HFU HF Underground

Loggings => Spy Numbers => Topic started by: Token on April 24, 2021, 1740 UTC

Title: New video up, Chinese oddity station VC01
Post by: Token on April 24, 2021, 1740 UTC
I have put up a new video on my YouTube channel, this one is the Chinese oddity station VC01.

For those not familiar, VC01 is also called the "Chinese Robot". It is a female voice, machine generated but possibly human recorded, reciting strings of numbers. It is at a very fast rate, too fast for reliable human interpretation. Absolutely the numbers are understandable, but for a human to reliably transcribe the numbers for extended periods is probably not realistic.

The station has been observed for at least a couple of decades, and is presumed to be related to air defense tracking. It has a sister station, assumed to be the same tasking, in Morse code, called MC03.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaBzALk5vsc

T!
Title: Re: New video up, Chinese oddity station VC01
Post by: MDK2 on April 24, 2021, 2304 UTC
Thanks. Good video. If you're getting it that strong there in CA, there's a possibility I can get it at all here in CO. I've wanted to hear that at my QTH since I first heard of it about five years ago.
Title: Re: New video up, Chinese oddity station VC01
Post by: Token on April 25, 2021, 0252 UTC
For me it seems to peak out right about local sunrise.  I can normally hear it well before sunup, it peaks right about sunrise, and from there starts to fade.  I suspect that it will peak a tad earlier for you, since you need the source in nighttime and you either in dark or just coming out of it.  Since your local sunrise is right about 0600 local I would expect a time of about 1100 to 1200 UTC to be best for you.  Just guessing.

T!
Title: Re: New video up, Chinese oddity station VC01
Post by: MDK2 on May 01, 2021, 1127 UTC
That time frame has been just about right. It's faint but definitely there. I can hear it before 1100 so it's possibly transmitting from a coastal location - greyline maps show me that only the easternmost part of China is in darkness then and ithe period of mutual darkness is only going to shrink in the upcoming months. So wherever it goes for May is going to be trickier to catch here. As of 01 May I still hear it on 5285 USB.
Title: Re: New video up, Chinese oddity station VC01
Post by: Token on May 01, 2021, 1425 UTC
So wherever it goes for May is going to be trickier to catch here. As of 01 May I still hear it on 5285 USB.

Most of the time it seems to change freqs about the 5th to 7th of each month.  So 5285 kHz is probably good for a few more days.

T!