Messages

1

HF Mystery Signals / Re: Data transmission 4.997 to 5.005 MHz

« on: April 03, 2020, 0609 UTC »

Bet it's 4985 Davidsonville, MD S4481 fsk with spurs.

I just ran the TDOA algorithm twice in a row using Kiwis in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio on 4985, and it did pinpoint it pretty close to its actual location (the center of the bullseye was about 75 miles southwest of Davidsonville). I then immediately ran the TDOA twice on the mystery signal using the same 4 Kiwis, and it showed a completely different result - multiple spokes with no clear source - indicating probable 1 or 2 hop propagation from a different location.

I’ll try it again later today during daytime if it’s still on.

Right now, the transmission is back to standard FSK, about 1.5 KHz above WWV.

2

HF Mystery Signals / Re: Data transmission 4.997 to 5.005 MHz

« on: April 03, 2020, 0519 UTC »

At 0515 on 3 APR, there now appears to be just a standard 850 Hz FSK transmission, with the lower frequency at about 5001.6 and the upper at 5002.4

3

HF Mystery Signals / Re: Data transmission 4.997 to 5.005 MHz

« on: April 02, 2020, 1429 UTC »

Still ongoing at 1425 UTC 02 APR. Weak but noticeable here in NY state, with WWV also being heard. It’s still quite strong on Kiwis in the midwest, but I can’t hear it at the moment on your Kiwi in California.

4

HF Mystery Signals / Data transmission 4.997 to 5.005 MHz

« on: April 02, 2020, 0420 UTC »

Noted on the WOR mailing list by several individuals UTC 2 April 2020 since at least 0110 UTC. A data signal of some kind, about 6 KHz wide, causing a lot of interference to WWV on 5.000 MHz.

Lower edge about 4.997 MHz and upper edge about 5.005 MHz.

It was quite strong at my QTH in upstate NY when checking at 0210 UTC, but is weaker now. Being heard on multiple Kiwi SDRs, with midwestern and eastern receivers getting much stronger signals than in the western US. I could even here it weakly on the U Twente Web SDR   in the Netherlands.

Preliminary TDOA analysis seems to be pinpointing a “hot zone” on an axis from northern Indiana up towards Chicago, and indeed signal levels on individual Kiwis near Indianapolis and Chicago appear to be quite strong.

5

North American Shortwave Pirate / Unid 6950 USB 1833 UTC 4 July 2019

« on: July 04, 2019, 1835 UTC »

1834 UTC Playing an orchestral arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner

1844 UTC “Benny & The Jets”

1845 UTC “Radio Free USA” into “Fat Bottom Girls”

1850 UTC “Born in the USA”

1855 UTC ID into “Roxanne”

1900 UTC “Another Saturday Night”

1906 UTC “Sugar Sugar”

S6 to occasional peaks at S9, sometimes dropping to noise level.

6

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Mix Radio Int. 6880 USB 2343 utc 09 Jun 2019

« on: June 10, 2019, 0045 UTC »

S9 to S9 +20 in upstate New York

0043 “Lady Willpower”

7

Software / Re: Carrier Sleuth 1.0.8 expired?

« on: May 07, 2019, 1302 UTC »

Installed and working well.

8

Software / Carrier Sleuth 1.0.8 expired?

« on: May 01, 2019, 0444 UTC »

I wanted to give Carrier Sleuth a try. I downloaded the latest version, 1.0.8, but when I try to run it, it pops up a message box saying that it is a beta version which has expired. Is there a newer version?

9

HF Mystery Signals / Re: All 1 PPS pip / pulse / tick logs here please

« on: July 01, 2018, 0246 UTC »

Heard at 02:35Z  01 Jul 18 around 10.103 MHz on the K3FEF WebSDR

10

HF Mystery Signals / Re: UNID PIP 6370 kHz 0316 UTC 20 May 2018

« on: May 31, 2018, 2108 UTC »

The northern crossing of the range rings appears to be in a very sparsely populated section of western Ontario, CA. The southern crossing looks to be generally in the vicinity of Paducah, KY.

As you said, the accuracy of the technique depends on whether the mystery pulses are indeed synced to UTC. I’m now shopping for a GPSDO, as I find the whole idea of doing these sort of timing measurements very intriguing. Among other receivers, I do have a Drake R8B with purely analog IF which should negate the delay issue.

I have also just put a Wellbrook AL1530LN loop in service on a rotator. Though it would not have the ultra sharp nulls at 6-7 MHz that it does at LF and MF, might still be able to get a general idea of azimuth to these pulses if I catch it on air. (Have not heard them yet).

11

HF Mystery Signals / Re: UNID PIP 6370 kHz 0316 UTC 20 May 2018

« on: May 30, 2018, 1319 UTC »

This signal has been pip'ing away all day.

I took some time this morning to take some measurements on the signal.

Pulse width is approximately 16ms - measured multiple times between 16 and 16.6 ms, depends on what you consider the start and finish. Most consistent results were using my FT-950, AGC off, NB off, bandwidth 2400hz, IPO on (preamp OFF), and in AM mode. (first image).

Assuming the UNID PIP is synced to UTC and using my GPSDO as my local reference were it's 1 PPS was fed into the receiver antenna I measured a delta T of 4.760 ms.  Again, assuming the UNID PIP is synced to UTC that would give a range of approximately 1427 km or  770 nm. Methodology as to receiver settings as noted above (second picture)

I plotted the 1427km on google earth but the image to large to include with this post so it will be in a following post.

cheers, Graham near Ottawa Canada

Have you tried your GPSDO timing offset technique on time signals from known transmitters? Perhaps WWV on 5000? It would be a good way to validate if the derived range to the unknown emitter is reasonably accurate.

12

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6925.0 USB 0233 UTC 24 Feb 2018

« on: February 24, 2018, 0236 UTC »

02:33 Del Shannon “Runaway”
02:35 The Teenagers “Why do fools fall in love?”



S6 CNY

13

Peskies / UNID Spanish Language 4101 USB 0700 UTC 19 Feb 2018

« on: February 19, 2018, 1609 UTC »

I was hoping to log some SW desert beacons from my NE US QTH, and heard an ongoing net between at least 2 or 3 stations. I have heard many Peskies in the typical 6900-7000 kHz range, but this is the first time I have heard voice traffic on this frequency.

I have heard Peskies a little higher in the 4 MHz range in the past though.

It was unusual in that it was in USB as well. The transmissions were quite faint here. I checked several online KiwiSDR, and found the reception was stronger in the Midwest, and especially strong on Token’s SDR in California, and the Kiwi in Arizona, which leads me to believe they may have been located in Mexico.

14

22 Meter Band HiFER Beacons / Re: 13560 kHz Time Signal ? 0100 UTC 15 Jan 2018

« on: February 01, 2018, 0426 UTC »

Token: I just took a listen to your web SDR. What I hear right at the moment on 13.560 USB sounds closest to what was coming from the gas pumps at the convenience store. (Very fast pulses).

Indeed, a mobile SDR expedition with the ability to see signals as well as hear them could prove interesting.

15

22 Meter Band HiFER Beacons / Re: 13560 kHz Time Signal ? 0100 UTC 15 Jan 2018

« on: January 29, 2018, 2056 UTC »

I took my trusty Sangean ATS-909x for a drive. I set it on the dash of my Jeep (which has a handy tray exactly the right size to hold the radio), with the whip antenna partially extended. I tuned it to 13.560 in USB mode.

In my driveway, I heard nothing, but my Drake R7 upstairs, connected to an 80 meter dipole, consistently picks up at least two pulsed signals on the same frequency - very similar to what others have reported.

I live in a smallish city in upstate NY. I heard little when driving through residential areas, but started to pick up quite a few signals whenever I would drive past commercial zones.

In particular, I wanted to drive past the entrance doors of my local KMart, since they use an RFID tag security scanner right at the exit to detect shoplifting. As expected, this area (within about 100 feet of the entrance), produced an extremely strong unmodulated carrier - peaking at about S9 +20 close to the entrance but fading quickly as I drove away.

A similar unmodulated 13.560-ish carrier was noted near the entrance of a Walgreens, which has a similar theft detection system.

I heard pulsed signals at several locations, and found that these were coming from convenience stores with gas pumps. The signals were very strong at the pumps themselves. All of the pumps have standard credit card readers set up to read both magnetic stripe and chip-enabled cards. These locations all seemed to be generating pulses considerably faster than 55-to-60 pulses per minute though.

Driving back home, I started picking up a signal absolutely identical to those in several of the YouTube videos linked in other posts. These were coming from a small manufacturing company. I know that this particular building uses security badge readers for employee access. There is a badge reader panel at each entrance door, and arriving employees hold their company ID badge up to the panel to automatically unlock the door.

In short, I’m certain that all of the signals picked up by numerous individuals at widely separated geographic locations are strictly local in origin. No doubt any urban area will be awash in both modulated and unmodulated signals centering on 13.560 MHz coming from various RFID enabled systems at commercial establishments.