HFU HF Underground
Loggings => Spy Numbers => Topic started by: glimmer twin on August 20, 2013, 1327 UTC
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Tuned via remote receiver in Hong Kong. I saw a tip from Jonathan short in China on DXLDyg about this & remembered that I used to hear it most mornings on my DX 398 back in 1999/2000 during the winter. reception via Hong Kong was fair at best & seemed to be gone at 13:28z.
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This station can be found on this frequency (13750 kHz) at 0500, 0600, 1200, and 1300 UTC. It can also be found on 15388 kHz at 0700 and 0800 UTC. I have heard it at other times on both frequencies as well, but those time periods seem to be the most repeatable.
The station normally comes up at the top of the hour and ends at between 28 and 32 after the hour (but can end earlier). It starts with pipes music and ends with a perky sounding Chinese girl saying thanks for listening and goodbye.
T!
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The log that I referred to from Jonathan short in GH's yahoo group called the station "Star Star". I've never heard it called that although I have heard variations on "New Star Broadcasting" Star Star is a Rolling Stones song otherwise called "Star f*cker"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1zgmM2lalo
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Saying thanks for listening & goodbye? Do they QSL too?
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yes they do qsl or at least they used to. they used to ask for signal reports & gave a hotmail address & a PO box # in Taipei. This was about 10 years ago. Also the correct name for the station may very well be "star star". New in Chinese is "xin" pronounced "shin" & star is "xing" pronounced "shing" so there is some confusion about it. Chinese is such a complex language with tones making a word have a different meaning. I remember now seeing the station called "star star" about 15 or 16 years ago. Easier to just call it V13. Here is an interesting article about the station:
http://www.kentfoto.com/spooks/newstar.htm
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Took a quick listen this morning (Aug 22, 2013 @ 1217Z) and no sign of them on 13750. Do have CRI very weak on 13755.
Kenwood TS-690S with 102' G5RV @ 25'
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They were on the air at 1200z this morning (Aug 22, 2013) on 13750 kHz. I left the house at about 1212z and they were still on the air at that time. Conditions were not very favorable though, they were pretty weak at only about S4 or S5.
T!
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yes they do qsl or at least they used to. they used to ask for signal reports & gave a hotmail address & a PO box # in Taipei. This was about 10 years ago. Also the correct name for the station may very well be "star star". New in Chinese is "xin" pronounced "shin" & star is "xing" pronounced "shing" so there is some confusion about it. Chinese is such a complex language with tones making a word have a different meaning. I remember now seeing the station called "star star" about 15 or 16 years ago. Easier to just call it V13. Here is an interesting article about the station:
There has been a bit of controversy in the past about this, both the QSL thing and the “Star Star” thing.
While this claim that they used to give an email address and ask for signal reports has been around a while, no one seems to be able to produce a recording of it, at least no one I have talked with or researched. I know I have been listening to this station off and on since about 1999, and I don’t ever remember hearing anything like an email address. The format is fairly well defined and even a non-Chinese speaker should be able to spot the addition of something like a request for a reception report and an email address, even if not understanding what is being said.
There are 4 claimed QSL cards (that I know of) associated with this station, all in the 2001 to 2003 time frame. However none of them were done via email, all were via snail mail. All of them are anomalous in some way, for example one QSL confirms a reception, with the right time and frequency, but states the language of the broadcast was French. One of them verified an English language transmission on a frequency the listener had not reported.
The general consensus seems to be that the former CBS / Radio Taipei International might have responded to the QSL reports and just issued the cards, and not whoever was actually the source of the V13 transmissions. Based on what I have read even the owners of 3 of these QSL cards consider them “maybes”.
As for the “Star Star”, yes, that was brought up a number of years ago. However, I have had multiple native Chinese speakers listen to recordings of V13 over the years, and every one of them has reported that the station is saying “New Star”.
If I remember right V13 was the second Chinese station to receive an ID designator from the original Enigma group (I am pretty sure the ID was assigned before Enigma 2000 existed).
T!