Messages

1

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: XFM Radio via MRI 6865 USB 0000 UTC 1 Nov 2024

« on: November 01, 2024, 0036 UTC »

SIO 344 into the southeastern US tonight. Listening direct to relay on 6865 on an Airspy HF+ Discovery and 130 ft EFHW.

Awesome selection of music so far and great sounding station as always.

0030 Redhat talking to a caller on the phone
0034 Rammstein - Dalai Lama
0041 X-FM voice ID

got sidetracked with trick or treaters
0118 Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North of Richmond

Sounding better and better as the night wears on and propagation improves.  Report is now SIO 544 in the Southeastern US.

0211 Taking one last telephone call
0213 Shout outs to emailers and HFU posters
0217 Redhat says he'll leave us with one more track
0222 X-FM voice ID and sign off followed by Mix Radio International programming

2

Utility / SHARES 6875 / 6845 USB 1500 UTC 30 OTC 2024

« on: October 31, 2024, 1545 UTC »

I believe this is the first time I've logged the SHARES Southeast Net.

1500Z SHARES Southeast Net on 6875 USB
NNF4EM announced by SSB voice that he would send "alert message" by digital mode MT63 1000 Long, then sent the following:

ALL SHARES STATIONS DE NNX1XA
NORMAL SHARES OPERATIONS
ZYJSCN3SNA0/3041500/KGD34/2971700/NNX1XA/NATIONAL////
ZYJSCN3SNA0/3041500/KGD34/2971700/NNX1XA/NATIONAL////
ZYJSCN3SNA0/3041500/KGD34/2971700/NNX1XA/NATIONAL////

DE NNX1XA AR
EOM

I've seen messages in this format logged before, and some things stand out, although I don't completely understand all of the constituent parts.  A bit of Googling reveals that KGD34 is the callsign of the National Coordinating Center in Arlington, VA.  NNX1XA is a callsign that often shows up in ALE logs and appears to be the source of many SHARES messages.  The numbers may be coordination instructions as the "3041500" might mean you can send traffic to KGD34 on the 30th during the region 4 net at 1500Z (the time of this net) or that there is traffic available from that station.  I'd be interested in what others have seen or think about it.

The majority of the remainder of the net consisted of taking voice check-ins state-by-state and confirming that each station had copied the "alert message".  The traffic was re-sent or relayed to stations that were unable to copy directly.  Sometimes MARS or FEMA stations check into SHARES nets, but only NCC-issued callsigns were noted in this net.  All calls appeared to be the format NNx4xx, so presumably SHARES Southeast equates to FEMA/FCC region 4.

1555Z SHARES Northeast Net on 6845 USB
The net was already in progress when I tuned in with NNB1KC announcing that he would send routine traffic.  The following message was sent by digital mode MT63 1000 Long:

Northeast Shares Stations DE NNB1KC NR 506
R 301555Z OCT 2924
BT
UNCLAS

National Current Ops / Monitoring for Oct 29 - 30, 2024

New Significant Incidents / Ongoing Ops:
•  No significant incidents / operations

Hazard Monitoring:
•  Heavy Snow – Wyoming and Colorado
•  Rain / Thunderstorms – Upper Mississippi Valley and Central / Southern Plains
•  Critical Fire Weather – Central / Southern Plains
•  Tropical Activity
   ? Atlantic
      • Disturbance 1: Med (40%)
   ? Eastern Pacific
      • Disturbance 1: Low (30%)
      • Disturbance 2: Low (nce 1: Low (10%)

Disaster Declaration Activity:
•  Request: Major Disaster Declaration – NM
•  Approval: Euchee Creek Fire – OK
•  Approval: North Road Fire – OK

Event Monitoring:
•  No significant events

DE NNB4ES  301353Z Oct 2024
NNNN
de NNB1KC

3

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Sycko Radio 6920 USB 2346 UTC 30 OCT 2024

« on: October 31, 2024, 0025 UTC »

Poor propagation into the southeastern US tonight it would seem. About S1-2 direct, so I'm surfing online SDRs until it improves.

0024 "Fire it up!" clip from The Crow into
0025 Type O Negative - Stay Out of My Dreams
0031 Parallax - Red Clouds
0044 Swallow the Sun - Woven Into Sorrow
0050 The Raven - Rotting Christ (loving the heavy metal tonight!)
0055 Ghost - Ciricle
0100 - had to get an assist from Shazam on this one - GunPowderBob - Everything Ends Here?
0108 Sycko Radio voice ID

0145 shout outs to listeners then appears to have signed off as several jazz songs followed.

0242 maybe not off the air after all - voice ID sounded like Sycko Radio into
0243 Spooky
0250 Sycko Radio ID - so I guess they've been on the entire time

4

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Voice of the Abnormal 6925 USB 0007 UTC 31 OCT 2024

« on: October 31, 2024, 0012 UTC »

Weak but listenable at S2 into the southeastern US tonight.

Yukon Jack Halloween Special voice ID into
0007 Rocky Horror Picture Show - Sweet Transvestite
0010 Halloween Spooks
0018 Voice of the Abnormal voice ID

5

Utility / Re: UNID 6801.5/6950/6951/6951.5/6957/6980/6981.5 USB 0303 UTC 24 OCT 2024

« on: October 24, 2024, 2140 UTC »

Came across this as well. The "Competition Dashboard" page has a ton of info about what was going on.

https://nobleskywave.ca

6

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6925 USB 0118 UTC 25 JUN 2024

« on: June 25, 2024, 0127 UTC »

Decent signal into the Southeast with about 3 KHz wide SSB.  SIO 323
0122 Rock tune with OM singing "la la la la"
0125 Voice ID into OM talking about audio receivers
0127 YL singing, but I'm not familiar with it, and reception isn't good enough to get an assist from Shazam
0130 - OM introducing Warren Zevon
0132 Off? Or faded away completely.

7

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6957 USB 0116 UTC 24 JUN 2024

« on: June 24, 2024, 0122 UTC »

SIO 333 into the Southeast. Nice signal with some selective fading.

0119 Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky
Signal improving somewhat
0124 Advertisement for "Grammerly"?
0125 QRM from a data signal into Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
0129 Voice ID "B-U-G Bug Radio for the Win"
0130 Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky
0134 Voice ID "Bug Radio" into ad parody
0135 Bee Gees - How Deep is Your Love
- At this point, band noise has settled down somewhat for SIO 444 report

8

North American MW Pirate Radio / UNID 1710 AM 0354 UTC 21 JUN 2024

« on: June 21, 2024, 0423 UTC »

Weak AM station playing 70s rock music.  I'm able to hear it at my QTH as well as on SDRs in Athens, GA and Ft. Eisenhower, so this station is certainly covering some ground.

0354 Taking Care of Business - Bachman Turner Overdrive

0422 Tom Petty - You Don't Know How it Feels

9

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6960 USB 2348 UTC 12 JUN 2024

« on: June 12, 2024, 2351 UTC »

Fairly nice-sounding signal into the southeast, but fading badly at times.

2350 America - I Need You
2353 America - Sandman
2354 Voice ID "Hello via Headless Horseman Radio" (over the song)
2357 Voice ID x3 into America - Ventrua Highway (personally, I love love to hear about the alligator lizards in the air)
0001 Voice ID (maybe it's "Hello, we are Headless Horseman Radio") into long digital signal, must be some kind of digital SSTV
0006 Voice ID into America - Don't Cross the River
0007 last song faded into America - Only in Your Heart
0009 America - Muskrat Love
0012 Voice ID into America - Tin Man

10

Utility / Re: UNID 6825 CW 0002 UTC JUN 12 2024

« on: June 12, 2024, 0015 UTC »

Previous logs have listed this as the frequency of FAV22, a French naval CW training net that sends messages encoded as groups of 5 letters.

https://youtu.be/QrLdO-k0pIQ

11

10/11 meters / Re: 27348 27.348 MHz ALE Soundings 10 JUN 2024

« on: June 11, 2024, 2054 UTC »

Thanks to the heads-up from rob about the post on UDX listing several other frequencies, I've been able to log several more soundings by OTT this afternoon.

Assuming the station is sounding on all the frequencies listed, and propagation only allows me to receive some of them, the timing of the logs suggest virtually constant sounding with little to no pause in between.

The channels appear to be centered on an 1800 Hz offset from the carrier frequency, as would be common with some NATO PSK waveforms.

Code: [Select]

[2024-06-11 20:15:19 11848.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 6]
[2024-06-11 20:15:50 16498.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-11 20:19:53 10248.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 4]
[2024-06-11 20:20:02 10248.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 10]
[2024-06-11 20:20:27 11848.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 11]
[2024-06-11 20:20:39 11848.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-11 20:25:27 10248.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 26]
[2024-06-11 20:25:53 11848.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-11 20:26:30 16498.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
Update: still active on all frequencies including 25 MHz and 27 MHz

Code: [Select]

[2024-06-12 01:43:58 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 16]
[2024-06-12 01:44:03 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 10]
[2024-06-12 01:44:09 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 9]
[2024-06-12 01:44:39 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 17]
[2024-06-12 01:44:48 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 16]
[2024-06-12 01:45:01 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 15]
[2024-06-12 01:47:45 10248.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 5]
[2024-06-12 01:48:16 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 14]
[2024-06-12 01:48:52 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 15]
[2024-06-12 01:48:59 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 16]
[2024-06-12 01:49:05 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 8]
[2024-06-12 01:49:17 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 15]
[2024-06-12 01:49:39 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 15]
[2024-06-12 01:50:18 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 17]
[2024-06-12 01:50:21 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 16]
[2024-06-12 01:53:05 10248.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 01:53:36 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 8]
[2024-06-12 01:53:55 16498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 9]
[2024-06-12 01:54:07 16498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 9]
[2024-06-12 01:54:14 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 12]
[2024-06-12 01:54:38 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 14]
[2024-06-12 01:55:00 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 15]
[2024-06-12 01:55:10 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 17]
[2024-06-12 01:55:36 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 12]
[2024-06-12 01:55:41 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 4]
[2024-06-12 02:28:44 10248.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 02:28:54 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 7]
[2024-06-12 02:29:15 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 12]
[2024-06-12 02:29:47 16498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 14]
[2024-06-12 02:29:55 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 12]
[2024-06-12 02:31:03 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 15]
[2024-06-12 02:31:09 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 6]
[2024-06-12 02:31:16 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 14]
[2024-06-12 02:31:22 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 8]
[2024-06-12 02:34:04 10248.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 1]
[2024-06-12 02:34:10 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 14]
[2024-06-12 02:34:36 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 2]
[2024-06-12 02:35:08 16498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 16]
[2024-06-12 02:35:39 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 2]
[2024-06-12 02:36:11 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 1]
[2024-06-12 02:36:43 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 02:39:24 10248.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 4]
[2024-06-12 02:39:56 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 1]
[2024-06-12 02:40:28 16498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 02:40:59 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 02:41:31 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 02:41:49 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 8]
[2024-06-12 02:42:03 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 9]
[2024-06-12 02:42:34 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 02:44:44 10248.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 4]
[2024-06-12 02:45:16 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 25]
[2024-06-12 02:45:48 16498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 02:46:19 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 15]
[2024-06-12 02:46:51 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 02:47:23 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 5]
[2024-06-12 02:47:33 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 4]
[2024-06-12 02:47:37 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 11]
[2024-06-12 02:47:53 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 13]
[2024-06-12 02:50:04 10248.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 9]
[2024-06-12 02:50:36 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 3]
[2024-06-12 02:51:08 16498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 5]
[2024-06-12 02:51:39 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 21]
[2024-06-12 02:52:11 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 8]
[2024-06-12 02:52:17 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 9]
[2024-06-12 02:52:42 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 14]
[2024-06-12 02:52:51 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 5]
[2024-06-12 02:52:56 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 10]
[2024-06-12 02:53:02 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 9]
[2024-06-12 02:53:09 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 2]
[2024-06-12 02:53:18 27348.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 10]
[2024-06-12 02:53:20 27348.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 15]
[2024-06-12 02:55:25 10248.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 1]
[2024-06-12 02:55:56 11848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 5]
[2024-06-12 02:56:28 16498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 4]
[2024-06-12 02:56:59 18298.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 14]
[2024-06-12 02:57:10 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 13]
[2024-06-12 02:57:31 19848.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 3]
[2024-06-12 02:58:03 21498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 6]
[2024-06-12 02:58:11 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 15]
[2024-06-12 02:58:16 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 16]
[2024-06-12 02:58:35 25498.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-12 02:58:50 27348.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 16]
[2024-06-12 02:59:05 27348.20] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 13]

12

10/11 meters / 27348 27.348 MHz ALE Soundings 10 JUN 2024

« on: June 10, 2024, 2150 UTC »

Around 2130 UTC I heard what sounded like a 2G ALE call between CB Channels 34 and 35.  I got my decoder set up and waited to see if it would happen again, and sure enough, there was a station OTT sounding every few minutes.

Code: [Select]

[2024-06-10 21:32:49 27348.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 26]
[2024-06-10 21:38:09 27348.49] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 26] *(The station wasn't off frequency here.  I just bumped the tuning.)*
[2024-06-10 21:43:30 27348.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 0]
[2024-06-10 21:48:49 27348.00] [Sounding THIS WAS] [From: OTT] [His BER: 18]

13

The RF Workbench / Re: Radioberry Transmitter

« on: June 07, 2024, 2133 UTC »

I'm not familiar with the Radioberry specifically, but I've used other SDRs. At first blush, the Radioberry doesn't look all that different from most other inexpensive SDRs, so I'll have a go.

There's no particular reason what you're talking about couldn't work.  It looks like that board only outputs 100-150 mW, so even with the preamp board that boosts it to 1.5-3 W, that would require a LOT of gain to do any "broadcasting". How DIY do you want to be?

It would be really inefficient, but I guess you could go the "store-bought" route, and take your pick of the ready-made linear power amps made for QRP HF ham radios, as they'll have the filtering already included.  You might even require another amp after that depending on what you want the final power output to be, keeping in mind that you should be be conservative with amateur radio gear that isn't really intended for the continuous duty cycle of AM or long transmit times in general.

I don't want to discourage you as I'm just getting into building transceivers myself, but if you're talking about building an amp with that much gain, it might honestly be less work to build a class D transmitter, and use an audio amplifier board to do PWM on the DC power supply instead of using the Radioberry at all.

14

The RF Workbench / Re: Would a breadboard I/Q modulator be practical at MW frequencies?

« on: June 06, 2024, 2139 UTC »

I've built prototype MW AM stereo modulators on breadboards in the past, and it worked.  With digital modulation properly filtered in the digital domain, the only issues you will likely have is spectral regrowth, ie out of band emission.  This is measured relative to carrier level, and at present -40dBc is considered acceptable.

COTS solutions may exist, but I don't know of any at a reasonable price.  If you need some schematics to get you going I can pull some stuff from my archives.

+-RH

Thanks, redhat!  If your schematics are easy to lay your hands on, I'd appreciate it.  Otherwise, I think I understand how it should work.  I guess we'll find out.

15

The RF Workbench / My attempt at a breadboard quadrature modulator for MW

« on: May 30, 2024, 1817 UTC »

I'd like to experiment with the gnuradio nrsc5 (HD-Radio) encoder module, and I'm wondering if it would be practical to build a rudimentary I/Q modulator on a breadboard.  Or would the output of something like that be so non-linear that it's just not practical?  I've got no RF design experience, so I'm just spit-balling and hoping somebody more experienced will chime in.

Does that sound naive? Or is there a version of the Chinese ready-made DDS VFO modules that will already do what I'm talking about, and I just don't realize it?

I was thinking of just taking the I and Q output from a sound card and feeding them into a pair of MC1496 balanced modulators, then combining that into some sort of output transformer, maybe with an op-amp depending on what the output levels are like.  I'm sure it will need some filtering to remove all the nasties created by all the mixing and combining, and that will have to be trial and error.  Initially, I'd probably use a 2-channel signal generator for the quadrature carriers, but if it works like I hope it will, I'd probably add a VFO with some type of phase shift circuit on one branch.

I've seen several articles and YouTube videos about doing demodulation in this way, so I just assume the reverse would work.