670 Wobbler; 30 0140Z JUN 05; PVZ

Thursday, June 30 2005

Charles,
 
Paul Zecchino's report of a brief, strong Wobbler outburst was on Radio Rebelde stations.  At the time he reported that, I was reporting a strong and continuing Wobbler on R.Reloj 870, that went on the entire evening.  I also heard other weak ones at the same time, origin unknown. 
 
If you check the frequencies where Wobblers have been heard you'll see it is not limited to any one or even two networks, but has appeared on stations that together carry a half dozen or more different networks. It is difficult to know what network is even playing on a given station, since they seem to change places from time to time.  While Paul was listening to the content and could identify R.Rebelde, and I could also ID R.Reloj -- that's an easy one -- many of the Wobblers I hear are strictly from the heterodyne they produce, the content of the originating station is unknown.  While station lists like the WRTH show a network as being carried by a station, this has been shown to be inaccurate at times, and as I say, changing.
 
Paul and I also have confirmed the station I hear on any given frequency is often not what he hears from the opposite coast of Florida.  Even DFing has been less than conclusive both because it is sometimes not the same station being DFed though they're on the same frequency, and at times it is impossible to get a meaningful null on the source of a Wobbler.  So it is very difficult to correlate frequencies, stations, locations, networks and Wobblers. The effort continues but it is far from complete or conclusive.
 
There is also the situation where, because of the way Wobblers cut through normal signals -- like sweep tones and code during DX tests -- they might even originate at a weaker station on the same frequency, but appear to be part of the signal of a stronger station.  People who have heard a Wobbler cutting through the WWL or WSB signals, for example, would attest to this.
 
None of this is intended to detract from the merits of your theory.  By the same token, neither is the power instability theory discounted in my view.  Just as with all proposed explanations, it isn't as straightforward as it might at first seem.
 
The good news...my email client reports no s[pelling errors in your post.  And grammar?  We don't need no stinking grammar!
 
Keep on listening,
Curt
 
W. Curt Deegan
Boca Raton, (Southeast) Florida
http://ScooterHound.com/WWWR/wobbler/