HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: Beerus Maximus on July 29, 2013, 0032 UTC
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A suggestion, from the offices of Beerus Maximus, to pirate operators.
Please consider, where possible and if you are frequency agile, choosing another frequency near 6925. A nightly "peskie" net has taken up residence on 6925 LSB and absolutely destroys modest pirate signals on this frequency. The peskies are probably more of a problem for us up here in the northeast but considering the density of listeners here, it would be really nice if you move up or down a bit so we can hear you. Moving frequencies isn't such a big problem these days; with so many listeners using SDR radios to watch a huge chunk of spectrum around 6925 you'll be found in no time.
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Duly noted. I favor the higher end of the band anyway. It gives me more "elbow room" ;)
+-RH
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Yes, I've noted the strong signals from the 6925 LSB pescaodres as well. As Beerus said, they can cause a lot of problems to stations around 6925.
I was just reviewing the SDR recordings from last night:
6930 seemed to be relatively clear, as was 6940. I've noticed pescadores on 6945 LSB from time to time.
There's assorted pescadores and UTEs in the 6950-6960 range.
6970 was clear, although there's two issues with 6970 - Sound of Hope uses it, so Firedrake/CNR1 often turns up here, and there's a nasty spur/mixing product from WWCR that lands here whenever they are on both 6875 and 13945.
UTEs notes around 6980 with PSK
Going down in frequency from 6925...
6920 had some pescadores on LSB. I know a few stations have made use of 6920 lately, sometimes it is clear enough.
The MARS guys hang out on 6903.5 so it is best to stay far far away from here. I think they've been heard in the 6910/6915 range as well.
Israel of course is on 6885, and WWCR on 6875. WWCR often throws out an extremely wide signal, sometimes visible on the SDR between 6850-6900.
Not sure how much lower ops can go and still attract listeners. Those of us with SDRs will probably notice anything that pops up in the 6800-7000 range, but others may not.
My gut feeling is 6930/6935/6940 are probably the most clear frequencies. This will probably all change once we get into fall, anyway :-)
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Yes, I've noted the strong signals from the 69025 LSB pescaodres as well.
Nice trick if you can do it
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Yea, I was trying to listen to RML a couple of days ago, and the net on 6925 was destroying it and made it immposible to enjoy the show! :(
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Boombox Radio has used 6975 in the past with OK results so maybe that's a possibility or going up to the 7410 to 7500 range but that would be out of SDR range
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Years ago 6950 and 6955 were all the rage. I don't recall what caused everyone to move to 6925, but are those reasons still valid? I know that they still get used, although infrequently, and they have had their own interference problems.
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Years ago 6950 and 6955 were all the rage. I don't recall what caused everyone to move to 6925, but are those reasons still valid? I know that they still get used, although infrequently, and they have had their own interference problems.
IIRC there was a Peruvian on 6955, I also seem to remember a Chinese regional station on or around 6950.
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Boombox Radio has used 6975 in the past with OK results so maybe that's a possibility or going up to the 7410 to 7500 range but that would be out of SDR range
Yes, a big disadvantage of a big move back to the 7400 kHz range is that listeners won't be monitoring that area. There's still quite a few opens slots on 43 meters, ops may just have to move around a bit to avoid QRM. Numerous listeners with SDRs should still allow broadcasts to be reported in near real time both here and on IRC.
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Yes, I've noted the strong signals from the 6925 LSB pescaodres as well. As Beerus said, they can cause a lot of problems to stations around 6925.
I was just reviewing the SDR recordings from last night:
6930 seemed to be relatively clear, as was 6940. I've noticed pescadores on 6945 LSB from time to time.
There's assorted pescadores and UTEs in the 6950-6960 range.
6970 was clear, although there's two issues with 6970 - Sound of Hope uses it, so Firedrake/CNR1 often turns up here, and there's a nasty spur/mixing product from WWCR that lands here whenever they are on both 6875 and 13945.
UTEs notes around 6980 with PSK
Going down in frequency from 6925...
6920 had some pescadores on LSB. I know a few stations have made use of 6920 lately, sometimes it is clear enough.
The MARS guys hang out on 6903.5 so it is best to stay far far away from here. I think they've been heard in the 6910/6915 range as well.
Israel of course is on 6885, and WWCR on 6875. WWCR often throws out an extremely wide signal, sometimes visible on the SDR between 6850-6900.
Not sure how much lower ops can go and still attract listeners. Those of us with SDRs will probably notice anything that pops up in the 6800-7000 range, but others may not.
My gut feeling is 6930/6935/6940 are probably the most clear frequencies. This will probably all change once we get into fall, anyway :-)
Here in the midwest the two MARS channels noted by Chris tend to be very strong. The lower channel is far more active. I also note a CFARS net at times around 6980, but mainly weekends.
Pescs and freebanders are heard everywhere, intermittently, 6900 and up. Generally LSB chatter, but occasionally USB and less frequently with "program" content.
I also noted a new spur 25Jul13, 0151z on 6980. Very distorted AM, many ments of God, and I didn't have the time to try to determine any source. Much stronger than I generally see/hear the 6970 spur. Has not been seen since.
6930/6935/6940/6945 generally open with a bit less pesc noted. I still note Link-11 from time to time between 6930 and 6940. Generally weak but there.
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Agree. It seems that there is some sort of nightly"ragchew" fish net on 6925L. They get there early, and then leave late.
6930 is generally clear here, 6935, 6950, 6955 are generally quiet in North Georgia as well.
Even with Syncho AM, decoding only the USB side of an AM Signal, there is enough buck shot from the 6925L operations to cause the copy to be less than good.
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No particular problems with pesques on 6925 LSB here in Texas. The strongest pesque ragchews here are on 6900 LSB and 6910 LSB. Either way the Palstar's Collins narrow filters effectively screen out anything on the other sideband on the same freq. There have been a few times when two stations were on 6925 LSB and USB and I could flip between both without any QRM. No such luck with the Sony 2010 portable, which doesn't have such effective filters.
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Right on cue, Link-11 noted 30Jul13 at 0320z, 6944-6950kHz. About an S5 here.
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Right on cue, Link-11 noted 30Jul13 at 0320z, 6944-6950kHz. About an S5 here.
Yep, noticed this on the SDR recording. Pretty strong here, S7.
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Pardon my ignorance .... but just what is "Link-11"??
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Pardon my ignorance .... but just what is "Link-11"??
It's a US military data mode:
http://www.fas.org/irp/program/disseminate/tadil.htm (http://www.fas.org/irp/program/disseminate/tadil.htm)
http://www.lucabarbi.it/oldweb/th/TH_Link11.pdf (http://www.lucabarbi.it/oldweb/th/TH_Link11.pdf)
Here is a recording: https://soundcloud.com/jasuradio/tadil-9022khz (https://soundcloud.com/jasuradio/tadil-9022khz)
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Years ago 6950 and 6955 were all the rage. I don't recall what caused everyone to move to 6925, but are those reasons still valid? I know that they still get used, although infrequently, and they have had their own interference problems.
6950 was nothing but blasting data transmissions 24/7 for about a year after 9/11, and on and off until sometime in roughly in '03/'04. We all decided moving south would be a good idea and gradually moved to 6925 over a couple of months in late '01/early '02. WHYP was the first to make the move, if I'm not mistaken?
6955 has been open since the Chilean domestic moved from 6956.5 nearly a decade ago. However 6955 is a back up frequency for the Canadian Air Force. I think I've heard them there once in 15 years, but it is something to be aware of.
As for the pescadores, they're as illegal as we are. I always signed on over top of them.
Where's Dr. Tornado when he's needed? He could always clear the band of pescadores.
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Agree. It seems that there is some sort of nightly"ragchew" fish net on 6925L. They get there early, and then leave late."
I am not certain these guys are actually on boats, at least not all of them. At least a couple of them, like "Deep Audio Guy", I think are land based. The signal strength is much stronger and more consistent with him than the guys who might be on boats. My theory is these guys are out of the Azores. I can't speak Portuguese, but I am pretty sure it is. "Deep Audio Guy" sounds kind of like one of the hi-fi SSBers on ham radio. You can sometimes tell that they are discussing radio stuff by picking out various words like brand names associated with ham gear.
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You could be right. Azorean fisherman have been working the Grand Banks (and those further south) for over 500 years. There's a large Azorean community in Rhode Island and Mass. The "Deep Audio Guy" could be network control for a segment of the fishing fleet.
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Yep. Also, this same gang, including "Deep Audio Guy" was up around 6960-6970ish over the winter and spring (I think 6970) pretty much all the time, like they are these days on 6925. I wonder why they moved down.
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Just keep in mind that the area of 6.930-6.935 has in the not so distant past been used by MARS you want to stay away from those folks!
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BTW, hurricane season is here. The Hurricane net's in the Southeast generally use the area around 6915 in LSB. I heard one of them a couple of months back doing a preseason net check on 6913.5
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6925 USB was occupied by a PSK UTE last evening, here at least, from 0344 until 0446 UTC. A fairly strong signal that covered the Radio Echo One relay and RTN.
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Yeah, last night those PSK bursts were wiping out 6925 USB, but I was still able to copy Echo One fairly well via the ECSS-LSB or plain LSB options on an eastern web control SDR.
I'm not hearing too much ute or voice QRM via my home tuners on or near 6925. For that matter I haven't heard the Portuguese language chanters on 7000 for awhile either. They used to come in really well near dawn. Pretty entertaining stuff - lots of odd chanting, with each participant gradually adding to the vocal cacophony. I'm wondering if that's who some folks are hearing on 6925 recently. The description of the "deep audio guy" acting as a sort of net control sounds a lot like the fellow I used to hear on 7000.
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Its for this reason all relays have their sound increased by 50% before transmission. I did drown the PSK out at one point which i thought was epic