Topics

286

North American Shortwave Pirate / KCPR, 6925 USB, 0321 UTC, July 5, 2014

« on: July 05, 2014, 0327 UTC »

KCPR up with music and CW ID at 0321 UTC, on 6925 kHz USB, July 5, 2014.  S9+ here.  Audio is pretty good, but there is an audio hum when the music dies down.

T!

(edit)  SOrry for the error, it is KCPR, not KMUD as I first reported.  I heard the CW and assumed KMUD without actually listening to the ID...DOH!

287

North American Shortwave Pirate / YHWH, 9600 kHz AM, June 29, 2014, 0435 UTC

« on: June 29, 2014, 0501 UTC »

YHWH, 9600 kHz AM, started before 0435 UTC, June 29, 2014.  While there does apear to be some new content the majority is from previous programs, so must be recorded segments.

Off air with his normal sing off at 0511 UTC.

(edit)  Checking remotes has an excellent signal into Vancouver Canada, still fair but less strong into Michigan and Rochester NY.  10 to 20 over S9 here locally.

(edit 2)  Checked the Twente SDR remote in Netherlands.  The carrier was detectable, naturally this means it could not be confirmed as the same signal.  So when he signed off I was watching the signal on Twente, and sure enough carriers dropped on that remote and locally at the same time.

T!

288

North American Shortwave Pirate / KMUD, 6925 kHz USB, 0216 UTC, 28 June 2014

« on: June 28, 2014, 0219 UTC »

Music 6925 USB, S8 or a little better here.  KMUD ID at 0217 UTC, June 28, 2014.

0217 UTC voice ID
0222 UTC voice ID "KMUD, the muddy sounds on shortwave" followed by CW ID

T!

289

Other / Odd time ticks, multiple frequencies, June 17, 2014, 2337 to 0101 UTC

« on: June 18, 2014, 2145 UTC »

Odd Time tick station, June 17, 2014, to June 18, 2014, multiple frequencies.  And no, these are not RFI or anything like this, the signals have propagation and are heard across wide areas.

In early May, 2014, nickcarr in the #wunclub chat reported hearing an odd time tick station on 13159 kHz.  The station never gave an ID and never had a minute indicator in the audio, just even, rhythmic, 1 second pips.  Unfortunately I was working a heavy schedule at that time and really never had a chance to pursue the station much.  I did get to record it on May 4, 2014, from about 0001 to 0101 UTC, at which time it went off air.  

The center frequency of the station was 13159.58 kHz, and the time ticks were AM.  There were spurs that appeared unmodulated + and – 3 kHz from the carrier.  I am not saying they were unmodulated for sure, but if they were modulated I could not hear anything on them.  The time ticks were about 5 ms in length, or about the same length as WWV and WWVH time ticks.  The ticks seemed to start a few ms after WWV ticks did, but I did not get a good measurement on that.

And then the 13159.58 kHz signal stopped sending and I have not seen it since.

Fast forward to last night.  The Pips ditter network was up and I was searching frequencies, when I ran across an every second time tick occurring on 17179.18 kHz.  Looking closer at this signal I realized there were spurs each side of it at 3 kHz, and I mean 3 kHz down to the Hz.  The time ticks were again about 5 msec.  I checked 13159.58 but no sign of it there.  So, the signal was back but on a new frequency.

While recording it I noticed several other frequencies that appeared to have the same signal.  All totaled I ended up finding 45 frequencies associated with this signal.  20 of them had time ticks on them and 25 did not show detectable time pulses.  Of the 25 that did not show time ticks several may have had audio, but were too weak to be sure.  It is conceivable that every frequency had the time ticks, but some were just too weak for me to make out.  All of them were mathematically related to other frequencies found by 3, 87, or 90 kHz down to less than 1 Hz deviation.  17179.18 kHz seemed to be the key frequency, with the others distributed around that in various patterns.

I watched and recorded the signal on multiple frequencies from 2337 UTC on June 17, to 0101 UTC on June 18, 2014, when the signal abruptly left the air on all freqs.  Not that this is the same shutdown time I saw on May 4.  At various times in that time period it faded up and down, from very strong to weak, and I got the impression the power level was not constant, as if the level variation might not have been propagation related.  I was able to compare the arrival time of the pulses on this signal with the arrival time of pulses form WWV on 5000 kHz.  They arrived within 1 msec of the WWV pulses.  This has little meaning in and of itself, but if the pulses are sent in sync with WWV then the path distance from the transmitter to me is within 200 km of the distance from me to WWV.

In the following list of frequencies the ! means it appeared to be a primary signal.  This was a strong signal with spurs around it.  The * indicates there was no detectable audio.  If there is no symbol after the frequency that means time ticks were detectable, but it was many dB down form the closest “primary” signal, possibly some kind of spur.

The numbers to the right of each frequency are the offset from 17179.18 kHz.

Time tick
Freqs (kHz)

16909.18   *   -270
16912.18 !   -267
16915.18 !   -264
16918.18   *   -261
16999.18      -180
17002.18 !   -177
17005.18      -174
17089.18 !   -90
17092.18 !   -87
17170.18   *   -9
17173.18   *   -6
17176.18      -3
17179.18 !   0
17182.18      3
17185.18   *   6
17188.18   *   9
17191.18   *   12
17260.18   *   81
17263.18      84
17266.18 !   87
17269.18 !   90
17272.18      93
17275.18   *   96
17347.18   *   168
17350.18   *   171
17353.18   *   174
17356.18 !   177
17362.18   *   183
17365.18   *   186
17434.18   *   255
17437.18   *   258
17440.18   *   261
17443.18 !   264
17446.18 !   267
17449.18   *   270
17527.18   *   348
17530.18   *   351
17533.18 !   354
17536.18   *   357
17614.18   *   435
17620.18 !   441
17623.18   *   444
17626.18   *   447
17707.18   *   528
17710.18 !   531

Today the signal seemed to come up about 1440 UTC, I am unsure if this was propagation bringing it up or if that is when it came on.  There has appeared to be abrupt changes in signal level, looking much sharper than propagation fade up or down, this appears to be a step function.  At times the signal has been strong, and other times it has been undetectable.  While I think it has been on continuously since then (it is now 2245 UTC) I cannot be 100% sure of it.

Anyone else catching this thing?

T!

290

North American Shortwave Pirate / YHWH 29130 USB 2357 UTC 20 April, 2014

« on: April 20, 2014, 0014 UTC »

Station YHWH, 29130 kHz USB, came on air 2357 UTC, 20 April 2014.  S8 here.

T!

291

HF Beacons / Dasher, 6954.85 kHz, March 29, 2014, 0025 UTC

« on: March 30, 2014, 0038 UTC »

Frequency is 6954.85 kHz, and does appear to shift over time.  Dashes are about 1.3 seconds long and happen about every 2.05 seconds, dash length and rate does appear to drift and wander.  At times this one and the dasher on 6954.7 kHz look like they are in sync, but if you watch them long enough it is clear they are not.

T!

292

HF Beacons / Dasher, 6954.7 kHz, March 29, 2014, 0025 UTC

« on: March 30, 2014, 0036 UTC »

I have been seeing this dasher (and the one on 6954.85 kHz) off and on for a while, but never got around to actually looking at it.  It has been pretty weak, but today it fairly jumped out of the waterfall at me.

Frequency is 6954.7 kHz, but looks like it does shift over time.  Dashes are about 0.53 seconds long and happen about every 2.04 seconds.

T!

293

HF Beacons / AZ Beacon, 13554.18 kHz, March 28, 2014, 1455 UTC

« on: March 28, 2014, 1503 UTC »

A beacon not in my log book before this morning, March 28, 2014, 1455 UTC.  Sending "AZ" in CW about once each 4.7 seconds.  Frequency is 13554.18 kHz, but is pretty drifty, so take that as a general area to look.  Bearing and propagation this morning are consistent with the beacon maybe being in Arizona, but also could cover quite a large area outside AZ.

I have seen AZ down around 4 MHz before, not sure if this is the same beacon on a new freq or what.

T!

294

North American Shortwave Pirate / YHWH 11130 kHz AM March 09 2014 2315 UTC

« on: March 09, 2014, 2320 UTC »

Radio station YHWH on 11130 kHz, AM, March 09, 2014, 2315 UTC.  Religious pirate.  Saw him tuning around and then tuning up on freq.  He swept around from 10800 to 11400 kHz before settling on 11130 kHz.  S8 into my location in the Mojave Desert.

T!

295

North American Shortwave Pirate / Radio YHWH 6995 AM 0033 UTC March 02 2014

« on: March 02, 2014, 0039 UTC »

Yahweh Radio, YHWH, 6995 kHz AM, March 02, 2014, I turned on the radio at 0033 and he was already on.

Religious pirate, kind of Old Testament leanings.  Good audio, S8 or a little better here.

T!

(edit) Off air at 0048.  He really needs to run a bit later to make it east.

296

Spy Numbers / MOVED: 15016.xx usb HF GCS, 1835 utc Feb, 28 2014

« on: March 01, 2014, 0353 UTC »

This topic has been moved to [Utility].

http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=15575.0

297

Spy Numbers / MOVED: Odd flute sound on 4020khz

« on: February 26, 2014, 0226 UTC »

This topic has been moved to [Other] as it is not Spy Number related.

http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=15545.0

298

Utility / MOVED: 6943 USB 0148 UTC Feb. 4, 2014

« on: February 09, 2014, 1736 UTC »

This topic has been moved to HFBeacons.  Digital IDed, dasher still present.

http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=15215.0

299

Other / Pips network up, multiple frequencies, Feb 08, 2014, 1616 UTC

« on: February 08, 2014, 1814 UTC »

The Pips Network is up again today, Feb 08, 2014, starting before 1616 UTC.  Mostly the same freqs as yesterday although seeing higher freq stuff.  Could just be conditions.  At this time (1815 UTC) all freqs are still up and active.

A listener in CO is hearing all the way down to the 3450 kHz freq very weak, probably indicating one of the TX sites is in his general region.

Looking at the double pulse on 16725 I am able to peak one on about the 070 and the other on about the 095, reinforcing two transmit sites.

I will post a list of freqs here after I have a chance to review the recordings, but it looks about the same as yesterdays list here:   http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,15259.0.html

T!

(edit)

A quick shot at the freqs seen here today.  Others were reported by other listeners, but this is what was heard here.  I am sure more will show up as I sift the recordings.

28800, 27450, 26650, 26500, 26150, 24050, 23100, 22600, 22450, 22300, 22050, 21150, 20250, 20175, 20100, 19650, 19300, 18675, 18625, 18450, 18050, 17975, 17950, 17650, 17475, 16725, 16550, 16000, 15625, 15100, 14400, 13875, 13325, 13250, 12025, 11300, 11225, 11150, 11025, 10575, 10050, 9225, 9050, 8975, 8825, 8275, 7700, 6725, 6550, 6225

300

Other / Pips Network up, multiple frequencies, Feb 07, 2014, 2217

« on: February 07, 2014, 2251 UTC »

The Pips Netowrk appears to be active right now, Feb 07, 2014, noticed at 2217 UTC.  Short pip every 6 seconds on multiple frequencies.

(edit)  Off at 2248:30 UTC, while I was writing this.

Freqs seen at first glance:
24050
22600
22450
22300
22000
21150
19300
18625
18450
18050
17975
17475
16725
16000
15550
15100
14400
13875
13325
13250
12025
11300
11225
11150
11025
10575
10050
9225
9050
8975
8825
8275
7700
6750
6725
6550
6225

That is all for now, I am sure I will find other freqs when I play back the recordings.

T!