The sky is grey, the rain has settled into its familiar light but persistent mode, and the trees are rapidly running out of green. In other words, everything appears to be operating according to the Finnish seasonal specification.
As mentioned last weekend, RBSK has entered a somewhat reduced duty cycle for the rest of the year. Saturdays remain the most likely days for proper activity, but even then a full day of carefully planned broadcasting should not necessarily be considered a contractual obligation.
That does not mean the station has disappeared.
Quite the opposite.
Even when there is no scheduled programme, no carefully selected musical theme and no obvious sign of intelligent life on 6120 kHz, RBSK is still very much around.
Equipment gets switched on. Things get tested. Settings get changed. Music may suddenly appear for no particularly convincing reason. A carrier might turn up. Something strange may happen for twenty minutes and then vanish again.
In short, we may not always be on air, but we are still around.
So during this autumn, the safest assumption is that silence does not necessarily mean inactivity. It may simply mean that something is being prepared, repaired, tested, reconsidered or stared at thoughtfully while holding a cup of coffee.
Whenever there is something worth knowing beforehand, it will be announced here.
And whenever there isn’t, well…
6120 kHz may still be worth checking.