Topics

76

Spy Numbers / Spy Numbers database, a resource you should use

« on: March 11, 2018, 2121 UTC »

For those of you not familiar, Chris has a long standing searchable database you can log your numbers station reports in.  The link is here:
http://www.spynumbers.com/numbersDB/

It is a great resource for historical numbers station activity.  When people log to it regularly it can be used to predict schedules.  In the past that was a huge plus, today with several groups keeping good, and current, schedules online this feature is not quite as important as it was.

And if you log to the DB you can select to have your logs submitted to the Spooks mailing list, sharing with other listeners interested in numbers stations.

This DB really only works if users populate it, so give it a look, give it a try.  The more people who use it the better it will be.

And so there is no misunderstanding, I love seeing the activity on this forum, the recent increase in reports is awesome.  I am not suggesting reporting to the DB instead of here, rather it would be great to see them both used.  The DB is awesome and searchable, while the forums promote discussion.

T!

77

North American Shortwave Pirate / International Free Radio Service 6935 LSB 0313 UTC 04 Mar 2018

« on: March 04, 2018, 0320 UTC »

So far UNID station, a couple of comedy skits, one about Feringi Beverage antennas and one about Pee Wees playhouse (too obvious to be a connection?)

Decent signal, S6 to S8 in the Mojave Desert

(edit) started music at 0320 UTC

T!

78

Other / Unknown dasher, 5136.5 and 6861.5 kHz, 25 February, 2018

« on: February 25, 2018, 1631 UTC »

For the past few days I have been following an unknown dasher that uses two frequencies (but not in the same time periods), 5137.5 kHz and 6861.5 kHz.

I stumbled on this dasher Feb 18, 2018, on 5136.5 kHz, at about 1400 UTC.  The dash is about 1.5 seconds long and occurs about every 26 seconds, it was reasonably strong, on the order of S8.  At the time propagation supported the probability that the source was Pacific or Asian, antenna bearings indicated the same thing.  I looked around for other active freqs and found none, as near as I can tell the dash was on only 5137.5 kHz at the time.

On Feb 19 I noted the signal left the air at 1501 UTC.

On Feb 24 at 1515 UTC I found the same dasher on 6861.5 kHz.  I monitored it off and on, checking back every 15 or 20 minutes, until about 1830 UTC, when propagation faded out with the signal still active.

Today, Feb 25, I saw the 5136.5 kHz signal as soon as I turned things on at about 1150 UTC.  It went off air at 1500 UTC.  I did not find it on another freq after that, although I continued to look for it, off and on, for the next hour.

At various times I thought it looked like some kind of texture on the dash, but not any specific modulation I could ID, more like a click inside the dash at times.

I have no idea what this signal is about.

I have heard it on remotes from Russia to the Rockies, so it is not a pirate or hobby dasher.  I have only seen it active on one frequency at a time.  I have not see anything outside these dashes on the same freq with the same propagation characteristics, so it does not see to be related to other activity.

T!

79

Utility / HF-GCS playing with the date, Feb 14, 2018

« on: February 14, 2018, 1439 UTC »

The HF-GCS network is not really something I pay a lot of attention to.  After a few EAMs and Skykings it can get pretty boring waiting for the odd phone patch.  However, I  do occasionally tune to it just for grins, and I often end up recording messages on HF-GCS in the process of grabbing spectrum for other purposes.

Such was the case with the first Skyking of the day at 0453 UTC on Feb 14, 2018.
http://www.tokenradio.net/Radio/SharedFiles/AudTfer/Skyking_Roses_4724kHz_USB_14022018_0453.mp3

Now you don't think that code word was an accident, do you?

With that said, many years ago when I was active duty, we used a hand coded message format very similar to EAMs for certain types of communications.  We periodically had to practice using this format, as it was somewhat cumbersome.  A friend of mine, who I had grown up with, was on watch on another ship on the HF net.  We transferred multiple messages back and forth in about a 30 minute time period, from 30'ish characters to over 120.

I am sure if any hobby listeners had heard us, and who knows, maybe some did, they might have wondered what all this "high priority" coded traffic was.

What were we discussing?  Why of course, what bar to meet at in Olongapo.

T!

80

Spy Numbers / MOVED: Numbers on 6.739USB at 23:21 UTC, Feb 10. 2018

« on: February 11, 2018, 1321 UTC »

This topic has been moved to Utility.

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=40396.0

81

Spy Numbers / MC03, 4990.5 CW, February 10 2018

« on: February 10, 2018, 1626 UTC »

What appears to be MC03 (a Morse sister station to Chinese VC01) has been active off and on for the last few days on 4990.5 CW.

I actually saw this station several days ago, but all it was sending was U34D, which I have listed for a different station.  But 3 days ago it started sending traffic consistent with MC03.

T!

82

HF Beacons / Morning MX run, 3 February, 2018

« on: February 03, 2018, 1432 UTC »

A quick run through the MX Russian single letter beacon freqs this morning:

3594.0  C
3594.1  A
3594.2  F

4557-4558 beacons covered by jammer

5154.1  A
5154.3  K
5154.4  M
5154.8  F   Wrong freq?  Very raspy, several audio harmonics on 100 Hz steps +/-

7039.1  A
7039.4  M

8495.1  A
8495.4  M

I really need to put up a video of F, K, and M on the lower freqs.  Every time I try to correct the Wikipedia entry on Single Letter Beacons to include these someone comes around and claims I can't point to a published source that corroborates their operations on these freqs.  When I tell them "sure, but I hear them there" I am told that is not good enough.  So I guess I need to "publish" a video and put that to bed.

T!

83

Spy Numbers / VC01 transmitter changes in mid transmission

« on: January 15, 2018, 0247 UTC »

All,

I put up a video today of Chinese oddity VC01, the Chinese Robot.  There are lots of videos of VC01 on line, however this one shows a specific feature of VC01 that I have not seen other videos address.  This is not new, VC01 has done it for years.

Occasionally you will hear VC01 make a noticeable change in its transmitted signal in mid transmission.  The signal may abruptly change in signal strength, or it might shift frequency slightly, or maybe the transmitted bandwidth will change.  It is easiest to notice when it does all 3 of these at the same time.

I have also noticed, using remote receivers, that sometimes a reduction in signal at my location correlates to an increase in signal at someplace else.  Remember, this is not fading or conditions, it is instant, like throwing a switch.

It might make sense that they cycle through various antennas, and possibly transmission bearings, to insure coverage over a wider area.  But to me, because of the sometimes associated frequency shifts and bandwidth changes, it clearly looks as if they are not only changing antennas, but maybe also changing transmitters.

This leads to a few questions in my mind.  Could this be a distributed network of transmitters?  If not distributed, why change transmitters but stay in the same mode on the same frequency?

Anyway, to the video.  The video is made from recordings of two different receptions of VC01 at my location, more than a year apart.  I have several other recordings showing similar activity, I just chose these two because the changes were fairly pronounced (many times it is harder to detect) and to show it was not a one time thing.

The cycle takes about 6 minutes to complete.  Most of the time I have seen this it has taken about 6 minutes.  To avoid a 40 minute video I have jumped ahead in time to show the changes and 10 seconds before and after each change.

The video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3xY_V2-yL0

T!

84

Other / Unknown pips / pulses in the ham 40 meter band, 01 Jan, 2018, 2238 UTC

« on: January 03, 2018, 0344 UTC »

01 Jan, 2018, about 2238 UTC, Tom S in the HFU Ryver chat commented on hearing an odd set of pulses or dits on multiple frequencies in the 40 meter ham band.  I looked and sure enough, there were 4 frequencies with short duration dits on them, and a pretty strong signal is was.  Eventually using remotes and talking to other listeners in chat this signal was heard from the US west coast and Pacific North West to Eastern Europe.

Each frequency was pulsed once per second.  Each pulse or dit was about 20 millisecond long.  The initial set of frequencies was 7035 kHz, 7040 kHz, 7065 kHz, and 7105 kHz.

Looking closer showed that the pulses on all 4 frequencies were not transmitted simultaneously, rather the pulses were sequencing or cycling through the 4 frequencies.  Frequency 1, then freq 2, then freq 3, then freq 4, and back to freq 1 to start the cycle over.  Each 20 msec pulse was followed by 20 msec of dead air before the next frequency in the set transmitted.

In the first set noted, active from 2238z until 2250z, the sequence was 7065 kHz, 7040 kHz, 7035 kHz, and 7105 kHz, in that order.  Back to 7065 kHz to start the cycle again.

This picture shows the timing relationship between 7065 and 7040 kHz in that first set.
https://a4.pbase.com/o10/50/78250/1/166795861.ToN2Bl3p.40M_dits_7040_vs_7065.jpg

At 2250 UTC the frequency set changed, and now the sequence was 7066 kHz, 7040 kHz, 7000 kHz, and 7070 kHz.

At 2323z the signal went off air for a minute, and came back on at 2324 UTC, now with the sequence of 7065 kHz, 7040 kHz, 7105 kHz, and 7000 kHz.  This set continued until 2355 UTC.

At 0005 UTC, now 02 January, the signal came back with the sequence 7065 kHz, 7040 kHz, 7105 kHz, and 7120 kHz.  At 0016 UTC this frequency set changed to 7065 kHz, 7040 kHz, 7010 kHz, and 7105 kHz.

The signal went off air at 0019 UTC and was not seen again.

Note that in the 5 sets of frequencies observed 7065 and 7040 kHz were always the first two used, the last two frequencies changed with each set.

Both while the signal was active and for several hours after it ended I attempted to find it on other freqs, I did not see any active.

These pulses were 1 pulse per second per frequency and the timing appeared very stable over the hour and a half observed.  The lead pulse, always 7065 kHz, always arrived at my location about 9.6 msec after UTC time zero.  Although there is really nothing to indicate it (and nothing to NOT indicate it), if we assume the lead pulse is made on the start of the UTC second then we can plot, based on propagation time, the range from my location.  This results in a range ring looking something like this:

https://a4.pbase.com/o10/50/78250/1/166795887.nPGPPsB0.40M_dits_delay.jpg

Pure speculation, and nothing to prove it either way.  But interesting how the circle goes right through WLO's location in Mobile, AL, as well as near a few other known radio sources near the Great Lakes.

Anyway, I have no idea what this signal was / is used for, and it might be just some kind of test signal.  But I found it interesting and it was, in my opinion, well over ham power levels.  I will be keeping my eyes open for it.

I made a video of the signal and put it up on my YouTube channel.  The video is boring with lots of text added carrying the details.  There are sections of the video for each of the 5 sets of frequencies seen and audio comparing the timing of each frequency set.  So not something to keep the average YouTuber engaged, but maybe someone interested in shortwave oddities might find it revealing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSP8pHtqOd4&

T!

85

North American Shortwave Pirate / KMUD 6906.1 AM 0047 UTC 1 Jan 2018

« on: January 01, 2018, 0053 UTC »

So far UNID on 6906.1 AM.  Noticed it about 0047 UTC, 12 Jan, 2018.  Music.  Prince, "You don't have to be rich", is the name of that song "Kiss"?

Very weak here, occasional peaks enough to make out audio.

(edit)  KMUD ID in CW at 0106 UTC.  Came up nicely about this time, pushing S7 to S8.

T!

86

North American Shortwave Pirate / YETTI MAN 6942 LSB 0154 UTC 20 Dec 2017

« on: December 20, 2017, 0223 UTC »

UNIDed station with music noted at 0154 UTC, 20 Dec, 2017, on 6942 kHz LSB.  At first I thought it might be Peskies playing music, but then an SSTV went.

In general too weak to make out much other than is music, maybe Christmas songs, not sure.

(edit)  While I never heard a callsign on air the callsign of the SSTV image, not seen on the image but sent as an ID that MMSSTV displayed, was "YETTI MAN".

T!

87

Other / MOVED: 6398,50 CW

« on: November 03, 2017, 2307 UTC »

This topic has been moved to HF Beacons.

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=38443.0

88

HF Mystery Signals / MOVED: 6398,50 CW

« on: November 03, 2017, 2304 UTC »

This topic has been moved to HF Beacons.

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=38443.0

89

Spy Numbers / MOVED: CW Numbers Station 6956 CW 0715 UTC 11 August 2017

« on: August 11, 2017, 1313 UTC »

This topic has been moved to Utility.

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=36619.0

90

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6925 AM 2345 UTC 13 Jul 2017

« on: July 13, 2017, 2352 UTC »

So far UNIDed station 6925 AM.  S9 or so, audio is a little low but has improved during the program.  I think I saw this station tuning up before it came on with audio.

2348z  What You Won't Do For Love, Bobby Caldwell
2350z  You Needed Me, Anne Murray

Off suddenly at 0000z.  Just before leaving the air I heard some squealing in the audio, like SWR or RF in the audio issue.  Before it left the air the audio was starting to be very nice.  Good audio bandwidth.

T!