Silent Radio Station KRLC 1350 LEWISTON burned down in Fire Training exercise

KRLC, Lewiston, Idaho's "Hometown Radio" station, a station whose plug was pulled about a year ago and recently had its license deleted, has been burned to the ground in a Fire Training exercise. The Fire training exercise took place in late November.

Over the past several years since the Pandemic ended I have written about several AM (and FM) stations in my region of the US going off the airwaves, and in those articles I have included the fact that many of those stations had FM translators, FM sister stations, and several had radio streams on the internet -- a factor that is supposedly necessary to 'save AM'.

KRLC, Lewiston, Idaho was one of those stations. KRLC 1350 was usually heard nightly here in the Seattle area up until it went off the air about midway through last year. Even though we have a strong local (KKMO 1360) here in the metro, KRLC could still be heard right next to it, playing Classic Country music.

In the 1960's and 70's, KRLC was a Top 40 station, but they switched to Country some time in the late 1970's, and then Classic Country about a decade or more later.

Lewiston is in Northern Idaho, and it's right across the Snake River from Clarkston, Washington -- the two are 'twin cities', and they both serve an area of dry wheatfield farmland, as well as some orchard farming. Lewiston is known as Idaho's 'seaport', being that it is on a section of the Snake River that is navigable all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Even though the Lewiston-Clarkston metro region is around 50,000 or more, there just wasn't enough revenue to keep KRLC on the air. And the Pandemic economy finished the station off, just as it finished off KNPT Newport OR, KBCH Lincoln City OR, KUTI Yakima WA, KMED Medford OR, KKPZ Portland OR, KDUN Reedsport OR, and even big city KDWN Las Vegas, NV -- all stations which I've written about here when they were taken off the air.

In KRLC's case, one night I tuned in to 1350 to hear nothing, and then I looked KRLC up and found out they went off the air. They recently had their license deleted at the FCC.

I used to listen to Sunny 1550 at night while writing fiction. Their mix of Standards and easy listening Oldies was well presented and fun to listen to. Then they went Vietnamese, and then they went silent during the Pandemic.

A couple other stations, like KKOV 1550 Vancouver WA, the former "Sunny 1550", are silent and their futures are uncertain. Even an Asian language format couldn't save KKOV. It's been silent since the Pandemic. KZIZ 1560, a small station in Sumner, WA, just 20 miles south of me has been off the air for more than a year. A Punjabi / South Asian format apparently couldn't save it. They went off the air around the time the Pandemic happened.

It's tough for Radio all over -- and especially AM Radio, although FM is not exempt.

You can also add a bunch of Canadian AM'ers whose plugs have been pulled -- also done in by the Pandemic economy, as well as the changing economics of Radio -- CKMX 1060 Calgary, CFTE Vancouver, CKGO Vancouver, CKST Vancouver, CFRN Edmonton, and several others.

Of the American stations I mention here, all of them, except possibly KKPZ in Portland, had streams. The streams did not save the stations. Most of them also had FM translators, and KNPT Newport was part of a group of stations on the Oregon Coast. All had their plugs pulled.

An inglorious end to an 80 year-old Radio station. KRLC gets burned down in a Fire Dept. training exercise. The station was burned in November, 2025.

Photo courtesy RadioWorld dot com & Big Country News

Now KRLC is gone -- and even more, the station's building was burned down in a Fire Department training exercise, in November (I didn't find out about the building being burned down until recently). It was an inglorious fate for a station that served the city and region of Lewiston for 80 years. The once proud server of Classic Country to the wheatland region of the Palouse is now nothing more than ashes.

It all went up in flames. One wonders if that is the ultimate future of the industry I worked in for 20 years -- for it all to end up going up in flames.

Here is a news article on the burning down of KRLC.:

Longtime Idaho Radio Studio Burned Down in Training Exercise - Radio World

It's sad, in a way, but it's also indicative of the ultimate fate of probably every on-air Radio station in the United States. Eventually, when everything goes online, there won't be any Radio stations left, and the majority of remaining, online-only stations will disappear as well, because the internet is one vast content resource with endless competition for eyes and ears.

A pic of Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington, from the old US Highway 95 switchbacks just north of the small metro. These switchbacks inspired the song "Hot Rod Lincoln". In this pic, Lewiston is to the left side, and Clarkston is to the right. These two cities are located in the sunnier and drier part of Washington state, and a dry region in Northern Idaho.

Online Radio is promising, but the promise just won't hold out for most who believe that going online-only will save Radio stations. Online radio stations have to find advertising or funding, just like On-Air stations do. And then you have the issue of Digital Royalties for the music played.

An example of this hit the radio press recently. There is an online station in San Francisco -- one of the most concentrated populations in the United States -- called HydeFM that is struggling to stay alive, even though it reportedly has a 'loyal local following'.

Here is an article on HydeFM's challenges.:

Independent S.F. radio station seeks donations to remain on-air

Even online, it's tough for a content operation like a streaming radio station to make enough money to survive.

We live in interesting times.

IN OTHER LIFE...

In other life, everything is plodding along. My internet went wonky last Saturday. Then it went good for 5 days. My cat Bear is getting used to me. She likes the bagpipes -- only if I play them downstairs, though. But she knows that when I play the bagpipes, soon enough I'll be feeding her. She is a very skittish cat, so I wanted to ensure that she associated bagpipes with a good thing. That way she wouldn't be so scared of the noise.

THE SHORTWAVE BANDS ARE 'DEAD, JIM'

DXing has been spotty lately. The SW bands are mostly dead, compared to where they should be -- being that we are still technically in a Solar peak period. I heard T88SM, a ham station out of Palau, on CW (Morse Code) two afternoons ago on 21025 kHz in the 15 Meter ham band. The rest of the band was basically dead, though. I heard 8P5AA out of Barbados on 10 Meters the same afternoon (28470 kHz, around 2058 UTC -- about 1 p.m. here), and a few faint whispers of East Coast US hams trying to talk to him. 

Earlier that day I heard Brazil, PV8AL (?) on 28350, but I couldn't hear the US guys trying to reach him. The rest of the 10 Meter band was dead.

It seems that sometimes there is ionospheric propagation to various regions of the world, but no one is on. Then again, last night the SW and HF ham bands were basically nothing but static with a few faint carriers and just whispers of audio on WRMI and WWCR.

Even the Desert Whooper, a low-power, unlicensed, 'whooping' beacon on 4096 kHz, hasn't been heard here in weeks. Last year I was hearing them now and then, and in 2024 I was hearing them nightly, unless there was a whopper of a solar storm. The Desert Whooper is located probably somewhere in the deserts of California, and if you tune into it you'll hear 'whoop whoop whoop' and then a CW identifier ('DW'). If you tune in with LSB, the 'whoops' sound sad, if you tune into the Whooper with USB, it's upbeat whoops.

But it's been MIA for weeks.

Propagation lately could be summed up thusly.:

"It's dead, Jim." (a take on a famous Star Trek quote).

SEEMS LIKE THE SOLAR MINIMUM IS STARTING ALREADY

This Solar Cycle is playing out the way I sort of thought it would. It's depressing, in a way, but it's reality, and with reality, one must adapt and survive. One way I've attempted to 'adapt' is get a DSP SSB radio, and of the three of those I've got this year (Tecsun PL-330, Raddy RF760, and XHDATA D808), the D808 is the best for raw SSB and CW signal performance, and the Tecsun is the best for SSB readability.

I'm going to put up an outdoor wire to try to hear more when the REAL solar minimum hits -- and I think it's going to hit next year. In fact, I think it's starting to hit us already. I have the space for an outdoor wire. I just have to figure out a way to put one up again. I used to have a 100 foot wire, but it went down in a windstorm in 2005 or so. My next outdoor one will be shorter.

Here's hoping all of you are doing well and having an OK start to 2026.

Peace.

C.C., January 14th, 2026.

Jan. 15th, 2026: I forgot to add the bit about the Desert Whooper, so I added it today. The Desert Whooper is one of those fun things about Shortwave, but it's not the same when you can't hear it because propagation is so poor.

TRICK-OR-TREAT 2025, and SWLing without Up-to-Date SW Schedules

 

A blast from the past -- a pumpkin I carved for Halloween, 2010!

This was the first or second time I used a stencil I had bought with some pumpkin carving tools at a local box store. A moon and stars -- and if you look at the Jack O' Lantern at an angle, it's also a face.

Today, as I start this article, it is All Soul's Day, November 2nd, and it's rainy out. Not too cold, but dreary weather, which matches the month, being that November is the shittiest month of the year. 

Two nights ago it was Halloween. I had 15 Jack O' Lanterns out, so the front of my house and drive looked fairly cheery. I got about 11-12 trick-or-treaters -- three groups of them -- who braved the light rain and I gave them all extra candy, being that I had a couple bags of it.

I also played my bagpipes outside after the first group of trick-or-treaters left. The new reed I had in my pipe chanter held up really well, and I'm finally getting used to the easier air pressure needed to play the instrument. I played the closest thing I know that sounds 'spooky', a tune called The Dark Island. I don't know if anyone heard it, being that there were few trick-or-treaters out on the streets of my neighborhood, and it was drizzling.

Here is a piper who calls herself the Dark Isle Bagpiper, playing The Dark Island. She adds some Irish trills and plays the tune slightly differently from the way I learned it, but the basic tune is the same. She is playing this tune in Greenland, although she is based out of LA. The Dark Isle Bagpiper has played pipes on several TV shows. If you check out her vids on YT, she plays a lot of really good slow airs, and other tunes, too.

I also was fighting off a cold, so when the night was done I took some extra zinc and echinacea, and spent some time clearing files off my laptop computer before I went to bed. I've found that extra sleep helps kill colds. The zinc tabs help, too.

WRESTLING WITH CONSTANT UPDATES

My computer is over 8 years old, and it needs a lot of older files removed, because the hard drive is getting full -- not just full from my files over the years, but the endless plethora of mostly useless, bloatware updates all have been gradually filling my hard drive with their code.

For the life of me, with all the gigabytes of updates that slam my computer a few times a month, nothing seems to run better. All those 'improvements' never really improve anything. Some of the updates were AI-related programs I didn't ask for, and don't want on my computer because they just take up resources and I never use them.

They always say the updates are for security, but do you really need to slam someone's computer with multiple gigabytes of updates over a period of several months, just for security? How many gigabytes does it take to make a program, app, or OS 'secure'?

Oftentimes, when the updates are kicking in, my computer slows down. I'll hear my hard drive being slammed. In fact, I just heard my hard drive being slammed as I was typing this sentence, and -- looking at Task Manager -- it was another bunch of bloatware updates trying to cram into my laptop.

I'll spend several hours removing files onto a USB drive, and soon enough, the various, bloatware updates will fill it right back up. So far over the past several days, I've cleared off over 2-3 gigabytes of space, only to see it quickly filled by update bullshit.

It's maddening. And it isn't just the company that made the OS. Both browsers push their updates, and a PDF reader's updates slow my computer to a crawl when they kick in. I'm figuring out how to stop all updating, because frankly I don't think they make the computer any more secure, and they definitely don't improve anything.

So it's been an ongoing fight with the software companies, whose 'business model' seems to be to piss off as many people as possible.

NO REAL PLANS, EXCEPT GET THROUGH NOVEMBER

As for the rest of this month, I really don't plan on doing much aside from continuing to straighten out finances and get through November, which is a cold, rainy, dreary month. And, frankly, Novembers are months where people in my family, extended family, and several of my cats have died. Not good overall.

CQ Magazine's DX 'Zones', which ham radio operators use during the big radio contests.

DX HAS BEEN TOUCH AND GO...

On the radio and DX side of things, the ionosphere has been touch and go lately. The past couple days have been mediocre, and the week or two before that, there were a few good mornings and nights to switch on the radio and tune around.

A couple weekends ago, there was a ham radio contest, the biggest contest of the year, the CQWW contest, where ham radio operators all over the world try to contact as many other hams as possible, in as many ham radio 'zones' as possible. 

I tuned in during the morning after it started, and the HF ham bands were quite lively. Even 15 Meters had a considerable amount of activity, which was a pleasant surprise. 15 Meters used to be a popular ham band. I recall hearing LOTS of activity on 15 Meters during the summer afternoons in the early 1980's. That's when I heard A7XB out of Qatar. But ever since the last Solar Cycle died off in late 2017, 15 Meters has never been the same. Most afternoons I'd tune it in during the peak year last year, 15 Meters was like 12 Meters -- mostly a ghost town.

Even 20 Meters is not what it used to be. Every Saturday afternoon 20 Meters used to be wall to wall CW and SSB signals, invariably, with most of them splattering on each other. This recent CQWW contest was the first time I've heard 20 Meters so packed in ages. It reminded me of how the band used to be on a typical weekend afternoon.

It was refreshing.

WHEN SW SCHEDULES CHANGE OVER, YOU GET CREATIVE

This is also the time of the year when SW DXers have to be creative when figuring out what they are hearing. Most SW broadcasts anymore are in non-English languages, so even if you can ID the language, it doesn't necessarily follow that you can understand what's being said. So you have to listen to the TYPE of broadcasts, and tone of it. Does it sound like news? A feature? An interview? Does the programming match the BBC, or CNR-1, or NHK?

And the online SW schedules are a bit off, because it takes some time for their creators to compile the new broadcast information, because the end of October is when SW stations all change their schedules.

So, you get creative. The other morning, I heard Japanese on 7380 kHz (at 0522 UTC), that sounded like NHK. But neither EiBi or Short-wave.info had ANY Japanese programming listed that frequency and hour. I was sure it was NHK in Japanese, but had no schedule info to back up my suspicion.

So I went to Short-wave.info and used the 'Any Station' dropdown and 'Japanese language' dropdown, and I found out that NHK had a regular broadcast in Japanese to SE Asia during that hour. They had moved their frequency lower to the 41 Meter Band from the 25 and 21 Meter Bands because the 41 Meter band is more of a Winter SW band.

Remember, SW listeners -- there are ways to find out what you're hearing, even if the SW lists online are getting out of date. ID the language. LISTEN to the programming, even if you do not know the language! Does it sound like CNR-!? Does it sound like the BBC? Does it sound like NHK? 

A lot of American SWL's bitch and gripe about most SW being in non-English languages. But griping about most SW being non-English is backwards thinking. A lot of the non-English programming is pretty cool to listen to -- and even if you don't understand the language, it doesn't mean you can't ID the station or the program.

I've learned to ID non-English languages, and find it challenging. I also have learned that a lot of the non-English stations play really cool music -- music I'd never hear on US radio. Japan has some really cool soft pop-rock hits from the 70's that NHK plays. I've heard some great K-pop on KBS World Radio. CRI plays some great music, too. And a lot of SWL's poke fun at Radio North Korea, but the music they play is interesting, and very well made -- their musicians are excellent.

I've heard really cool stuff on CNR-1. They have kids' programming over the weekend mornings (evenings, China time). Imagine that: a radio company that cares enough about kids to program a radio show for them. Doesn't happen here in the US or Canada. The last radio company that catered to kids -- Radio Disney -- pulled the plug completely in 2019.

But CNR-1, China's national broadcaster, that has numerous transmitters on SW, has a radio play or storytelling episode for kids that you can hear during the mornings, US time, every weekend.

American DXers and SWLs, open your ears!

MORE MYSTERIOUS SIGNALS NEAR THE 40 METER BAND

The only other radio 'catches' of note have been mystery carriers -- dead signals that have appeared over several nights just below the 40 Meter Ham band.

I've logged a dead carrier at 7000 kHz over several nights and mornings, and others have shown up on 6988 kHz, 6938 kHz, and more recently, 6979 kHz.

What the purpose of these dead carriers -- if any -- happens to be is a good question. No one in the SWL community seems to know. The dead carriers don't get mentioned much online, but there have been some SWL's on HFU (HFUnderground) who have logged them.

I also heard a single letter beacon on 7057 kHz, a continuous 'F' being sent, and it was very weak in strength. I haven't heard it since. Most 'single letter beacons', which are continuous repetitions of the same letter in Morse Code, are associated with the Russian military, particularly the Russian Navy, and their frequencies are well known, and appear in many SW lists. But this 'F' beacon on 7057 is a mystery.

There are a lot of such strange oddities in the SW bands. You just have to tune around and listen to catch them.

MYSTERY RANCHERO MUSIC ON 1560 kHz

One other 'mystery' signal wasn't as bizarre as a Morse Code blipping away in the ether, or a dead signal, but I heard a mystery ranchero music station on 1560 kHz last night (the night of the 3rd) beaming mostly North-South.

Usually on 1560 I hear a mix of just two stations -- KNZR Bakersfield, which is a news-talk station that comes in with varying strengths, and KVAN, Tri-Cities WA, which is a Spanish language religious station. This station was neither.

The only ranchero station on 1560 is a daytimer, KIQS, Willow, California -- but when I checked their stream, it was not the same music as what I was hearing on the radio. And KVAN does NOT play ranchero, nor do they have rapidfire announcements and advertisements.

A view from Interstate 5 not too far from Montague, California. Much of the far north of California looks like this -- green and golden ranch country.

pic courtesy Dreamstime

MONTAGUE, CALIFORNIA CHECKS IN ON LONGWAVE

Last but not least, the past few evenings I've gotten really decent catches of a Longwave beacon out of Northern California -- MOG, out of Montague, a small town not too far from Yreka, which is the first city you hit on I-5 after crossing the Oregon/California border.

I recently got an XHDATA D808, and it's great on Longwave. It's possibly my best Longwave radio. That said, there isn't much on Longwave anymore -- the few aeronautical beacons are disappearing. The maritime Longwave beacons disappeared years ago.

But it's great to hear MOG, beeping away.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll close this article with another old Halloween pic. I couldn't take any on my phone or camera because their memories are also full and need to be cleared.

A pumpkin I put in my tree, on Halloween 2023.

Peace.

C.C., November 4th, 2025

Mystery CW Signal on the 40 Meter, Shortwave Ham Band

My Radio Shack 200629, which I recently re-batteried, and did some SW DXing with. The Radio Shack 200629, which is Radio Shack's badged version of the Sangean ATS505, is a good radio for MW DXing, FM, and SW listening and DXing. It has great sound through headphones, and the SSB is easy to use on it, too.

This morning while I was tuning the 40 Meter ham band, and below (where I heard some Indonesian ham pirates chanting for a short period on 6965 kHz), I came across a strong CW (Morse Code) signal.

SLOPPY HAMS SEND SLOPPY MORSE CODE

Like a lot of CW you hear, it was fast, and sloppy. It seems that a lot of hams love to send faster than their ability to send clean, often with use of paddles and the like -- running characters together, and ensuring that their dits and dahs are similar.... That sort of thing.

This signal was like that, except the characters were so convoluted it was hard to tell one from the other. For a while I thought it was Japanese code, but it was too sloppy to tell, and it was around 18 wpm or so. Long, continuous CW gibberish.... Minutes worth.

The signal was S4 out of 5, and had a polar flutter or warble to it at times, indicating that it may have been skirting the auroral radio zone, which may or may not have indicated a signal from Asia somewhere, despite how strong it was.

I first heard it on 7041 at 1431 UTC. Then I heard the same exact CW on 7048, at 1437 UTC. It was definitely NOT a QSO. There was no change, like you hear when hams are talking to each other in CW. It was a continuous blather of CW gibberish, all sent around 18 wpm in slop code.

When I checked later, it was at 7062 kHz, same strength, same characteristics.

Then it switched OFF, right at 1500 UTC. It was as if someone pulled the plug.

It started up again at 1502 UTC 1 kHz up, at 7063 kHz. Then, at 1510 UTC, it instantly flipped to 7062, as if someone bumped the tuner knob on the transmitter.

Then it stopped abruptly at 1530 UTC. Then it was back on again, on 7063 kHz.

I checked a few minutes later, and it was now on 7062 again, still S4, still with the 18 wpm, continuous CW gibberish, with the same slight flutter to the signal.

I then switched off the radio, as I had some other things to do. When I checked the 40M frequencies later around 1737 UTC, the 40M band was MIA.

I had heard this gibberish CW on four radios -- Radio Shack 200629, Tecsun PL330, and DX-394, and even my DX-398. So it wasn't overloading on my radio. Same indoor, 25-30 ft wire.

I have no idea what it was. Some ham had his keyer set to gibberish and had his rig on by accident? Cat bumped against the tuner knob, changing the frequency? Somebody's kid playing a joke on dad's ham rig? Some Japanese ham had a bit too much sake? The signal may have favored Asia but at S4 out of 5 it was a bit strong for Asia at that time in the morning. So, who knows what it was?

You never know what you're going to hear on the 40M band.

A GRAB BAG OF SW SIGNALS

The 40 Meter ham band has a tradition of having odd signals. During many early mornings one can hear Indonesian ham pirates in the lowest sections of the bands. On 7200 kHz on some evenings, you can hear a lot of yelling, swearing music being played, etc. There is the 'A' Beacon that appeared for several nights on 7259 kHz, which would be sent continuously until being shut off abruptly around 2 a.m. or so Pacific time, as if someone pulled a switch.

I've heard repeating sentences in Morse Code (CW) sent on 7260 or thereabouts, addressing a ham operator, and insulting him at the same time. This CW message would sometimes be shut off, as if someone flipped a switch.

For a few months, on and off, a mysterious carrier appeared on 6988 kHz, which another SWL monitored for a while and saw a few equally mysterious data bursts occurring.

The 40 Meter Ham band is sort of unique in that it's usually active at night, and can be worldwide in reach. It's a fun band to monitor, because you get CW, SSB, and even broadcast stations, along with mysterious signals and ham pirates -- all in the same swatch of frequencies between 7000 and 7300 kHz. If you go down towards 6900 kHz you can sometimes hear pirate radio stations at night.

It's an interesting chunk of radio spectrum to listen to.

There is an international organization of ham radio operators who monitor the bands and check for illegal intruders. I'm not sure if they've heard the CW gibberish I talked about earlier in this article, or other anomalies like the 'A' Beacon, but they do register a LOT of different anomalies and mystery signals, as well as known intruders. Here is a link to a PDF report by the IARU.

Not all the IARU 'regions' have reporting. But a perusal through this document will show that there is a LOT of strangeness that goes on in the SW Ham bands.

https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IARU-IWS-Newsletter-2025-07.pdf

IN OTHER LIFE...

The weather here has been moderate, and variable. This morning there was a very, very light rain. The overnights have been in the 40's F, which is between 4-5C. Daytimes are between 68-75F (15-20C or so).

I've been playing my bagpipes a lot, trying to get the ability back again. It's taken more work than I thought it would. The year of not playing, and the 8 years of playing a very easy reed before that, weakened my lip muscles, and my diaphragm and left arm as well.

It's coming back, but it's been a frustrating, slow process. When the lips start to give out, the fingers mess up. If the diaphragm isn't pushing the air enough, the fingers mess up. When you have to push more air into an instrument than you're used to, you get oxygen depletion, and the fingers mess up...

You get the idea.

I'm also getting the place ready for my favorite holiday, Halloween. I've already got a few electric Jack O' Lanterns out above my garage door. I hope to have all of my electric Jack O' Lanterns working, outside and glowing ahead of the holiday this year.

That's about it for now.

Peace.

C.C., Sept. 29th, 2025.

ADDENDUM, October 16th, 2025:

I heard this mystery CW / Morse Code signal once again, yesterday morning, the morning of the 15th here in Washington state. I was tuning my brand new XHDATA D808 to the 40 Meter ham band and heard this super-fast, Morse Code gibberish on 7044 kHz at 1527 UTC, which is 8:27 a.m. Pacific time.

At 1530 UTC, it flipped off mid-sentence, and when I tuned around, I found it right away just two kHz down, on 7042 kHz. Like last time, on Sept. 29th, it was as if someone just flipped a switch from 7044 to 7042 kHz. Both times -- Sept. 29th and Oct. 15th -- it had flipped 2 kHz away right at 1530 UTC.

In the background was a lot of continuous, propagating OTHR (Over The Horizon Radar, which sounds like digital pulses).

Then, at 1550 UTC, the gibberish CW signal FLIPPED BACK UP TO 7044 kHz. This is the same time in UTC that the CW signal flipped back up in frequency last time.

Last night, an SWL who frequents one of the Shortwave subreddits logged a similar signal in the 19 Meter SW band. There was speculation that it was Russian Military, or Russian Navy CW, which often is sent ultra fast and sometimes appears anywhere on the SW spectrum.

But that was just speculation.

I know that there is a Cyrillic version of the Morse Code, but this CW I heard was so fast and continuous that I couldn't decipher any characters, much less read any of it.

Obviously, it's a definite Shortwave mystery.

C.C.

ADDENDUM, April 22nd, 2026.:

I have since learned that these mystery CW signals are actually a Russian version of FSK -- Radioteletype -- with each component about 7 kHz apart, hence the two frequencies coming in with the same or similar CW sounds, simultaneously (for example, 7041 and 7048 kHz are 7 kHz apart). The characters are not CW / Morse Code. They sound like a strange version of it, but it's a strange form of RTTY. So, I suppose this mystery is mostly solved. Online sources, and other SWL's on social media, say this Russian FSK comes from a military station in the Crimea. However, there have been some nights, or mornings, over the past several months where I've heard two of these transmissions (on 4 different frequencies) with different signal strengths, and one of the signals is always very strong -- telling me it may be from the Russian Far East somewhere, perhaps Vladivostok or Petropavlovsk.