The Radio Goes Dead at 23:17 — Every Night for Six Nights

August 27th, 23:17 — Six nights running now.

I've been monitoring shortwave frequencies for seven years. I know what interference sounds like. I know atmospheric skip, solar weather, equipment failure. I know the difference between signal loss and signal absence.

This is different.

## THE PATTERN

Started last Tuesday. I was scanning 7-14 MHz like I do most nights — ham operators, utility stations, the occasional numbers station out of who-knows-where. Normal chatter. Then at exactly 23:17:00 (I checked the atomic clock), everything went silent.

Not quiet. Silent.

No carrier waves. No static. No atmospheric noise. The S-meter dropped to zero across every frequency I monitored. Like someone threw a switch on the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

Duration: 47 seconds. (There's that number again.)

At 23:17:47, everything came back. Mid-conversation on a ham frequency. Mid-transmission on a utility channel. Like nothing had happened.

## SUBSEQUENT NIGHTS

• Wednesday 23:17:00 — Silence. 47 seconds.
• Thursday 23:17:00 — Silence. 47 seconds.
• Friday 23:17:00 — Silence. 47 seconds.
• Saturday 23:17:00 — Silence. 47 seconds.
• Sunday 23:17:00 — Silence. 47 seconds.

I've checked my equipment. Swapped receivers. Used battery power to rule out AC line issues. Monitored from different locations around the property. The effect is consistent.

I called Old Harold last night before it happened. Had him listen on his ham rig three miles away. He heard it too. "Like God hit the mute button," he said.

## THE MUNDANE EXPLANATION

I'm an engineer. I have to consider the obvious: This could be equipment failure.

Maybe my receiver has developed a timing-based fault. Maybe there's a switching power supply somewhere cycling at 23:17 that creates a massive interference null. Maybe it's a new cell tower with poorly shielded equipment doing a nightly diagnostic routine.

Harold hearing it too doesn't rule out local interference — we're not that far apart, and radio propagation does strange things in these valleys.

The numbers don't lie, but they don't always tell the whole truth either.

## WHAT BOTHERS ME

The precision. 23:17:00 to the second. Not 23:16:58 one night and 23:17:03 the next. Exactly 23:17:00.

The duration. Always 47 seconds. Not "about 45 seconds" or "maybe a minute." Exactly 47 seconds.

The completeness. This isn't selective jamming or atmospheric absorption. This is everything going quiet at once across a spectrum that shouldn't be capable of uniform behavior.

I've been tracking this for seven years now. I've never seen anything like this.

## TONIGHT

I'll be monitoring again. I've added spectrum analyzers, a second receiver from a different manufacturer, and a field strength meter. If this is interference, I'll find the source. If it's equipment failure, I'll document it.

But if it's neither...

Another entry for the log.

---

To the community: Has anyone else experienced radio silence at 23:17? Any frequency, any location. I need to know if this is local or if it's happening elsewhere.

And the question I keep asking myself: What happens in those 47 seconds that requires complete radio silence?