Topics

16

Other / 10225 khz., 10234 khz., Korean USB, prob. fishermen, 0638z 7/23/2013

« on: July 23, 2013, 0931 UTC »

Tuned through the utility bands and the horrendous QRM from the neighbor's two plasma TVs, and heard what sounded like Korean speech by men on 10225 and 10234 in USB. 

The QSO on 10234 was stronger. 

I've never heard anything but RTTY, data, or static in this part of the band before.  The last few times I've heard what sounded like Asian fishermen I think it was in the 8 Mhz band.

At times like this I wish I had a 1000 watt linear and rotatable 4 element beam antenna for my CB.  I could aim it right at my neighbor's main TV room and entertain them.  They have a monstrous flatscreen that puts out hash and carriers all over the HF spectrum, the loudest ones being 7000 khz and above, and some monstrous hash in the 21 meter SWBC band.

17

Other / UNID CW, 6970 khz., 0509 UTC, 7/16/2013

« on: July 16, 2013, 0756 UTC »

Tuned into 6970 khz. at 0509z and heard some intermittent, slow CW, no characters, a series of 5 dits, then a dash, then another series of 5 dits, then nothing.

I'm guessing it may have been a ham tuned below band by accident.  Unfortunately, I only tuned in during the last three 'characters'.  Kept the radio on the frequency for a while -- nothing.

18

Shortwave Broadcast / Radio Brasil Central, 11815 khz., 0534 UTC 7/14/2013

« on: July 15, 2013, 1112 UTC »

Tuned into tropical sounding music and announcements by man in Portuguese, along with jingles for "......Central" (0539z) and ".....Brasil Central" (0542z). 

Through the next half hour or so they played several pop-folk songs with guitars, bass, drums, and accordion predominating, one of them sung by a man, which also sounded like a live recording.

The signal weakened, and then strengthened over the next half hour.

Was much more readable than Super Deus E Amor on 11765, which is from Curitiba, maybe 1000 km further south of this station's location in Goiania (Super Deus E Amor was barely readable).

At 0559 UTC there was a long ID, mentioning kilohertz and Goias, and then more tropical sounding music.

Reception was fair at best, but the best I've heard this station so far.

19

Shortwave Broadcast / The Mighty KBC, 9925 khz., 0003 UTC 7/6/2013

« on: July 10, 2013, 0717 UTC »

Saturday (local time) I tuned into 80's sounding pop music on 9925 khz.  The signal was fluttery (like a polar signal).  It turns out it was this KBC station I've read about here.

Heard an ID at 0003z "Jukebox.... good morning, good afternoon from the Mighty K(G)C!!"  Into another pop song with a chick singer.  Another announcement with the DJ mentioning something about the 90's, and into Belinda Carlisle's hit from 1989.

Heard an ID at 0009z, something about "blasting into the stratosphere with 175,000 watts", then another 80's pop song.  ID at 0016z, DJ talking about "the Mighty KBC.... 33rd year (?)... USA, UK and Europe...." The announcer sounded like the American accented guys that used to be on Radio Netherlands.

Signal started weakening from around S3 to S2 or so, and kept deteriorating, after an ID at 0019z ("KBC") and a pop song sung by a guy.  There was another announcement at 0021z ("22 minutes past the hour") -- by then the signal had deteriorated into the noise, audible, but not readable.

Pretty cool mix of 80's music.  Hadn't heard this station before.  The overall conditions were mediocre, there was a high noise level here at my QTH.  Received it on my Panasonic RFB45 and 25 ft. wire.

20

Utility / KSM,12993 khz, 2240 UTC; 6/22/2013 -- CW marker

« on: June 25, 2013, 1505 UTC »

Tuned into a 'new' CW marker shore station -- at least it's new for me.  KSM.  "V V V CW KSM QSX 2/ ....(faded)  22/ .... 3/ .... 12/..."

I don't hear too many of these anymore, aside from WLO and maybe KLB. I guess KSM is a historical shore station, related to KPH somehow.

Also logged HLW2 from South Korea, laying down its CW marker on 12922 khz., 2128 UTC on 6/18, and a couple times since -- faint but fairly consistent during afternoons.

21

Other / Odd happenings on 7180 khz; 0321 UTC, 6/17/13

« on: June 20, 2013, 1019 UTC »

Usually I don't hear much CB-like activity on the 40 meter ham band.  Generally, that sort of activity seems to be left to the 11 meter spectrum, and maybe one frequency on 20 meters that's famous for guys playing music, swearing, etc.  Aside from the Indonesian pirate chanters, and a few stray signals like the Russian single letter beacons, 40 meters generally seems pretty 'normal'.

Well, this last Sunday I tuned into some loud music in USB on 7180 khz.  After clarifying it, it turned out to be Motley Crue's "Ten Seconds Of Love", which was followed by a lot of angry exchanges and cussing by several different operators (including a guy who gave out his call letters).  Soon afterwards, Van Halen's "Little Dreamer" was played.  Then some dead air, then the music player made some random comments about a Magnum CB radio, Arizona, a mention of Father's Day, and "you're all gonna die." 

Then "I'll Wait" by Van Halen was played, followed by some more angry exchanges, including a ham telling the music DJ that he was ruining ham radio for everybody else, and he used to beat up "punks" like that in high school.

Then some rap song about someone called the "Prime Minister" -- for a rap song, it wasn't half bad, production wise.  About a CB outlaw with a water cooled linear or something.  When that was done, there was just dead air.

Maybe this sort of thing goes on on the 40 meter band and I just haven't encountered it before. 

22

Other / UNID rhythmic data pulses, poss. Jammer; 11930 khz, 0554z, 6/8/2013

« on: June 08, 2013, 0908 UTC »

Tuned through the 25 meter band, heard the data pulses again, on top of a carrier.

This time they were on 11930 khz, and I could just barely hear some audio way in back of them, sounded like a woman, and the pace and tone was non-English, poss. Asian -- but because the audio was unreadable, I'm just making a complete guess here, from the tones of the voice. 

I'm wondering if this isn't some sort of jammer.

Were still on the frequency during recheck at 0641z, audio was a tiny bit stronger behind the pulses, still unreadable.

Looking at the SW schedules, nothing is usually scheduled here in this time slot that would be jammable. The only thing I can find scheduled is R. Belarus.

The data pulses didn't really sound like LINK-11, as I noted in my previous post on this sound.  Unless there's an 'idle' LINK sound, like when RTTY is sort of idling, it just puts out blips....  but I don't know enough about sounds to venture a guess.

23

Other / UNID rhythmic data bursts, 11830 khz; 0610 UTC, 6/5/2013

« on: June 05, 2013, 0908 UTC »

Tuned the RFB45 through the 25 meter Shortwave broadcast band earlier tonight to find it was the only SW band with any decent propagation. Radio Australia's "Bush Telegraph" program was in pretty good on 11870 khz (with some interesting talk about Tasmania's opium poppy industry -- they use it for prescription painkillers), SIO 555, and New Zealand was in well also, on 11725 khz.

In between the two, on 11830, I heard these rhythmic bursts of what sounded like data, about 8-9 per second -- not sounding like any CW character, either.  It was propagating in and out, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't local QRM.  They were maybe S1 in strength on my DX-390.  

It's possible it may have been an image on both radios, but it didn't sound like one.

Edited to add: After listening through the sound samples from links Token placed on another thread, this sound was most similar to the LINK-11 sound.

24

Utility / UNID CW numbers & T's; 12642 khz, 0121z, 6/04

« on: June 04, 2013, 1501 UTC »

I was tuning the '398 around the maritime HF bands and chanced on some weak CW on 12642 khz., someone sending what seemed to be nothing but T's, a couple 'DE's, a K or two, and a lot of number groups.  

Because of weak propagation and the sender's CW speed (I can read up to maybe 10 wpm on a good day) I was only able to make out some of the numbers.  What I was able to copy was:

"DE (unreadable characters) 3...4  4...4  44...  7...4  T  T  4.056  3..37 T" etc.  Obviously, I missed a lot of numerals but there were a lot of 4's and 3's.  It's possible the T's were cut numbers, but the rest of the characters I heard were full morse numbers.

I'm not sure if it was four or five number groups, it sounded like five.

It was off at 0128 UTC, and then sent a "K" with some numbers, and then stopped again.

The next time I checked this frequency a few hours later at 0844 UTC there was a series of second-long CW dashes, sent one every second.  The dashes started a bit lower in frequency, quickly went up in frequency and then stayed there for the remainder of the dash.

My old Ferrell's book lists this frequency as duplex SSB maritime channel #1327, but that may have long changed -- and this wasn't SSB I heard.

25

Spy Numbers / UNID Spanish numbers w/ data, 11635 khz., 0804 UTC, 6/1

« on: June 03, 2013, 1304 UTC »

Heard a woman giving number sequences in Spanish.  The voice sounded like the same Spanish voice I've heard on HF since the 1980's.  But the transmission was not the same as back then. 

Instead of just numbers, I heard one set of numbers, followed by a data burst, followed by another set of numbers, followed by another data burst, etc.

Low modulation on the signal, as well as mediocre propagation... SIO 241-2 (also some QRM from a broadcast in Chinese on 11640).

Hadn't heard this sort of 'hybrid' numbers broadcast before.

26

HF Beacons / UNID signal, sweep noise w/ beep every second, 13560 khz; 1918 UTC 5/27

« on: May 29, 2013, 1147 UTC »

I tuned through the 13 mhz region to hear this beep beep beep, very weak, about every second, with a weird sweeping, white noise over the top of it.  No CW IDs or anything, just 'beep beep beep'.

Any ideas what this could be?  The one second beeps were gone during recheck at 2005 UTC.  Is this some sort of UTE or radar?  

PS, sorry if this is in the wrong section, wasn't sure if I should put it here, 'utility', or in 'other'.

27

Other / UNID Asian USB, prob. fishermen -- 8792, 8755, 9110 & 9260 khz., 0620z 5/26

« on: May 26, 2013, 1750 UTC »

Last night was tuning around on the DX-398 and heard some Asian dudes chatting away on several SW frequencies.  The talk sounded informal, and the signals were naturally pretty weak in grainy, noisy conditions.  Logged these convo's between 0619 and 0632 UTC.  All USB.

8792 khz. -- Two guys talking in what sounded like poss. Korean or maybe Chinese.
9110 khz. -- Two guys talking def. Chinese.
9260 khz. -- One side of a QSO, some guy talking Chinese.
8755 khz. -- Caught the tail end of a QSO between two guys in UNID Asian language.

I'm guessing they were mariners of some sort.  No call signs.  I usually don't hear these QSO's.  Usually when I tune in between the SW and Ham bands all I get is RTTY, Fax noises and Volmet / Coast Guard / Canadian Forces weather broadcasts.

28

MW Loggings / Radio Rebelde, 1180 khz, heard in PNW

« on: December 17, 2012, 0846 UTC »

Radio Rebelde is booming in on 1180 khz, here into Washington state behind KOFI Montana.  It even comes in barefoot on one of my portables.  // 5025 khz.

I heard it earlier on 670 khz, just behind KBOI Idaho, extrememly weak, during fade ups, also // 5025.

Over 2700 miles. 

29

HF Beacons / "K" CW beacon, 5153 khz, 0934 UTC 10/21

« on: October 21, 2012, 1241 UTC »

Tonight I was tuning around on my Panasonic RF-B45 and heard a "K" beacon with fair to poor signals at 5150 khz (the radio only has 5 khz readout).  The beacon was pretty clear, as there were fairly low noise levels.  Had a lot of QSB.

Grabbed my DX-390 and found the beacon in a bit weaker at 5153 khz.  Was gone during recheck of the frequency at 0945 utc.

30

Shortwave Broadcast / 7295 khz., R. Algerienne / Holy Quran pgm. (tentative), 0542 UTC w chanting.

« on: October 12, 2012, 0759 UTC »

Heard a relatively strong signal of Arabic chanting that sounded like the chanting of the Koran that one hears on the shortwaves periodically...  Acc. to the lists online, it was Algeria.  I couldn't get an ID as I don't understand Arabic... A man was talking around 0554, and the station was off the air by 0601, which matches the published online lists.

There was quite a bit of fading and higher noise on 41 meters than usual.

Mediocre conditions on 49 meters, and MW as well.....

I'll have to return to this frequency later on in the week during better conditions to get a more positive ID.  If it was Algeria, it would be my first logging of that country.

Also probably heard Tunisia on 41 meters, 7275 khz., 0541 UTC - 0601 UTC, with talk in what sounded Arabic, and Middle Eastern pop music with Middle Eastern / Arabic style singing and instrumentation.  Signal was strengthening by tuneout after 0600. 

I've heard Tunisia before, they sometimes will mention "Tunis" during news announcements.  No positive ID of it this time, with the grainy conditions.