HFU HF Underground
Loggings => North American Shortwave Pirate => Topic started by: Captain Slack on September 24, 2012, 0230 UTC
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I'm hearing a station on 6975. No ID yet, but playing rock music. So far, it's been Paul McCartney's "Live & Let Die", Nirvana's "All Apologies, and currently a female singer I'm having trouble identifying. Very poor readability. Anyone have an ID on this one?
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Very weak carrier on the west coast...not strong enough to copy any audio...
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This is Galei Zahal, Israel, a SWBC station, on 6973 kHz.
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It is Galei Zahal, Israel... 6973 @ 5kw?
Good catch even if it isn't a pirate...
Indicates Fall conditions are starting to happen :~)
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I'm with Captain Slack on this.
Earlier in the evening Beerus and rdla4 noted a carrier a couple of clicks below 6975, and above GZ. I listened to it at that time, and there was no audio, just a carrier distinct from GZ.
I was half-watching this carrier during the Undercover show, and to the best of my memory, it was there continuously during that time period. Can anyone confirm this? It was around 6974.7. GZ was in well also, below and separate from this carrier.
Around 0240, I checked this carrier again (after the initial post by Captain Slack and before starting an overnite at 0245) and there did indeed seem to be some trace audio here, hard rock which I could not ID.
Another spur?
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OK. I gave the recording another look and listen. I heard "Live and Let Die" starting at 02:21:08 UTC. Looking at the waterfall, the audio of this song is definitely centered around the 6973 carrier of GZ, not the 6974.6 carrier. After "Live and Let Die", "All Apologies" immediately followed, so I am pretty sure, at least at this time, I am hearing the same station reported by Captain Slack.
BTW, Beerus reported the 6974.6 carrier here: http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,8260.0.html (http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,8260.0.html) He reported it on IRC at 2317z, and said it was quite strong, "smashing Israel pretty good".
Checking my IRC scrollback, I see that at 2342z I measured the carrier frequency of the mystery carrier (netSDR running with a GPS derived 10 MHz reference) and came up with 6974.624 kHz.
Checking the SDR recording again, at 0240z there was a song being sung by an OM. The language was not EE, and I would not characterize it as hard rock. So if others were hearing hard rock, then there was another station involved.
At around 0256z, GZ had an OM talking, so the sidebands were rather narrow. This gave me the opportunity to more carefully listen to the 6974.6 carrier. I could not hear any modulation. That carrier was much weaker than GZ, however, so it's possible I just wasn't able to hear any audio present.
I decided to look later, to when GZ faded out, to see what I could hear around 6974.6. However, that carrier faded out first at around 0429z, before GZ (which I believe implies it is further to the east of GZ). GZ's fadeout was more gradual, making it harder to identify, I would guess it at about 0530z. I think sunrise in Israel is about 0330z right now, I don't know how long it takes for the D layer to ionize enough to attenuate at 7 MHz. Maybe we can wave our hands and guess it was about 15 degrees further east of Israel? Fortunately it's the equinox now, and the day/night lines are all nice and north/south.
As of now, 2245z, I don't seem to hear or see the 6974.6 carrier.
I'm not sure if this helps any, or just confuses matters :-)
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No, that helps an awful lot. In a couple of ways.
It sounds now like a lead pipe cinch that the audio that Captain Slack heard was indeed from 6973. I stand in awe of your arguments.
What I heard? It could have been some of the GZ USB, or it could have been something else. I checked for audio files between Undercover off and 0245, but I was apparently not recording then, so I do not have an answer. I could only listen to the upper carrier in USB, and it was thought, perhaps erroneously, that this was out of the GZ sideband. Wish I had recorded IQ on this.
It also helps from the following viewpoint. SDR's are great, and I have become spoiled in a short time. Wish I had the R7 in an operating position last night; I do now!