Messages

106

HF Mystery Signals / Re: UNID 6970 2019 UTC 19 NOV 2021--see waterfall

« on: November 24, 2021, 1736 UTC »

2136 UTC - 23 Nov 2021, just noticed the "MFSK Oddity" on 6988 kHz USB, the thing is transmitting on four frequencies, looks to be 4Khz wide in total. At 2140 UTC it stopped ( deep fade?) and started back up at 2144 UTC, still going at 2149 UTC with S5 signal in WNY. It covers frequencies 6988 to 6991 kHz.
2152 UTC - Signal is fading in and out.
2210 UTC - Signal is now S9+5.
2235 UTC - Signal still S9+5.

In the next couple of days, with the long weekend, I will try to grab some images to add to this thread, to demonstrate what I am talking about below.

In the last couple years I have seen several different versions of this signal.  Without a screen shot or a recording I am guessing at which specific variant of the signal you are seeing in your description above.  So my below is a guess, based on your description, and one possible version of the signal that I see often.

The 4 kHz wide signal was a single transmission.  I have seen this signal on up to 4 different frequencies at one time using bandwidths of 2, 3, 4, and 10 kHz for each frequency.

All of these versions can be found in various speeds, from very slow to very fast.  Sometimes a very slow transmission will be a few kHz away from a very fast one.

In the 4 kHz wide version there appear to be 4 individual, 4FSK, channels.  Arbitrarily I have called the 4 “data” channels inside the signal CH1, CH2, CH3, and CH4, with 1 being the lowest frequency set and 4 being the highest frequency set.  Each channel has 4 shift tones.  Generally the signal cycles in a 16 bit cycle.  I mean each cycle has 16 pulses or combinations of shift tones, and then the cycle repeats, over and over.

One common rate is one set of shift tones every 100 msec.  Since there are 16 bits or sets of shift tones in a cycle that means the signal cycles and repeats every 1.6 seconds.  A faster version of this same signal, identical in every way except speed, sends a set of tones about every 10 seconds and completes a cycle in about 0.16 seconds.

All 4 data channels in a given transmission are in sync, and cycle together (pulses occurring simultaneously in CH1, CH2, CH3, and CH4) but the bit cycle is different for each channel.  The same sequence is not being sent in CH1 as in CH2, or CH3, or CH4.


T!

107

HF Mystery Signals / Re: UNID 6970 2019 UTC 19 NOV 2021--see waterfall

« on: November 21, 2021, 1622 UTC »

Intriguing….were you receiving directly or via a remote SDR?  I’d think they’d want to have as directional a signal as possible, so it raises the question why either of us would pick up if they’re targeting Europe. I guess I might catch some of the NJ signal, and you the CA-ish signal….

I was wondering about data compression but the only thing they need to transmit is a time stamp, the ticker symbol, and the price info…?

Direct.  I see it pretty much daily, almost any time I go looking for it and propagation conditions are not in the trash.  For example, as I type it I see it on 16000 kHz c/f, 15995 kHz USB, 10 kHz width.  I see it less often at night, but I think that might be conditions causing that, as I will occasionally find it at night but typically less strong.  Often I cannot find it on European remotes at all.

When I say no changing data I mean nothing changes in the data, it is the exact same pattern for hours at a time.  And often the data rate is slow enough that any time advantage that might be had for RF vs cable / fiber is lost in the slow data rate.

T!

108

HF Mystery Signals / Re: UNID 6970 2019 UTC 19 NOV 2021--see waterfall

« on: November 21, 2021, 1415 UTC »

The signal you have here is what I call in my log books the "MFSK Oddity", I keep meaning to come up with a catchier name for it, but apparently I suffer a lack of imagination   I am not sure when I first saw this signal, but it was well over a year ago.  I also suspect I saw earlier versions (not containing as many channels or as many pulses) of the same signal before that, probably back at least 2 or 3 years ago.

What it actually is I can't tell you, but I can tell you some of its habits and my observations.

Some people associate this with High Frequency Trading (HFT).  I do not know if that is a valid association or not, but TDOA generally places the source near Chicago IL.  So it is from the same area as known HFT signals, but it might be guilty by association.

The signal does not appear to contain changing data, at least I have not seen it in a mode that has changing data.  Possibly it occasionally does and I have just never caught it in a valid data mode.  Instead, the signal generally appears to be just sending the same pattern for sometimes hours at a time.  The patterns vary, it is not always the same pattern, but once established it generally does not change for extended periods.

Despite the fact I have not seen the signal carry changing data I will describe what I have seen in data terms, shift, channel, tones, etc.

I have seen the signal on up to 4 frequencies at one time.  Your image has what I would call 2 frequencies in my description, one centered on about 6972 kHz and the other centered on about 6989 kHz.  I normally log them by tuned frequency, in USB, with the signal width included in the logging, in this images case it would be 6968 kHz USB with 4 kHz width and 6988 kHz USB with 2 kHz width.  Note that the two frequencies in your image each contain 4 channels of similar rates and shifts, but with very different rates and shifts for each frequency.  The left one is in a ~4 kHz wide width and what I would call fast speed in my log, the right one in a ~2 kHz wide width and what I would call slow speed.  Another common width is ~10 kHz.  Each width can be found in different speeds, but each channel in a given signal has approximately the same speed.

I have seen this signal on many different frequencies, from below 7000 kHz, as you have here, to above 18000 kHz.  Sometimes it sets on a given frequency for hours at a time, maybe all day long, other times it jumps around a bit, with short periods on each frequency.  Generally, if there are multiple frequencies in use, the frequencies are fairly close together, generally less than 1 MHz between them and most often 10's of Hz, sometimes 2, 3, or 4 frequencies right next to each other.

I keep meaning to do a video on this signal for my YT channel, but real life has different plans.

T!

109

HF Mystery Signals / MOVED: Unid CW 5916 khz CW 0500 UTC 13 November 2021

« on: November 14, 2021, 1953 UTC »

This topic has been moved to Utility.

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=88993.0

110

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 4015 USB was 6950 USB 0101 UTC 14 Nov 2021

« on: November 14, 2021, 0107 UTC »

~S6 here in the Mojave Desert, with "They Can't Take That Away From Me" on the house sound system.

T!

111

HF Mystery Signals / Re: UNID WF SIG 6.955 0155 UTC 1 October 2021

« on: November 03, 2021, 1332 UTC »

Not sure I would call it someone retransmitting HAARP, however it is certainly one of many types of transmissions HAARP is known for, a linear audio tone sweep.  Anyone could achieve the same thing using an AM transmitter and an audio tone generator with a sawtooth capability.  It might be accidental that it looks like HAARP, or someone might have been trying to simulate HAARP.

With that said, it is pretty wide audio.

I don't see any indication from typical sources that HAARP is, or was, on that date, active.  They certainly did not show up while I was looking on any of their common frequencies and I have not heard any reports of activities on those freqs.  Arecibo is gone, and unlikely to ever return, if it does it will be years before it is active again.  It obviously could have been a different experimenter, but typically those kinds of things go on for hours at a time, and days in a row.

Since it only happened a couple of times I would guess it was not someone trying to look like HAARP, but just someone testing audio / transmitter.

T!

112

Spy Numbers / Re: unid Numbers 6944 USB 2027 UTC 06 Oct 2021

« on: October 07, 2021, 1405 UTC »

Caught it too, slightly British accented robo-voice calling numbers. Not particularly strong, and possibly not a pirate. Off around 2030z.

This is not a pirate.  This is a known schedule of Russian sourced, English language, numbers station E07a.  During the months of April, September, and October, Wednesday and Thursday, 2000 UTC on 8144 kHz, 2020 UTC on 6944 kHz, and 2040 UTC on 5744 kHz.

T!

113

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6930 USB 2358 UTC 02 OCT 2021

« on: October 03, 2021, 0028 UTC »

S8 to S9 into the Mojave Desert of California tonight.  Excellent, as usual.

T!

114

HF Mystery Signals / Re: UNID wideband UTE 5125 USB 2147 UTC 10 Sep 2021

« on: September 11, 2021, 1413 UTC »

I do not know the "real" name of this mode, but it is Russian and it is sometimes called "CIS 4FSK 150Bd", "CIS MFSK-4", or "CIS FTM-4".

Note the resting freq of 5125 kHz, and then the 4 FSK channels with 4 kHz shift between them, for a total tone width of 12 kHz.

This mode has been around for years, but is not common.

I have a brief video of it on my YouTube channel.  But I really need to do a more detailed video...one day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq-mAr0qS3s

T!

115

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6970 USB 0000 UTC 5 Sep 2021

« on: September 05, 2021, 0022 UTC »

S6 to S8 into the High Desert tonight.  Not great, but good enough to be on the house sound system while I am draining a Willy's transmission in the garage.

T!

116

HF Beacons / Re: New Beacon or Spook? 7983.42 DFCW

« on: August 23, 2021, 2312 UTC »

Just FYI, an audio recording would go a long way to potentially narrowing this down a bit.  The pulse and its modulation (note the lines on each side of each pulse) look familiar, but I don't know what it is.

T!

117

HF Beacons / Possible new'ish beacon on about 4096.39 kHz

« on: August 20, 2021, 0017 UTC »

All,

I have been seeing what may be a beacon on about 4096.39 kHz.  I have seen this for several months, possibly over 6 months (will have to check recordings to confirm) and it feels / looks / acts like a possible beacon.  But I am not sure, and if it is not a beacon then I do not have a good guess as to what it is.

I have never gotten this signal very strong, so I still have a lot of questions about it.  The following are approximates, since I have yet to get a good enough SNR on the signal to confirm some of them.

The freq is about 4096.39 kHz and appears stable, the signal may be about 34 Hz wide, and could be an approximate 22 Hz shift FSK.  I cannot confirm it is FSK, but it sounds and looks like it could be.  And the signal certainly has some kind of width to it, but again, I have not had a good enough signal to get much detail.  I have been waiting to get a good sig before reporting this, but it seems I may never get a decent signal on it so I thought I would put it out for others to keep an eye open.

T!

118

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Unid (ZEEKY?) 6960 usb 0033 utc 15 Aug 2021

« on: August 15, 2021, 0037 UTC »

I have heard the ID of "Iroquois Radio" several times on 6960 USB.

T

119

HF Mystery Signals / Re: UNID 13925-13975 Digital 2354 UTC 16 July 2021

« on: July 18, 2021, 1857 UTC »

03:39 UTC 17 JULY 2021 - A similar buzzer type UNID UTE appears to be on 12960.0 kHz but is only +/- 20 kHz wide.
03:46 UTC - UNID UTE went off the air.



RSPduo | Barker & Williamson antenna | Toronto, Ontario Canada

I did not see the others (was not at the radio at that time), but this one, 12960 kHz, on air about 0320z and off air about 0345z, 17 July, 2021, is the British PLUTO radar.  It was also on 13240 kHz at the same time, with start / stop times on that freq of 0310z on and 0400z off.

T!

120

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Drunken DJ Radio 6950 USB 5 July 2021

« on: July 05, 2021, 0446 UTC »

Excellent signal into the Mojave Desert tonight DDJ.  Mrs Token is enjoying it on the house sound system as well.  Thanks for the show!

T!