ADVISORY ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER ON THIS SYSTEM.

$$
FORECASTER BEVEN


NNNN

Humberto Is A Hurricane (Advisory #4)

This thing was a depression at this time last night, and there was no time to prepare before it came in. Let's hope this is as strong as it gets.

000
WTNT34 KNHC 130532
TCPAT4
BULLETIN
HURRICANE HUMBERTO SPECIAL ADVISORY NUMBER 4
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL092007
1215 AM CDT THU SEP 13 2007

...HUMBERTO BECOMES A HURRICANE JUST BEFORE LANDFALL...
...HURRICANE FORCE WINDS COVER SMALL AREA NORTHEAST OF CENTER...

AT 1215 AM CDT...0515Z...A HURRICANE WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FROM
EAST OF HIGH ISLAND TEXAS TO CAMERON LOUISIANA. THE HURRICANE
WARNING FOR HUMBERTO MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED
WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT FEW HOURS.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM EAST OF SARGENT
TEXAS TO HIGH ISLAND TEXAS...AND FROM EAST OF CAMERON LOUISIANA TO
TO INTRACOASTAL CITY LOUISIANA.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE
INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 1215 AM CDT...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE HUMBERTO WAS LOCATED NEAR
LATITUDE 29.4 NORTH...LONGITUDE 94.4 WEST OR ABOUT 20 MILES...30
KM...EAST OF GALVESTON TEXAS...AND ABOUT 15 MILES...20 KM...SOUTH
OF HIGH ISLAND TEXAS.

HUMBERTO IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 8 MPH...13 KM/HR
...AND THIS GENERAL DIRECTION OF MOTION WITH SOME INCREASE IN
FORWARD SPEED IS EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ON THE FORECAST
TRACK THE CENTER WILL BE CROSSING THE UPPER TEXAS COAST WITHIN THE
NEXT FEW HOURS.

DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT AND DOPPLER RADAR
INDICATE THAT THE MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED TO NEAR 80
MPH...130 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS...CONFINED TO A SMALL AREA
NORTHEAST OF THE CENTER. HUMBERTO IS NOW A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE
ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. LITTLE ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING IS
EXPECTED PRIOR TO LANDFALL.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 15 MILES...30 KM...
NORTHEAST OF THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND
OUTWARD UP TO 60 MILES...95 KM.

MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE RECENTLY REPORTED BY THE AIRCRAFT WAS 992
MB...29.29 INCHES.

RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ALONG THE TRACK OF
HUMBERTO THROUGH EASTERN TEXAS AS WELL AS WESTERN AND CENTRAL
LOUISIANA...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM ACCUMULATIONS OF 15 INCHES
POSSIBLE.

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 3 TO 4 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS
CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES
LANDFALL.

ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE IN SOUTHEASTERN TEXAS AND
SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA THROUGH EARLY THURSDAY.

REPEATING THE 1215 AM CDT POSITION...29.4 N...94.4 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD...NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 8 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...80
MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...992 MB.

THE NEXT ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE
CENTER AT 400 AM CDT.

$$
FORECASTER MAINELLI/AVILA

Gabrielle Now Tropical (Advisory #4)

Air recon has found tropical characteristics in Gabrielle, and so it is now classed a tropical storm.

000
WTNT32 KNHC 082046
TCPAT2
BULLETIN
TROPICAL STORM GABRIELLE ADVISORY NUMBER 4
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL072007
500 PM EDT SAT SEP 08 2007

...GABRIELLE BECOMES TROPICAL...STILL FORECAST TO STRENGTHEN AS IT APPROACHES NORTH CAROLINA...

AT 5 PM EDT...2100Z...THE TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR A PORTION OF THE
COAST OF NORTH CAROLINA FROM SOUTH OF SURF CITY SOUTHWARD TO CAPE FEAR HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM SURF CITY NORTH CAROLINA NORTHWARD TO THE NORTH CAROLINA/VIRGINIA BORDER... INCLUDING THE PAMLICO AND ALBEMARLE SOUNDS. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

A TROPICAL STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHEASTERN VIRGINIA FROM NORTH OF THE NORTH CAROLINA/VIRGINIA BORDER NORTHWARD TO CAPE CHARLES LIGHT ON THE ATLANTIC COAST AND TO NEW POINT COMFORT ALONG CHESAPEAKE BAY. A TROPICAL STORM WATCH MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA...GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 500 PM EDT...2100Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM GABRIELLE WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 32.4 NORTH...LONGITUDE 74.7 WEST OR ABOUT 185 MILES...300 KM...SOUTHEAST OF CAPE LOOKOUT NORTH CAROLINA.

GABRIELLE IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 8 MPH...13 KM/HR. A GRADUAL TURN TOWARD THE NORTH IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ON THIS TRACK...THE CENTER OF GABRIELLE WILL BE NEAR OR OVER THE COAST OF NORTH CAROLINA TOMORROW AFTERNOON...BUT OUTER RAIN BANDS WILL LIKELY REACH THE COAST TONIGHT.

REPORTS FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE DECREASED AND ARE NOW NEAR 40 MPH...65 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. HOWEVER...SLIGHT STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 105 MILES...165 KM...TO THE NORTH FROM THE CENTER.

THE MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY THE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT WAS 1009 MB...29.80 INCHES.

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 2 TO 3 FEET IS POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WARNING AREA AS GABRIELLE PASSES NEAR OR OVER THE COAST.

GABRIELLE IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES ACROSS COASTAL SECTIONS OF NORTH CAROLINA...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 5 INCHES.

REPEATING THE 500 PM EDT POSITION...32.4 N...74.7 W. MOVEMENT TOWARD...NORTHWEST NEAR 8 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...40 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1009 MB.

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT 800 PM EDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 1100 PM EDT.

$$
FORECASTER KNABB

R.I.P. Felix & Henriette

Final resting places:

Hydromet Drops Dissipating T.D. Henriette

What's left of Henriette is rain in AZ, NM, and TX. It missed CA where we could have used it.

For future reference, the Hydromet office's tropical advisory page is here.

000
WTPZ31 KWNH 061459
TCPEP1


PUBLIC ADVISORY NUMBER 28 FOR REMNANT OF HENRIETTE
NWS HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL PREDICTION CENTER CAMP SPRINGS MD
EP112007
800 AM PDT THU SEP 06 2007

...HENRIETTE DISSIPATING OVER NORTHWESTERN MEXICO...

FLASH FLOOD WATCHES ARE IN EFFECT FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHEASTERN ARIZONA...SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO...AND FAR SOUTHWESTERN TEXAS.

AT 800 AM PDT...15Z...THE POORLY DEFINED LOW PRESSURE CENTER ASSOCIATED WITH HENRIETTE WAS LOCATED NEAR 31.0 NORTH LATITUDE AND 109.0 WEST LONGITUDE...IN FAR NORTHERN MEXICO APPROXIMATELY 50 MILES SOUTHEAST OF DOUGLAS ARIZONA. THE LOW IS MOVING NORTHEAST AT ABOUT 15 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE 15 MPH...13 KNOTS. THE ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1006 MB...29.71 INCHES.

SELECTED RAINFALL AMOUNTS IN INCHES THROUGH 7 AM PDT.

ARIZONA...

DOUGLAS 0.63

NEW MEXICO...

DEMING 0.25
SILVER CITY 0.22

ADDITIONAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE WITH ISOLATED AMOUNTS OF UP TO 4 INCHES OVER PORTIONS OF SOUTHEASTERN ARIZONA...SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO...FAR SOUTHWEST TEXAS...AND ADJACENT NORTHERN MEXICO.

REPEATING THE 800 AM EDT POSITION...31.0N...110W. MOVEMENT NORTHEAST AT 15 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...15 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1006 MB.

THIS WILL BE THE LAST ADVISORY ISSUED BY THE HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL PREDICTION CENTER FOR THE REMNANTS OF HENRIETTE. REFER TO STATEMENTS ISSUED BY LOCAL WEATHER OFFICES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS STORM.

HEDGE
$$

NHC Drops T.D Henriette, Hydromet Picks It Up

ZCZC MIATCMEP1 ALL
TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM
TROPICAL DEPRESSION HENRIETTE FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER 27
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP112007
0900 UTC THU SEP 06 2007

TROPICAL DEPRESSION CENTER LOCATED NEAR 30.2N 110.2W AT 06/0900Z
POSITION ACCURATE WITHIN 40 NM

PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST OR 15 DEGREES AT 14 KT

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 1002 MB
MAX SUSTAINED WINDS 30 KT WITH GUSTS TO 40 KT.
WINDS AND SEAS VARY GREATLY IN EACH QUADRANT. RADII IN NAUTICAL MILES ARE THE LARGEST RADII EXPECTED ANYWHERE IN THAT QUADRANT.

REPEAT...CENTER LOCATED NEAR 30.2N 110.2W AT 06/0900Z
AT 06/0600Z CENTER WAS LOCATED NEAR 29.5N 110.4W

FORECAST VALID 06/1800Z 32.0N 109.5W...REMNANT LOW
MAX WIND 20 KT...GUSTS 25 KT.

FORECAST VALID 07/0600Z 33.5N 107.0W...REMNANT LOW
MAX WIND 20 KT...GUSTS 25 KT.

FORECAST VALID 07/1800Z...DISSIPATED

THIS IS THE LAST FORECAST/ADVISORY ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER ON THIS SYSTEM. FUTURE INFORMATION ON THIS SYSTEM CAN BE FOUND IN PUBLIC ADVISORIES ISSUED BY THE HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL PREDICTION CENTER...UNDER AWIPS HEADER TCPEP1 AND WMO HEADER WTPZ31 KWNH...BEGINNING AT 8 AM PDT.

$$

FORECASTER AVILA


NNNN

Hurricane Henriette Advisory #22

000
WTPZ31 KNHC 050247
TCPEP1
BULLETIN
HURRICANE HENRIETTE ADVISORY NUMBER 22
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP112007
800 PM PDT TUE SEP 04 2007

...HENRIETTE HAS EMERGED OVER THE SEA OF CORTEZ...
...HURRICANE WARNINGS ISSUED FOR A PORTION OF MAINLAND MEXICO...
AT 8 PM PDT...0300 UTC...THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO HAS REPLACED THE HURRICANE WATCH AND TROPICAL STORM WARNING WITH A HURRICANE WARNING ALONG THE COAST OF MAINLAND MEXICO FROM TOPOLOBAMPO NORTHWARD TO BAHIA KINO. A HURRICANE WARNING MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION.

A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE SOUTHERN BAJA PENINSULA FROM LORETO SOUTHWARD ON THE EAST COAST...AND FROM BAHIA MAGDALENA SOUTHWARD ON THE WEST COAST...INCLUDING CABO SAN LUCAS.

A HURRICANE WATCH AND A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAIN IN EFFECT
ALONG THE EAST COAST OF THE BAJA PENINSULA FROM NORTH OF LORETO TO
MULEGE.

A HURRICANE WATCH AND A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAIN IN EFFECT FOR THE COAST OF MAINLAND MEXICO FROM SOUTH OF TOPOLOBAMPO TO ALTATA.

AT 8 PM PDT...0300 UTC...THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO HAS DISCONTINUED ALL WARNINGS AND WATCHES ALONG THE WEST COAST OF THE BAJA PENINSULA NORTH OF BAHIA MADGALENA.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 800 PM PDT...0300Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE HENRIETTE WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 24.1 NORTH...LONGITUDE 109.7 WEST OR ABOUT 40 MILES...60 KM...EAST OF LA PAZ MEXICO AND ABOUT 125 MILES...200 KM ...SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF LOS MOCHIS MEXICO.

HENRIETTE IS MOVING ON A MOTION BETWEEN NORTH-NORTHWEST AND NORTH NEAR 12 MPH...19 KM/HR...AND THIS MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ON THIS TRACK THE CENTER OF HENRIETTE IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL ALONG THE COAST OF MAINLAND MEXICO WITHIN THE HURRICANE WARNING AREA WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON OR EVENING.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 75 MPH...120 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. HENRIETTE IS A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS FORECAST PRIOR TO LANDFALL IN MAINLAND MEXICO.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 15 MILES...30 KM...FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 125 MILES...205 KM.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 975 MB...28.79 INCHES.

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 3 TO 5 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE EXPECTED IN AREAS OF ONSHORE FLOW NEAR THE PATH OF THE HURRICANE.

HENRIETTE IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES OVER THE WEST COAST OF MAINLAND MEXICO AND OVER SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF BAJA CALIFORNIA...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 15 INCHES POSSIBLE IN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS. THESE RAINS COULD PRODUCE LIFE-THREATENING FLASH FLOODS AND MUDSLIDES.

REPEATING THE 800 PM PDT POSITION...24.1 N...109.7 W. MOVEMENT TOWARD...NORTH NEAR 12 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...75 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...975 MB.

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT 1100 PM PDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 200 AM PDT.

$$
FORECASTER BROWN

NHC Cancels Felix/Henriette Air Recon Tasking

580
NOUS42 KNHC 041830
WEATHER RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHTS
CARCAH, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER, MIAMI, FL.
0230 PM EDT TUE 04 SEPTEMBER 2007
SUBJECT: TROPICAL CYCLONE PLAN OF THE DAY (TCPOD)
VALID 05/1100Z TO 06/1100Z SEPTEMBER 2007
TCPOD NUMBER.....07-103 AMENDMENT

I. ATLANTIC REQUIREMENTS
1. SUSPECT AREA (OFF FLORIDA- GEORGIA COAST)
FLIGHT ONE
A. 05/1800Z --CHANGED
B. AFXXX 01GGA INVEST
C. 05/1700Z
D. 29.5N 74.0W
E. 05/1930Z TO 05/2300Z
F. SFC TO 10,000 FT

2. SUCCEEDING DAY OUTLOOK: BEGIN 12HRLY FIXES AT 06/1800Z
IF SYSTEM DEVELOPS.
3. REMARKS: ALL TASKING ON HURRICANE FELIX CANCELED BY
NHC BY 04/0915Z.

II.PACIFIC REQUIREMENTS
1. NEGATIVE RECONNAISSANCE REQUIREMENTS
2. OUTLOOK FOR SUCCEEDING DAY.....NEGATIVE.
3. REMARKS: TASKING ON HENRIETTE CANCELED AT 04/1100Z.
WVW

Hurricane Felix Forecast / Advisory #14

000
WTNT21 KNHC 032049
TCMAT1
HURRICANE FELIX FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER 14
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL062007
2100 UTC MON SEP 03 2007

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR NICARAGUA FROM PUERTO CABEZAS NORTHWARD TO THE HONDURAS/NICARAGUA BORDER...AND FOR HONDURAS FROM LIMON EASTWARD TO THE HONDURAS/NICARAGUA BORDER. A HURRICANE WARNING MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION.

A HURRICANE WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR HONDURAS WEST OF LIMON...FOR THE CARIBBEAN COAST OF GUATEMALA...AND FOR THE ENTIRE COAST OF BELIZE.

AT 5 PM EDT...2100Z...THE GOVERNMENT OF COLOMBIA HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR ISLA DE PROVIDENCIA. TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED THERE TONIGHT.

A TROPICAL STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR GRAND CAYMAN. A TROPICAL STORM WATCH MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA...IN THIS CASE WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.

INTERESTS ELSEWHERE IN THE WESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE.

HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 14.3N 79.5W AT 03/2100Z
POSITION ACCURATE WITHIN 15 NM

PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE WEST OR 275 DEGREES AT 17 KT

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 953 MB
MAX SUSTAINED WINDS 115 KT WITH GUSTS TO 140 KT.
64 KT....... 25NE 15SE 15SW 25NW.
50 KT....... 50NE 30SE 25SW 40NW.
34 KT.......100NE 60SE 40SW 80NW.
12 FT SEAS..250NE 120SE 90SW 180NW.
WINDS AND SEAS VARY GREATLY IN EACH QUADRANT. RADII IN NAUTICAL
MILES ARE THE LARGEST RADII EXPECTED ANYWHERE IN THAT QUADRANT.

REPEAT...CENTER LOCATED NEAR 14.3N 79.5W AT 03/2100Z
AT 03/1800Z CENTER WAS LOCATED NEAR 14.2N 78.7W

FORECAST VALID 04/0600Z 14.5N 81.9W
MAX WIND 120 KT...GUSTS 140 KT.
64 KT... 25NE 15SE 15SW 25NW.
50 KT... 50NE 30SE 25SW 40NW.
34 KT...100NE 60SE 40SW 80NW.

FORECAST VALID 04/1800Z 14.9N 84.5W...INLAND
MAX WIND 90 KT...GUSTS 110 KT.
64 KT... 25NE 15SE 10SW 20NW.
50 KT... 50NE 30SE 20SW 40NW.
34 KT...100NE 60SE 30SW 80NW.

FORECAST VALID 05/0600Z 15.5N 86.6W...INLAND
MAX WIND 60 KT...GUSTS 75 KT.
50 KT... 50NE 20SE 20SW 40NW.
34 KT...100NE 30SE 30SW 80NW.

FORECAST VALID 05/1800Z 16.2N 88.8W...INLAND
MAX WIND 65 KT...GUSTS 80 KT.
50 KT... 50NE 20SE 20SW 30NW.
34 KT...100NE 30SE 30SW 50NW.

FORECAST VALID 06/1800Z 17.6N 92.5W...INLAND
MAX WIND 30 KT...GUSTS 40 KT.

EXTENDED OUTLOOK. NOTE...ERRORS FOR TRACK HAVE AVERAGED NEAR 225 NM ON DAY 4 AND 300 NM ON DAY 5...AND FOR INTENSITY NEAR 20 KT EACH DAY

OUTLOOK VALID 07/1800Z 19.0N 96.0W...INLAND
MAX WIND 30 KT...GUSTS 40 KT.

OUTLOOK VALID 08/1800Z 20.5N 99.5W...INLAND...DISSIPATING
MAX WIND 20 KT...GUSTS 25 KT.

REQUEST FOR 3 HOURLY SHIP REPORTS WITHIN 300 MILES OF 14.3N 79.5W

NEXT ADVISORY AT 04/0300Z

$$
FORECASTER PASCH

Tropical Storm Henriette Discussion #17

000
WTPZ41 KNHC 032054
TCDEP1
TROPICAL STORM HENRIETTE DISCUSSION NUMBER 17
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP112007
200 PM PDT MON SEP 03 2007

WHILE HENRIETTE'S SATELLITE APPEARANCE HAS IMPROVED DURING THE DAY...AN AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT WAS UNABLE TO FIND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS. THE INITIAL INTENSITY REMAINS 60 KT BASED ON A PEAK SFMR WIND OF 58 KT. THE CYCLONE HAS ANOTHER 24-36 HOURS OVER OPEN WATERS AND THE OFFICIAL FORECAST CALLS FOR HENRIETTE TO BECOME A HURRICANE PRIOR TO REACHING BAJA CALIFORNIA. INTENSITY GUIDANCE HAS BEEN TRENDING WEAKER AND THE OFFICIAL FORECAST IS NUDGED LOWER.

HENRIETTE CONTINUES TO CRAWL ALONG WITH AN INITIAL MOTION ESTIMATE OF 315/05. THE OVERALL FORECAST PHILOSOPHY REMAINS UNCHANGED. THE CYCLONE IS EXPECTED TO GRADUALLY TURN NORTHWARD OVER THE NEXT 2 DAYS IN RESPONSE TO A MID-LATITUDE TROUGH CURRENTLY APPROACHING THE WEST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. DYNAMICAL MODELS REMAIN REASONABLY CLUSTERED ABOUT A TRACK THAT TAKES THE CYCLONE TOWARD THE SOUTHWESTERN COAST OF BAJA CALIFORNIA IN 36-48 HOURS. DESPITE THE CLUSTERING...DYNAMICAL MODELS HAVE CONSISTENTLY BEEN TOO FAST IN THEIR FORWARD SPEED. BASED ON THIS TENDENCY...THE OFFICIAL FORECAST IS A LITTLE SLOWER THAN THE MODEL CONSENSUS DURING THE FIRST 36 HOURS. ONCE IT CROSSES THE BAJA PENINSULA...HENRIETTE IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE NORTHWARD OVER THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA...WITH A SECOND LANDFALL OVER THE NORTHWESTERN COAST OF MAINLAND MEXICO IN 48-72 HOURS. DISSIPATION OVER NORTHWESTERN MEXICO IS EXPECTED SHORTLY AFTER LANDFALL. WHILE IT IS DOUBTFUL THAT THE CYCLONE WOULD SURVIVE A TRACK OVER THE HIGH TERRAIN OF NORTHWESTERN MEXICO...SOME OF THE RESIDUAL MOISTURE COULD MOVE INTO THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INITIAL 03/2100Z 20.1N 108.5W 60 KT
12HR VT 04/0600Z 20.9N 109.2W 65 KT
24HR VT 04/1800Z 22.3N 110.2W 70 KT
36HR VT 05/0600Z 23.8N 110.9W 70 KT
48HR VT 05/1800Z 25.4N 111.2W 55 KT...INLAND
72HR VT 06/1800Z 29.5N 111.0W 30 KT...INLAND
96HR VT 07/1800Z...DISSIPATED


FORECASTER RHOME

Hurricane Watch Net Activates on 14325.0 USB

From HWN Web Site:

Current plans for Hurricane Felix are to activate on Monday, September, 3, 2007 at 1400 EDT/1800 UTC to begin listing reporting stations in the projected path of Hurricane Felix. The net will activate again on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at 0800 EDT/1200 UTC for normal net operations. These time are subject to change according to current conditions and forecasts.

Continuous hurricane communications are being heard here at 2200.