Messages

1621

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Red Mercury Labs 6940am 0250z 8/24/2013

« on: August 24, 2013, 0323 UTC »

S8 signal into the High Desert.  Audio has been good after the initial up and down.

Mrs Token IDed the station as RML before the ID, and asked "why is RML in AM, isn't he normally sideband?" when she brought a drink over to my listening desk.  Possibly I have subjected her to too much Pirate Radio.  

T!

1622

North American Shortwave Pirate / Blue Ocean Radio 6940 and 6930 USB 0135UTC August 24 2013

« on: August 24, 2013, 0152 UTC »

Blue Ocean Radio with his new interval signal at 0135 UTC on 6940 USB, August 24, 2013.  BOR ID at 0139z.  About S6 here, but it is stillv ery early.  Audio is good and solid 100% copy.

T!

(edit)  Shifted to 6930 kHz at 0206 UTC.

1623

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Red Mercury Labs 6935 kHz USB 0317 UTC August 23 2013

« on: August 23, 2013, 0457 UTC »

Off air at 0456z.  Great sets RML, some really good tunes, thanks for the show.

T!

1624

North American Shortwave Pirate / Red Mercury Labs 6935 kHz USB 0317 UTC August 23 2013

« on: August 23, 2013, 0320 UTC »

No ID heard yet, 6935 USB, August 23, 2013, started about 0310 or so.

Sounds like a few BOC cuts about 0318.  Audio also might be Red Mercury Labs.

T!

(edit)  Changed freq in the subject line to 6935 U, where the station was all the time.  Maybe I am the one who should be on meds Dr.

(edit 2)  Station off air at 0343z, back on at 0349z, and it is RML

(edit 3)  The Highwaymen song at 0439 was great.  I have that on vinyl aroundhere someplace.

1625

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: Firedrake 13795 Aug 19,2013 1203Z

« on: August 22, 2013, 2204 UTC »

While a minority of times I have still quite often heard China double teaming or even triple teaming a station with jammers.  I have heard CNR1, Firedrake, and two versions of noise jammers all hitting one station.

The use of Firedrake is greatly reduced, but still does happen on a daily basis.  It was pretty much gone for a couple of weeks (end of April, beginning of May), and then slowly came back up to its current levels of activity.

T!

1626

Spy Numbers / Re: New Star Broadcast 13750 13:18 utc 8/20/13

« on: August 22, 2013, 1402 UTC »

yes they do qsl or at least they used to. they used to ask for signal reports & gave a hotmail address & a PO box # in Taipei. This was about 10 years ago. Also the correct name for the station may very well  be "star star". New in Chinese is "xin" pronounced "shin" & star is "xing" pronounced "shing" so there is some confusion about it. Chinese is such a complex language with tones making a word have a different meaning. I remember now seeing the station called "star star" about 15 or 16 years ago. Easier to just call it V13.  Here is an interesting article about the station:
 

There has been a bit of controversy in the past about this, both the QSL thing and the “Star Star” thing.

While this claim that they used to give an email address and ask for signal reports has been around a while, no one seems to be able to produce a recording of it, at least no one I have talked with or researched.  I know I have been listening to this station off and on since about 1999, and I don’t ever remember hearing anything like an email address.   The format is fairly well defined and even a non-Chinese speaker should be able to spot the addition of something like a request for a reception report and an email address, even if not understanding what is being said.

There are 4 claimed QSL cards (that I know of) associated with this station, all in the 2001 to 2003 time frame.  However none of them were done via email, all were via snail mail.  All of them are anomalous in some way, for example one QSL confirms a reception, with the right time and frequency, but states the language of the broadcast was French.  One of them verified an English language transmission on a frequency the listener had not reported. 

The general consensus seems to be that the former CBS / Radio Taipei International might have responded to the QSL reports and just issued the cards, and not whoever was actually the source of the V13 transmissions.  Based on what I have read even the owners of 3 of these QSL cards consider them “maybes”.

As for the “Star Star”, yes, that was brought up a number of years ago.  However, I have had multiple native Chinese speakers listen to recordings of V13 over the years, and every one of them has reported that the station is saying “New Star”.

If I remember right V13 was the second Chinese station to receive an ID designator from the original Enigma group (I am pretty sure the ID was assigned before Enigma 2000 existed).

T!

1627

Spy Numbers / Re: New Star Broadcast 13750 13:18 utc 8/20/13

« on: August 22, 2013, 1324 UTC »

They were on the air at 1200z this morning (Aug 22, 2013) on 13750 kHz.  I left the house at about 1212z and they were still on the air at that time.  Conditions were not very favorable though, they were pretty weak at only about S4 or S5.

T!

1628

Other / Re: 6935-6950 @ 0200z UNID - UTE or ? 8/19/2013

« on: August 21, 2013, 0022 UTC »

While I cannot be 100% sure of what it is without an audio or I/Q file (and the signal is not making it to the west coast) I am reasonably confident that this is Link 11 CLEW.

You can see enough detail in Kilokat7's image to see the 605 Hz Doppler tone, the 14 DQPSK data tones, and the 2915 Hz Sync.

The other image, showing 2 mirrored streams, looks like the signal is in DSB (or possibly ISB) on 6942 kHz.

T!

1629

Utility / Re: 6943 digital 08/20/13

« on: August 20, 2013, 2354 UTC »

It looks to me like whatever it is is in DSB on 6942 kHz.

Without an audio or I/Q recording I cannot be sure what it is.  I can think of a couple it might be, the leading possibility in my mind would be Link 11 CLEW, the pilot (Doppler) tone at about 600 Hz (should be 605 Hz) and the Synch stream at about 2900 Hz (should be 2915 Hz) make me think that is what it is.  Another possibility would be MIL STD 188-110A Appendix B 39 Tone.  The pilot tone for that would be a bit lower, near 400 Hz.  The image just does not have enough detail to give me a warm fuzzy on which it is.

T!

1630

Spy Numbers / Re: New Star Broadcast 13750 13:18 utc 8/20/13

« on: August 20, 2013, 1653 UTC »

This station can be found on this frequency (13750 kHz) at 0500, 0600, 1200, and 1300 UTC.  It can also be found on 15388 kHz at 0700 and 0800 UTC.  I have heard it at other times on both frequencies as well, but those time periods seem to be the most repeatable.

The station normally comes up at the top of the hour and ends at between 28 and 32 after the hour (but can end earlier).  It starts with pipes music and ends with a perky sounding Chinese girl saying thanks for listening and goodbye.

T!

1631

Utility / Re: ODD 6993

« on: August 18, 2013, 1334 UTC »

Keep in mind that the NATO Phonetics are said the same way regardless of the language used.  In other words you might hear a Japanese language QSO but with "English" sounding phonetics sprinkled in.  It can seem odd.

Transmissions similar to what you describe can be found fairly regularly.  In my case I most often run across Spanish (SS) language transmissions that are mostly phonetics with just a few words of SS thrown in.  I have heard this from Mexican military, police, and SS narcotraffic.

T!

1632

Utility / Re: 9906.3 Unid 05:07Z

« on: August 18, 2013, 1328 UTC »

Nothing seen when I checked the frequency.  A recording might help to ID such a signal.

Keep in mind that if it is STANAG (and I assume you mean specifically STANAG 4285, there are many types of STANAG out there) that it is most likely to be encrypted.  The large majority of S4285 is encrypted, only a few sources are in the clear.

T!

1633

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 6935 USB UNID 0330 8/18

« on: August 18, 2013, 0335 UTC »

Sounds like RML to me.

(edit)  Yep, RML ID 0335 UTC


T!

1634

Utility / Re: Military one time Slot 4 information broadcast 11159usb 22:20 UTC 8/11/13

« on: August 13, 2013, 1451 UTC »

On August 12, 2013 both 5450 and 11253 kHz came back on the air between my 1345 UTC and 1402 UTC check.  Not there at 1345, were there at 1402 UTC.

And yes, 11159 kHz has not yet returned to service, if it ever will.

T!

1635

Utility / Re: Military one time lot 4 information broadcast 11159usb 22:20 UTC 8/11/13

« on: August 12, 2013, 0328 UTC »

This transmission is identical to the transmissions heard on 5450 kHz and 11253 kHz.  The audio on all three freqs are identical, however there is a very slight time delta between at least two, if not all three, of these frequencies.  I know 11253 kHz leads 11159 kHz by a few tenths of a second, but I have never been able to receive 5450 kHz directly (not using a remote) well enough so I have not been able to make an honest comparison of the timing on that freq to the others.

Later tonight I will load a video of 11253 kHz and 11159 kHz on one RX to compare timing.
(edit)  Stereo audio / video recording here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEPY7P_xI-U
the left channel audio is 11159 kHz, the right channel audio is 11253 kHz.  You can clearly hear 11253 audio leads 11159 audio slightly.

The transmissions work in a 30 minute cycle, starting at XX00 and XX30.  It cycles through Slot One to Slot Five during that cycle.

Video of complete 30 minute cycle here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shmIBvLxwAY

The above was as received at my location in the Mojave Desert, California.

Location is a bit of a question, no doubt.  However I can say with almost certainty it is not Ascension.  Ascension is a tad over 11700 km from my location and there is no way that freq will, for days on end, support uninterrupted propagation over that distance to me.  Since I have heard it at all hours of the day and night since I first noticed it a bit over three days ago, every time I have gone looking for it since then it has been there, it has to be closer than Ascension.

The thought of Creech AFB is driven, at least partially (it was first suggested, as far as I know, in the #wunclub chat), by the fact that the Brits have a permanent presence there.  However I do not place much faith in that, the Brits have a permanent presence on dozens of bases in the western US, I don’t see that as enough to qualify that particular base.  Also, I have hunch the location is a bit further form me than there.

I am leaning towards a location something like Utah or Colorado area, but have little to go on for that.  Primarily every time I have listened on a CO remote the signal has been pretty strong.

Others are suggesting south west Canada.  That might fit but when I check remotes in the US north west and Canadian south west I don’t think they are stronger, indeed often they are weaker, than the CO remotes.

T!