Messages

1951

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Cloudsplitter Radio 6948.2 AM was 6924.7 AM 2127 UTC 23 DEC 2022

« on: December 23, 2022, 2136 UTC »

21:34 UTC - Weak unreadable. Slight carrier burried in the noise and no audio heard.

Someone turned on the high voltage "noise maker" somewhere in the neighbourhood so the band is currently wiped out with S7 background static noise. This UNID noise source pretty much wipes out the band from 4 MHz to 8 MHz.

RSPduo | Barker & Williamson T2FD antenna

1952

Equipment / Re: Best MWDX antenna?

« on: December 23, 2022, 2111 UTC »

Those screen shots definitely look better. I cannot drop down much further with the B&W T2FD antenna. It has a pretty sharp roll-off below 1.8 MHz. That antenna is not designed for use that low. This is where I used to switch to the vertical, the end-fed or the loop antenna.

1953

Utility / Re: HFGCS Force Directional Message (FDM) and Emergency Action Message (EAM) Log

« on: December 23, 2022, 1820 UTC »

Welcome to the HFU, and I as well have been watching your posts on eam.watch. I started this thread at the beginning of the conflict with Ukraine and based on the number of views, I have kept it up as best as I can as there appears to be an appetite and interest for the messages.

Best of the season to you as well and make sure to check out and post to the other sections of the HFU as you are most likely to find other items of interest. This is a good board and works very well and is efficient. One of the nice features is that you can always go back and edit / add to your thread and build it up as you go along. This is how I manage the FDM / EAM. I just start a new post every day and build it up throughout the day as I go along.

1954

Utility / HFGCS Force Directional Message (FDM) and Emergency Action Message (EAM) Log

« on: December 23, 2022, 1608 UTC »

HFGCS Force Directional Message (FDM) and Emergency Action Message (EAM) Log

Daily call sign for 23 December 2022: BAKE SALE (ground NCS), LONG JOHN, TRIBESMAN (airborne CP)

231602Z DEC 2022 11175.0 kHz USB
16:02Z LONG JOHN calling BAKE SALE requesting to enter the net followed by authentication challenge;
16:04Z LONG JOHN entered the net at 16:04Z.

231758Z DEC 2022
TO: ALL STATIONS
FROM: BAKE SALE
MESSAGE OF 142 CHARACTERS FOLLOWS
BAVKGY // L7IR2 XBICE YUJE2 JL2Z5 FQ6NC NN3UB BHUKR VVVVR FHYCT DCTUP 7S5DU SJVVV VRN3R XZ2OC ZSGMD 7VM7B BBBMS OJ4CX VXZFH BPVHV IWWWW R75UI NAETW XCSRL TCOAA AA4YK AZRER M

Note: The NCS was weak barely readable for the 17:58Z.

232035Z DEC 2022
TO: ALL STATIONS
FROM: BAKE SALE
MQVMBZ // K6VNR MCX4U CNUTE L3BRG SBXO

232100Z DEC 2022
TO: ALL STATIONS
FROM: TRIBESMAN
MQVMBZ // K6VNR MCX4U CNUTE L3BRG SBXO

Note: The 21:00Z msg was broadcast from the airborne CP.

232130Z DEC 2022
TO: ALL STATIONS
FROM: TRIBESMAN
MQVMBZ // K6VNR MCX4U CNUTE L3BRG SBXO

Note: The 21:30Z msg was broadcast from the airborne CP.

232200Z DEC 2022
TO: ALL STATIONS
FROM: TRIBESMAN
MQVMBZ // K6VNR MCX4U CNUTE L3BRG SBXO

Note: The 22:00Z msg was broadcast from the airborne CP.

1955

Equipment / Re: Best MWDX antenna?

« on: December 23, 2022, 0334 UTC »

Oh my, that looks like a very noisy antenna based on the SDR screen, or maybe it is just the way it is displayed.

Here is my Barker & Williamson T2FD antenna with a 30 dB NooElect Flamingo AM Broadcast Band Notch Filter installed at the SDR's input. As expected, one station every 10 kHz. Now that I am 400 miles North of all of those 50 kW Toronto broadcast band transmitters that used to be in my back yard and overloading the front end of my receiver I probably no longer need the notch filter.

1956

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: WTWW? 5085 AM 0215 UTC 23 DEC 2022

« on: December 23, 2022, 0247 UTC »

02:45 UTC - Ah, here we go, an S9 ~ S+15 signal with religious program. Looks to be 6 to 8 kHz wide. Sounds good at 6 kHz. One of the facility pictures I was looking at appears that they are using Stereo Tools to shape the audio. I couldn't figure out the radio automation software;
02:50 UTC - Mention of Scriptures for America .org;
02:54 UTC - Mention of the new 2018 calendar coming out;
02:56 UTC - Scriptures for America broadcast wrapping up.
02:59 UTC - Some issues with the playback automation software ... lots of dead air and at 03:30 UTC still dead air. Wow, at that rate, maybe they could give us some free programming slots! I have music that I can stream;
03:30 UTC - Carrier dropped and off the air.

RSPduo | Barker & Williamson T2FD antenna

1957

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: WRMI Legends 4980 AM 0019 UTC 22 DEC 2022

« on: December 23, 2022, 0120 UTC »

Yea right might be right. One antenna is aimed to Europe, Russia, & China and I should be right in the main lobe, mind you, it might be skipping right over me depending on the antenna's tilt angle. If it is the one that I have seen in one of the pictures, the angle of the V portion at the feed point is fairly narrow so the beam width will be narrow.

From one of the videos I watched, it appears that transmitter 4 (9940 kHz) might be aimed toward Ukraine. I also found that Transmitter 2 (5085) is a Continental. These were good quality transmitters. I could not determine the antennae for transmitters 1, 2 and 3.

Based on several years of satellite imaging I was able to partially piece some of the WTWW facility. The image below is from 2014 and was one of the clearer ones depicting the poles, some of the wires and buildings.

> The yellow lines are the feeder lines leaving the transmitter building which I could make out from the shadows on the ground.
> The red lines are the potential antennae lines which I could make out from the shadows on the ground.
> The Magenta squares are poles which I could not see any lines going to and from.
> The purple line is what I suspect is an AC power line leading to some buildings in the woods.
> The green rectangles are the UNID buildings in the woods.
> The orange square is an UNID structure.

1958

Utility / HFGCS Force Directional Message (FDM) and Emergency Action Message (EAM) Log

« on: December 22, 2022, 2349 UTC »

HFGCS Force Directional Message (FDM) and Emergency Action Message (EAM) Log

Daily call sign for 22 December 2022: OXIDATION (ground NCS)

221415Z DEC 2022 11175.0 kHz USB
14:15Z OXIDATION with a test count.

222043Z DEC 2022 11175.0 kHz USB
20:43Z Last caller this is OXIDATION I have you weak and unreadable.

222301Z DEC 2022
TO: ALL STATIONS
FROM: OXIDATION
MQQIPA // 47KCE V7AMA 2D6VF WJWG UK5Z2

1959

Propagation / SolarHam Website Issue 16 DEC 2022

« on: December 22, 2022, 1446 UTC »

SolarHam a Space Weather and Aurora website run by Amateur (Ham) Radio Station VE3EN.

Initial:
16 DEC 2022 - (1) Please be advised that my website domain server appears to have been hacked and the domain solarham.net is periodically redirecting to spam websites. Technical support is in the process of fixing this issue and additional protection and monitoring is being added. Some website outages or alerts about my websites security certificate may take place over the next 24 hours. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

(2) Please be advised that the website is currently down and will remain down for some time until the ongoing security issue is fully resolved. I do not know when it will be back up, but hopefully today at some point.

Updates:
21 DEC 2022 - Without getting into too much detail, it appears that the redirect issue is more widespread and not directly related to a hack attempt on the SolarHam website itself. The incident remains under investigation and progress does appear to being made. I am hoping that the site will be back online by the end of the week.

Again thank you everybody for your patience.

- Kevin (SolarHam)

1960

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: WRMI Legends 4980 AM 0019 UTC 22 DEC 2022

« on: December 22, 2022, 0101 UTC »

00:59 UTC - An S7 ~ S9 and noisy signal on 4980 with WRMI station ID. Nothing on 5085 either to my location.

WWCR 3 on 4840 is doing much better at S+10.

RSPduo | Barker & Williamson T2FD antenna

1961

Peskies / Re: UNID Peskies 11155.5 USB 2330 UTC 19 DEC 2022

« on: December 21, 2022, 2330 UTC »

UNID Peskies 11155.5 kHz USB 23:28 UTC 21 DEC 2022

23:28 UTC - A couple of Peskies carrying on a conversation.

RSPduo | Barker & Williamson T2FD antenna

1962

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6974.9 AM 2202 UTC 21 DEC 2022

« on: December 21, 2022, 2327 UTC »

23:26 UTC - Very faint carrier and no modulation.

RSPduo | Barker & Williamson T2FD antenna

1963

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: WRMI Legends 5085 AM 0210 UTC 19 DEC 2022

« on: December 21, 2022, 2146 UTC »

Wow, the site was in a major state of disarray! Good to hear that they are making the investment in revitalizing the facility.

It has been over 20+ years since I have worked on high power transmitters and reading about all the repairs required gets me excited. I would love to get my hands into this project. I am familiar with that cooling issue. One of the transmitters we used to service was 1 million watts ERP. Cooling involved "pluming", filled with glycol, from the transmitter to a circulating pump to a very large radiator with fan to dissipate the heat. Essentially, the same cooling system principle you would find in an automobile but several times larger in scale. As a side note, water is not a good conductor of heat and leads to corrosion. In a pinch sure, but long term nope, no good. This is most likely why they had the leak.

Thank you for the current and hopefully future updates.

1964

Utility / HFGCS Force Directional Message (FDM) and Emergency Action Message (EAM) Log

« on: December 21, 2022, 2121 UTC »

HFGCS Force Directional Message (FDM) and Emergency Action Message (EAM) Log

Daily call sign for 21 December 2022: BATH TIME (ground NCS), WILD BILL (airborne CP)

212104Z DEC 2022
TO: ALL STATIONS
FROM: BATH TIME
FOR LA PIECE 22
DISREGARD THIS TRANSMISSION, THIS IS BATH TIME OUT

212104Z DEC 2022
TO: ALL STATIONS
FROM: BATH TIME
FOR LA PIECE 22
PMDTNW // 54UUW SBQKI HC4IG XDALU ENSA

212133Z DEC 2022
TO: ALL STATIONS
FROM: BATH TIME
MQOY3P // RL77P TWJUE Y3PDA 2KAAE S7CT

1965

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: WRMI Legends 5085 AM 0210 UTC 19 DEC 2022

« on: December 20, 2022, 2215 UTC »

Thanks Paul,

Any indication as to what is going to happen to the former WTWW transmitter facility?