1
Utility / Re: Civilian aircraft on 11175 kHz USB, twice
« on: April 17, 2023, 1213 UTC »United 1948 called mainsail on 11175 on the evening of the 16th as well.
Got a time for that?
T!
Shortwave Pirate Radio In North America And Around The World, And Other Signals That Go Bump In The Night
We seek to understand and document all radio transmissions, legal and otherwise, as part of the radio listening hobby. We do not encourage any radio operations contrary to regulations.
Always consult with the appropriate authorities if you have questions concerning what is permissable in your locale.
Got a time for that?
T!
That was my original thought also, but both flights are regularly scheduled daily's. One out of Cancun to San Fran, one out of Washington DC to San Fran.
T!
If you can hear this V07 source (Far Eastern Russia, https://priyom.org/number-stations/other/v07 ) it is quite probable that you can hear several M12 transmissions each week also, as some of them are sent from the same facility at Khabarovsk ( https://priyom.org/number-stations/morse/m12 ).
T!
I have seen this happen before. A message after 0000z that uses the previous days callsign, no verbal indication of error, and the same message shortly after with the current days callsign. My assumption is they just did not want to draw attention to the fact something was off. I have also seen the same thing happen, with a "disregard" at some point in the error message.
T!
I have litterally been hearing such statements since my very first ham club meeting in the late 1960's. Looking around at that meeting there were 2 of us under 20, and the vast majority were retirees. And the same thing was said then, young people aren't interested in the hobby, and the hobby will die out because no new blood is coming in.
And yet, today, as a percentage of the US population, there are about twice as many hams as there were then, and as raw numbers there are over three times as many.
That big dip from 2003 to 2007 was driven by the fact many people knew the code requirement was going to be dropped, and waited to test until after that.
Unfortunately, when presented such data (concerning the number of hams in the US) one of the frequent responses is "there may be more licensed hams today, but there are fewer active hams". While I believe this sentiment is incorrect, that can be hard to prove one way or another.
There have always been a rather large segment of the licensed community that were inactive. Prior to the 1990's I spent more years inactive than active, to the point I let my license laps in the 1970's, and did not get involved again until the early 1990's.
I believe that one of the ways to judge the approximate level of activity is to look at the ARRL membership and QST subscriptions. I suspect that both today and in years past if you had an ARRL membership that you had renewed then you were probably a somewhat active ham. In fact, I strongly suspect that today fewer active hams (as a percentage) are ARRL members than in the past. Looking at the ARRL membership numbers as an indicator of active vs inactive hams you will find the ratios today very similar to those 45 years ago.
T!
The Russians have been doing this for several months on known Russian mil frequencies. At first they did not use the Anthem, and there was some question of if it was someone else jamming their freqs. But over time it became apparent that it was probably the Russians themselves and that it was some kind of channel marker or something.
I have a video here of last year, and at that time they used Ride of the Valkyries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVtp9wvCoIk
Later they shifted over to what they are generally using now, the Russian Anthem, a rock version of the song done by Любэ (Lube).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSBUdLCHdoI
T!
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Got a time for that?
T!
2
Utility / Re: Civilian aircraft on 11175 kHz USB, twice
« on: April 16, 2023, 0225 UTC »
Same for me, I assumed, with the first one, some former USAF guy or current ANG guy, maybe showing his first officer what the HF-GCS was. But the second one made that thought less likely.
T!
T!
3
Utility / Re: Civilian aircraft on 11175 kHz USB, twice
« on: April 16, 2023, 0153 UTC »I as well logged UNITED 519 at 00:37 UTC. My thoughts on this one is that the US military may have contracted out some civilian aircrafts to transport personnel.
That was my original thought also, but both flights are regularly scheduled daily's. One out of Cancun to San Fran, one out of Washington DC to San Fran.
T!
4
Utility / Civilian aircraft on 11175 kHz USB, twice
« on: April 16, 2023, 0128 UTC »
Heard something on the HF-GCS network today that I don't think I have heard before. Two different regularly scheduled United Airlines flight, at different times, requested a radio check on 11175 kHz, and both times got a response from West Coast.
At about 2218 UTC on April 15, 2023, United 1948 requested a radio check from Mainsail on 11175 kHz. "Mainsail, Mainsail, United 1948 radio check on 11175 kHz". This was sent twice, two different transmissions. The response after the second transmission was "Last caller, last caller, this is West Coast, West Coast, please say again last, over". From United 1948 "I've got you loud and clear, I was just trying a radio check, I might try one more frequency also". From West Coast "Lima Charlie on triple one seven five, over". From United 1948 "thank you for that".
A few seconds later, from United 1948, "West Coast, West Coast, United Nineteen-Fortyeight on triple one seventy five". Form West Coast "Last caller, last caller, this is West Coast, have you Lima Charlie, over". From United 1948 "United 1948 has you Lima Charlie, thank you very much for the checks".
Checking flight schedules, at that time United 1948 was en route and a couple of hours out from Cancun to San Francisco.
Shortly after this set of transmissions I heard United 1948 working San Fran on 11282 kHz USB.
At about 0042 UTC on April 16, 2023, about 2 and a half hours later, United 519 requested a radio check. This time I really could not make out much of United 519's traffic, but I heard all of the HF-GCS (West Coast) response. From West Coast "Last caller, last caller, this is West Coast, please say again last, over". From West Coast "United 519 this is West Coast, I have you Lima Charlie, over". A bit later, from West Coast "Last caller, last caller, I have you Lima Charlie, over". From West Coast "Untied 519 this is West Coast, I have you Lima Charlie, over".
Again checking the flight schedules, at that time United 519 was en route from Washington and a couple of hours out of San Francisco.
T!
At about 2218 UTC on April 15, 2023, United 1948 requested a radio check from Mainsail on 11175 kHz. "Mainsail, Mainsail, United 1948 radio check on 11175 kHz". This was sent twice, two different transmissions. The response after the second transmission was "Last caller, last caller, this is West Coast, West Coast, please say again last, over". From United 1948 "I've got you loud and clear, I was just trying a radio check, I might try one more frequency also". From West Coast "Lima Charlie on triple one seven five, over". From United 1948 "thank you for that".
A few seconds later, from United 1948, "West Coast, West Coast, United Nineteen-Fortyeight on triple one seventy five". Form West Coast "Last caller, last caller, this is West Coast, have you Lima Charlie, over". From United 1948 "United 1948 has you Lima Charlie, thank you very much for the checks".
Checking flight schedules, at that time United 1948 was en route and a couple of hours out from Cancun to San Francisco.
Shortly after this set of transmissions I heard United 1948 working San Fran on 11282 kHz USB.
At about 0042 UTC on April 16, 2023, about 2 and a half hours later, United 519 requested a radio check. This time I really could not make out much of United 519's traffic, but I heard all of the HF-GCS (West Coast) response. From West Coast "Last caller, last caller, this is West Coast, please say again last, over". From West Coast "United 519 this is West Coast, I have you Lima Charlie, over". A bit later, from West Coast "Last caller, last caller, I have you Lima Charlie, over". From West Coast "Untied 519 this is West Coast, I have you Lima Charlie, over".
Again checking the flight schedules, at that time United 519 was en route from Washington and a couple of hours out of San Francisco.
T!
6
HF Mystery Signals / MOVED: Unid 7720 AM 1955 utc 04 Apr 2023
« on: April 10, 2023, 1902 UTC »
This topic has been moved to Shortwave Broadcast.
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=112193.0
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=112193.0
7
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WDDR-Drunken DJ Radio 6950 USB 0014 UTC 9 APR 2023
« on: April 09, 2023, 0237 UTC »
On the house sound system here so Mrs Token can enjoy it also. Sounding good in the Mojave Desert of California tonight.
T!
T!
8
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Crapola Radio 13950 USB 2304 UTC 8 APR 2023
« on: April 08, 2023, 2309 UTC »
Crapola Pirate Radio, 13950 kHz, USB mode, 2300 UTC, about S7 on sign on into the Mojave Desert of California.
(edit)
And off at 2336 UTC.
The signal here in California was down around the middle of the show, but started coming back up towards the end. At sign off the signal was back up to were it was at the start, maybe a tad bit better.
T!
(edit)
And off at 2336 UTC.
The signal here in California was down around the middle of the show, but started coming back up towards the end. At sign off the signal was back up to were it was at the start, maybe a tad bit better.
T!
9
Spy Numbers / Re: V07 19172 USB 0203 UTC 19 MAR 2023
« on: March 22, 2023, 1938 UTC »About S4, just two levels above the noise floor. Clearly readable. First time I looked for this one from my QTH. Usually I can only hear Cuban numbers.
If you can hear this V07 source (Far Eastern Russia, https://priyom.org/number-stations/other/v07 ) it is quite probable that you can hear several M12 transmissions each week also, as some of them are sent from the same facility at Khabarovsk ( https://priyom.org/number-stations/morse/m12 ).
T!
10
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6931 AM 0328 UTC 18 Mar 23
« on: March 18, 2023, 0420 UTC »
There are two stations on 6931 kHz. One is an unknown, that has sent SSTV. The other is Indy Radio, Spain.
T!
T!
11
Utility / Re: HFGCS Force Directional Message (FDM) and Emergency Action Message (EAM) Log
« on: March 14, 2023, 2326 UTC »FEB 19th
* It can be observed that RAILMAN was previous day's HFGCS callsign. While the 02:49 message by RAILMAN was not DISREGARDED, I note that it was shortly followed by a broadcast of the same message under the WOOD DUCK callsign.
I have seen this happen before. A message after 0000z that uses the previous days callsign, no verbal indication of error, and the same message shortly after with the current days callsign. My assumption is they just did not want to draw attention to the fact something was off. I have also seen the same thing happen, with a "disregard" at some point in the error message.
T!
12
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: X-FM 4185 AM 0118 UTC 19 FEB 2023
« on: February 19, 2023, 0431 UTC »
Signal up to a bit over S9 here in the Mojave Desert of California. Was a tad weak at the start of the show, but doing well now.
T!
T!
13
Group W Bench / Re: FCC Cancels W6WBJ License
« on: February 14, 2023, 1959 UTC »Nothing but old men with ham licenses is going to be the death of ham radio. When they pass on, it will be gone. Young people aren't interested in old technology.
I hear that often from people who do absolutely nothing to share the hobby with others, young or old. There's a Young Amateur Radio Club Discord server out there. My teen aged niece has a shiny new license and handheld radio. There are kids out there who are using SDRs, building wireless linked microcontrollers and so on who don't yet realize there is a bigger community of radio hobbyists out there. All they need is some outreach. Europe has YOTA (https://www.ham-yota.com/)
I have litterally been hearing such statements since my very first ham club meeting in the late 1960's. Looking around at that meeting there were 2 of us under 20, and the vast majority were retirees. And the same thing was said then, young people aren't interested in the hobby, and the hobby will die out because no new blood is coming in.
And yet, today, as a percentage of the US population, there are about twice as many hams as there were then, and as raw numbers there are over three times as many.
I'd like to find a version of this chart that has the last four years of data but the growth is something like 12% on this one. Maybe Covid killed all the old hams and made the plot nose dive.
https://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/number-of-radio-amateurs.png
That big dip from 2003 to 2007 was driven by the fact many people knew the code requirement was going to be dropped, and waited to test until after that.
Unfortunately, when presented such data (concerning the number of hams in the US) one of the frequent responses is "there may be more licensed hams today, but there are fewer active hams". While I believe this sentiment is incorrect, that can be hard to prove one way or another.
There have always been a rather large segment of the licensed community that were inactive. Prior to the 1990's I spent more years inactive than active, to the point I let my license laps in the 1970's, and did not get involved again until the early 1990's.
I believe that one of the ways to judge the approximate level of activity is to look at the ARRL membership and QST subscriptions. I suspect that both today and in years past if you had an ARRL membership that you had renewed then you were probably a somewhat active ham. In fact, I strongly suspect that today fewer active hams (as a percentage) are ARRL members than in the past. Looking at the ARRL membership numbers as an indicator of active vs inactive hams you will find the ratios today very similar to those 45 years ago.
T!
14
Utility / Re: 9310 USB 0538 continuous Russian national anthem
« on: February 10, 2023, 1606 UTC »A strange one, for sure. Continuous loop of the Russian NA heard last night, and again tonight, about the same time. Last night went off about 06:00. Improving over time. Seems to be coming from Russia from what I can tell. Wonder who might this be. First noted a week or two ago. 73, Walt (Masset, BC)
The Russians have been doing this for several months on known Russian mil frequencies. At first they did not use the Anthem, and there was some question of if it was someone else jamming their freqs. But over time it became apparent that it was probably the Russians themselves and that it was some kind of channel marker or something.
I have a video here of last year, and at that time they used Ride of the Valkyries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVtp9wvCoIk
Later they shifted over to what they are generally using now, the Russian Anthem, a rock version of the song done by Любэ (Lube).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSBUdLCHdoI
T!
15
Spy Numbers / Re: VC01 Chinese Robot 4978 USB 1547 UTC 11 JAN 2023
« on: January 27, 2023, 1946 UTC »
Other freqs you might try this month:
8049 kHz USB
6885 kHz LSB
4978 kHz USB
5771 kHz LSB
T!
8049 kHz USB
6885 kHz LSB
4978 kHz USB
5771 kHz LSB
T!
