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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.
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HF Mystery Signals / MOVED: UNID 4868.5 USB 1948 UTC 26 Aug 2023
« on: September 21, 2023, 1426 UTC »3
HF Mystery Signals / MOVED: "exercise" stn, 8058.5 USB 2354 UTC 29 Aug 2023
« on: September 21, 2023, 1426 UTC »5
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!
7
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
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HF Mystery Signals / MOVED: "0 0 0" Beacon, 5345 CW 1640 UTC 14 DEC 2022
« on: December 15, 2022, 2156 UTC »
This topic has been moved to Spy Numbers.
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=106780.0
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=106780.0
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Spy Numbers / MOVED: UNID Numbers 6952 USB 1500 UTC 01 DEC 2022
« on: December 05, 2022, 2218 UTC »
This topic has been moved to North American Shortwave Pirate.
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=106143.0
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=106143.0
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HF Mystery Signals / MOVED: UNID 17789 AM 1449 UTC 24 October 2022
« on: October 25, 2022, 1205 UTC »
This topic has been moved to Shortwave Broadcast.
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=103741.0
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=103741.0
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North American Shortwave Pirate / KMUD 6935 AM 0255 UTC 17 April 2022
« on: April 17, 2022, 0305 UTC »
KMUD on 6935 AM, with CW and voice ID, starting at about 0255 UTC, 17 April, 2022.
S8 here (edit, 10 over S9 on the right antenna).
T!
(edit) at about 0346 UTC KMUD took a big dive, from 10+ over S9 to S4 or less in about 60 seconds. At the same time 6930 USB came up in signal. Looks like a major band condition change at that time.
S8 here (edit, 10 over S9 on the right antenna).
T!
(edit) at about 0346 UTC KMUD took a big dive, from 10+ over S9 to S4 or less in about 60 seconds. At the same time 6930 USB came up in signal. Looks like a major band condition change at that time.
13
HF Mystery Signals / MFSK Oddity, possible HFT, multiple frequencies and days
« on: March 21, 2022, 1732 UTC »
All,
I have been meaning to write up something on the MFSK Oddity that has been being reported by multiple people to this forum over the past year+. Unfortunately, real life has gotten in the way and I have not had time to do it.
So I am going to pull all (well, all I can find) the threads together under this one thread and include a couple recordings I have made.
(edit) Well, that did not work. I will link the other threads to this one, not merge the threads.
For those not familiar, the MFSK Oddity is a signal that has been showing up since at least mid 2020, and I suspect it was around a bit before that. Further, I think some of the phantom "1 PPS" signals before that time may be related.
Some listeners tie this signal to HFT (High Frequency Trading). I do not think that has been proven, but geolocation via TDOA and HFDF, searches of related frequency authorizations for HFT license, and similar frequency use / habits of other HFT tied signals make the HFT association very possible, if not probable. If not quite proven it is a best guess. 10Band LLC and related businesses are likely candidates.
The arguments against HFT are that the data rate is too slow to be useful for that service, and the data also appears static, unchanging, for very long periods of time. If you are leveraging RF vs fiber to gain microseconds of advantage, why use a data format that sends bits in 10's or 100's of millisecond intervals?
I have measured bandwidths of about 2.6, 4, and 10 kHz, I have seen other bandwidths but they have been too weak for me to get a decent estimate of the occupied bandwidth.
I have seen pulse rates of between 200 Hz (5 msec pulse interval) to 1 Hz (1 second pulse interval). I have seen repeating "bit patterns" (for lack of better term) of 8, 16, and 32 bits.
The signal appears to be MFSK like. Since late 2020 it has generally appeared to be 4 channels of data (prior to that it was 3 channels, or less), each channel with 4 FSK like steps. There may be some other modulation on each pulse, but if so I have not been able to confirm it. Arbitrarily, for my notes, I have called the lowest frequency channel of data Ch1, and moving up in freq Ch2, Ch3, and Ch4. Within each channel I have called the tones, again low freq to high, 1, 2, 3, and 4.
These signals move frequencies regularly, probably as needed for propagation.
Some videos below, sorry, they are not nicely annotated or explained, but at least they are recordings. The frequencies listed are center frequency.
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 1000 msec interval, 15910 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdzHIOUuJ-c
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 100 msec interval, 14903 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTYZrmO6rxE
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 66.7 msec interval, 10160 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKb2Z5LOdlE
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 50 msec interval, 10170 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T18rzFeMG04
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 33.3 msec interval, 13909 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz2eRqMXVyk
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 20 msec interval, 13928 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM0o4jCjLHk
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 10 msec interval, 10807 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Riik2BGJU
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 32 bit, 100 msec interval, 15905 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Kqwf3PGFY
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 32 bit, 5 msec interval, 14500 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhwsXmk77uc
2.6 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 3 step, 16 bit, 100 msec, 6993 and 6988 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V54EMvVuViI
2.6 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 3 step, 16 bit, 50 msec interval, 14480 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaoMYPot2ko
T!
Related threads:
UNID 9060 Digi
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,93053.0.html
UNID 6940.0 kHz (CF) 00:00 UTC 01 FEBRUARY 2022
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,92398.0.html
UNID 6985 (CF) 1310 UTC 09 JAN 2022
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,91412.0.html
UNID 6988 USB 2223 UTC 09 DEC 2021
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,90040.0.html
UNID 6965 (CF) 2200 UTC 09 DEC 2021
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,90039.0.html
UNID 6970 2019 UTC 19 NOV 2021--see waterfall
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,89284.0.html
I have been meaning to write up something on the MFSK Oddity that has been being reported by multiple people to this forum over the past year+. Unfortunately, real life has gotten in the way and I have not had time to do it.
So I am going to pull all (well, all I can find) the threads together under this one thread and include a couple recordings I have made.
(edit) Well, that did not work. I will link the other threads to this one, not merge the threads.
For those not familiar, the MFSK Oddity is a signal that has been showing up since at least mid 2020, and I suspect it was around a bit before that. Further, I think some of the phantom "1 PPS" signals before that time may be related.
Some listeners tie this signal to HFT (High Frequency Trading). I do not think that has been proven, but geolocation via TDOA and HFDF, searches of related frequency authorizations for HFT license, and similar frequency use / habits of other HFT tied signals make the HFT association very possible, if not probable. If not quite proven it is a best guess. 10Band LLC and related businesses are likely candidates.
The arguments against HFT are that the data rate is too slow to be useful for that service, and the data also appears static, unchanging, for very long periods of time. If you are leveraging RF vs fiber to gain microseconds of advantage, why use a data format that sends bits in 10's or 100's of millisecond intervals?
I have measured bandwidths of about 2.6, 4, and 10 kHz, I have seen other bandwidths but they have been too weak for me to get a decent estimate of the occupied bandwidth.
I have seen pulse rates of between 200 Hz (5 msec pulse interval) to 1 Hz (1 second pulse interval). I have seen repeating "bit patterns" (for lack of better term) of 8, 16, and 32 bits.
The signal appears to be MFSK like. Since late 2020 it has generally appeared to be 4 channels of data (prior to that it was 3 channels, or less), each channel with 4 FSK like steps. There may be some other modulation on each pulse, but if so I have not been able to confirm it. Arbitrarily, for my notes, I have called the lowest frequency channel of data Ch1, and moving up in freq Ch2, Ch3, and Ch4. Within each channel I have called the tones, again low freq to high, 1, 2, 3, and 4.
These signals move frequencies regularly, probably as needed for propagation.
Some videos below, sorry, they are not nicely annotated or explained, but at least they are recordings. The frequencies listed are center frequency.
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 1000 msec interval, 15910 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdzHIOUuJ-c
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 100 msec interval, 14903 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTYZrmO6rxE
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 66.7 msec interval, 10160 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKb2Z5LOdlE
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 50 msec interval, 10170 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T18rzFeMG04
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 33.3 msec interval, 13909 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz2eRqMXVyk
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 20 msec interval, 13928 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM0o4jCjLHk
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 16 bit, 10 msec interval, 10807 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Riik2BGJU
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 32 bit, 100 msec interval, 15905 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Kqwf3PGFY
4 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 32 bit, 5 msec interval, 14500 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhwsXmk77uc
2.6 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 3 step, 16 bit, 100 msec, 6993 and 6988 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V54EMvVuViI
2.6 kHz bandwidth, 4 Channel, 3 step, 16 bit, 50 msec interval, 14480 kHz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaoMYPot2ko
T!
Related threads:
UNID 9060 Digi
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,93053.0.html
UNID 6940.0 kHz (CF) 00:00 UTC 01 FEBRUARY 2022
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,92398.0.html
UNID 6985 (CF) 1310 UTC 09 JAN 2022
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,91412.0.html
UNID 6988 USB 2223 UTC 09 DEC 2021
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,90040.0.html
UNID 6965 (CF) 2200 UTC 09 DEC 2021
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,90039.0.html
UNID 6970 2019 UTC 19 NOV 2021--see waterfall
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,89284.0.html
