31
Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6960 USB 0205 UTC 09 March 2019
« on: March 09, 2019, 0213 UTC »
So far unided station on 6960 kHz USB. Wide audio, looks to be over 12 kHz wide.
0211 UTC Boogie Nights.
T!
0211 UTC Boogie Nights.
T!
Shortwave Pirate Radio In North America And Around The World, And Other Things 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.
Always consult with the appropriate authorities if you have questions concerning what is permissable in your locale.
The South East US is one of the worst locations to hear voice numbers stations, or numbers stations of any kind that are not Cuban. You typically can't get the Asian stations that are heard on the west coast, and you typically can't get the European stations as well as folks in the North East of the US.
T!
Since most Link-22 hardware I have heard of is back compatible to Link-11 it might have already happened, and we just don't realize it yet. I have no doubt that an all Link-22 network will sound different than Link-11, it is a completely different format, but for all we know we have been hearing Link-22 in a back compatible mode for a while now. Link 22 was defined back around 1990, and has been "in development" since about 1992. I suspect there are a lot of Link 22 capable platforms (hardware installed) out there already.
T!
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32
Shortwave Pirate / Skippy Radio 6925 USB 0130 UTC 3 March 2019
« on: March 03, 2019, 0135 UTC »
So far unided station, 6925 kHz USB. S7 or a bit better into the Mojave Desert of California. Blues thus far.
A visitor from the past .... "His words were true, we were not free, we have ourselves to blame"
T!
A visitor from the past .... "His words were true, we were not free, we have ourselves to blame"
T!
34
Spy Numbers / V24 Logs, March, 2019
« on: March 01, 2019, 1517 UTC »
All,
Starting a thread for V24 logs for the month of March, 2019.
My last chart is here http://www.tokenradio.net/Radio/SharedFiles/NumbersTfer/V24_M94_latest_sched.JPG however keep in mind that is based on information ending in December.
T!
Starting a thread for V24 logs for the month of March, 2019.
My last chart is here http://www.tokenradio.net/Radio/SharedFiles/NumbersTfer/V24_M94_latest_sched.JPG however keep in mind that is based on information ending in December.
T!
35
Spy Numbers / Re: V24 logs, February 2019
« on: March 01, 2019, 1515 UTC »
It seems people reported most of the V24 slots that transmitted this month, however somehow the reactivated 5150 Khz slot slipped by. Below is the V24 Activity as received here at my location in the Mojave Desert, for the month of February, 2019
5290 03-02-2019 1430z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair to strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5290 05-02-2019 1430z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair to strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5290 07-02-2019 1430z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair to strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5900 15-02-2019 1600z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair here in the Mojave Desert of California.
5150 18-02-2019 1400z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5900 18-02-2019 1600z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair here in the Mojave Desert of California.
5150 21-02-2019 1400z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5900 22-02-2019 1600z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair here in the Mojave Desert of California.
4900 23-02-2019 1530z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair here in the Mojave Desert of California with heavy co channel interference from broadcast station.
5150 25-02-2019 1400z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
4900 25-02-2019 1530z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with heavy co channel interference from broadcast station.
4900 27-02-2019 1530z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with heavy co channel interference from broadcast station.
The only remaining time slot that does not use K-pop intro music is the infrequent 4925 kHz, 1430z, slot, which uses Classical.
I think this single thread for a station per month works well for keeping track of activity in an easy to find place. Yes, if the forum was faster paced, more traffic, it might fall off the front page too fast, but for now it works pretty well. I will go ahead and start a March, 2019, thread.
T!
5290 03-02-2019 1430z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair to strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5290 05-02-2019 1430z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair to strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5290 07-02-2019 1430z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair to strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5900 15-02-2019 1600z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair here in the Mojave Desert of California.
5150 18-02-2019 1400z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5900 18-02-2019 1600z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair here in the Mojave Desert of California.
5150 21-02-2019 1400z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
5900 22-02-2019 1600z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair here in the Mojave Desert of California.
4900 23-02-2019 1530z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair here in the Mojave Desert of California with heavy co channel interference from broadcast station.
5150 25-02-2019 1400z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with light Chinese OTHR QRM.
4900 25-02-2019 1530z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with heavy co channel interference from broadcast station.
4900 27-02-2019 1530z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, strong here in the Mojave Desert of California with heavy co channel interference from broadcast station.
The only remaining time slot that does not use K-pop intro music is the infrequent 4925 kHz, 1430z, slot, which uses Classical.
I think this single thread for a station per month works well for keeping track of activity in an easy to find place. Yes, if the forum was faster paced, more traffic, it might fall off the front page too fast, but for now it works pretty well. I will go ahead and start a March, 2019, thread.
T!
36
HF Mystery Signals / Re: Unknown digital signal
« on: February 20, 2019, 0323 UTC »
Go with your gut. That is indeed PACTOR IV. The sweeping tone is called a 2 tone chirp, and is part of the P IV.
T!
T!
37
General Radio Discussion / Re: What Happened to #wunclub?
« on: February 17, 2019, 1411 UTC »
#wunclub can be found on the Freenode IRC server.
And yes, the HFU Rocket chat is also active (link above, upper right corner, alternate link here https://www.hfunderground.com:8443/channel/general )
T!
And yes, the HFU Rocket chat is also active (link above, upper right corner, alternate link here https://www.hfunderground.com:8443/channel/general )
T!
38
Spy Numbers / Re: E06/E11/E17 schedule?
« on: February 16, 2019, 0026 UTC »I haven't found much posting in relation to E06, E11 or E17. Does anyone copy these on a regular basis? Also im in the Southeastern U.S if that is a factor. Looking for any Voice Numbers broadcast. I know they are not very common. Any comments are welcome. Thanks
The South East US is one of the worst locations to hear voice numbers stations, or numbers stations of any kind that are not Cuban. You typically can't get the Asian stations that are heard on the west coast, and you typically can't get the European stations as well as folks in the North East of the US.
T!
39
HF Mystery Signals / Re: Mystery ute on 6135 kHz
« on: February 14, 2019, 0054 UTC »Yep, has the tell-tale Link-11 sound. When's the switch to Link-22 going to happen?
Since most Link-22 hardware I have heard of is back compatible to Link-11 it might have already happened, and we just don't realize it yet. I have no doubt that an all Link-22 network will sound different than Link-11, it is a completely different format, but for all we know we have been hearing Link-22 in a back compatible mode for a while now. Link 22 was defined back around 1990, and has been "in development" since about 1992. I suspect there are a lot of Link 22 capable platforms (hardware installed) out there already.
T!
40
Equipment / Re: Full wave dipole
« on: February 12, 2019, 1528 UTC »
Is this for a receive application? Or is it transceive?
I have played with longer dipoles, full wave and longer than that. In general, I see little reason to go with a full wave dipole over other types of antennas. Particularly so if you are going to feed it with coax.
A half wave dipole exhibits a slight null off each end, but a broad beam perpendicular to the element. The classic broad toroid (doughnut shaped) radiation pattern. Pretty predictable and easy to visualize while setting the antenna up. The full wave dipole, or two half waves, has a couple dB gain over the half wave dipole, but at a cost.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, so that slight gain has to come from a changed pattern shape. What I have found is that the full wave dipoles I have built exhibit a bit of a null perpendicular to the element, and a bit more gain at an angle. Think of it as a roughly butterfly shaped pattern, a null at each end and a slight null on the broadside.
I have found it harder, compared to other wire antennas, to place full wave dipoles in orientations that take advantage of the pattern shape. For example, a terminated long wire (a beverage) of the same length works, roughly, in a cone towards the terminated end, and I have found it easier to place them, for example allowing one lobe to point towards the polar path, while the other is towards Africa, or something like that.
And then there is the operational bandwidth. In my experience dipoles fed with coax (and with or without a balun) tend to be narrower banded than the same lengths end fed with coax and a balun. But, a full wave dipole fed with ladder is more forgiving.
I guess the question comes down to what do you hope to gain with the full wave dipole, vs a half wave dipole, that cannot be done with an end fed full wave?
If you are looking for a little gain, what direction / directions are you looking for gain? If you are looking for gain in specific directions, have you considered a V-beam or something like that?
T!
I have played with longer dipoles, full wave and longer than that. In general, I see little reason to go with a full wave dipole over other types of antennas. Particularly so if you are going to feed it with coax.
A half wave dipole exhibits a slight null off each end, but a broad beam perpendicular to the element. The classic broad toroid (doughnut shaped) radiation pattern. Pretty predictable and easy to visualize while setting the antenna up. The full wave dipole, or two half waves, has a couple dB gain over the half wave dipole, but at a cost.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, so that slight gain has to come from a changed pattern shape. What I have found is that the full wave dipoles I have built exhibit a bit of a null perpendicular to the element, and a bit more gain at an angle. Think of it as a roughly butterfly shaped pattern, a null at each end and a slight null on the broadside.
I have found it harder, compared to other wire antennas, to place full wave dipoles in orientations that take advantage of the pattern shape. For example, a terminated long wire (a beverage) of the same length works, roughly, in a cone towards the terminated end, and I have found it easier to place them, for example allowing one lobe to point towards the polar path, while the other is towards Africa, or something like that.
And then there is the operational bandwidth. In my experience dipoles fed with coax (and with or without a balun) tend to be narrower banded than the same lengths end fed with coax and a balun. But, a full wave dipole fed with ladder is more forgiving.
I guess the question comes down to what do you hope to gain with the full wave dipole, vs a half wave dipole, that cannot be done with an end fed full wave?
If you are looking for a little gain, what direction / directions are you looking for gain? If you are looking for gain in specific directions, have you considered a V-beam or something like that?
T!
41
Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6950 USB 0033 UTC 10 FEB 2019
« on: February 10, 2019, 0034 UTC »
Yep, saw the tuning up and the the testing 1 2 3. Really good signal into the Mojave Desert this evening.
(edit) At about 0051z Wolverine said he was going to shuffle off to 3440 kHz.
(edit 2) Not as good here on 3440 as he was on 6950, was S6 or so on 6950 when leaving that freq, and S4 on 3440 right now, but most other people have him better on the new freq. I am sure it will improve here over the remainder of the show as we get closer to sundown.
(edit 3) Up to S7 now (0140z) that the sun is down.
(edit 4) Making it, very faintly, into the University of Twente remote SDR in the Netherlands at 0220z.
T!
(edit) At about 0051z Wolverine said he was going to shuffle off to 3440 kHz.
(edit 2) Not as good here on 3440 as he was on 6950, was S6 or so on 6950 when leaving that freq, and S4 on 3440 right now, but most other people have him better on the new freq. I am sure it will improve here over the remainder of the show as we get closer to sundown.
(edit 3) Up to S7 now (0140z) that the sun is down.
(edit 4) Making it, very faintly, into the University of Twente remote SDR in the Netherlands at 0220z.
T!
42
HF Mystery Signals / Re: All 1 PPS pip / pulse / tick logs here please
« on: February 08, 2019, 1643 UTC »
Update on frequency ranges I have seen the signal in:
6320 to 6510 kHz
7095 to 7300 kHz
8100 to 8450 kHz
10100 to 10150 kHz
12200 to 12450 kHz
12885 to 13105 kHz
14060 to 14350 kHz
18065 to 18160 kHz
21200 to 21300 kHz
T!
6320 to 6510 kHz
7095 to 7300 kHz
8100 to 8450 kHz
10100 to 10150 kHz
12200 to 12450 kHz
12885 to 13105 kHz
14060 to 14350 kHz
18065 to 18160 kHz
21200 to 21300 kHz
T!
43
Spy Numbers / Re: V24 logs, February 2019
« on: February 04, 2019, 2231 UTC »
Sure thing. The latest one I have online is always at the same URL, I update it whenever I create a new one: http://www.tokenradio.net/Radio/SharedFiles/NumbersTfer/V24_M94_latest_sched.JPG
Or embedded it is here:
My automated recordings run daily, regardless of if I am around or remember to start them or not.
I have an RBASIC program that cycles a dedicated receiver every 3 seconds to all of the past used V24 frequencies from 1100z to 1700z every day. It plots the AGC value (signal level) each scan cycle to a .csv file, so I can plot / visualize it various ways. If the script detects a 15 dB signal increase (above plotted background noise averaged across frequencies +/- 2 kHz from past carrier freqs for a specific period to avoid transient noise or false starts) it then starts an SDR recording of that frequency. The SDR recording is terminated when the signal has been gone (using the same detection technique as used to trigger recording) for a specific period (to avoid stopping recording with a temporary signal fade) or when the signal has exceeded a certain age.
A separate SDR has all predicted V24 activity in its monthly repeating record schedule.
Between those two I typically get all V24 activity, predicted or unpredicted, if it is on a frequency V24 has ever used before. However, it does not find new frequencies, those I still have to find manually. And as it has been a couple of years since I last found a new freq I wonder if there is an unknown V24 freq in use someplace.
T!
Or embedded it is here:
My automated recordings run daily, regardless of if I am around or remember to start them or not.
I have an RBASIC program that cycles a dedicated receiver every 3 seconds to all of the past used V24 frequencies from 1100z to 1700z every day. It plots the AGC value (signal level) each scan cycle to a .csv file, so I can plot / visualize it various ways. If the script detects a 15 dB signal increase (above plotted background noise averaged across frequencies +/- 2 kHz from past carrier freqs for a specific period to avoid transient noise or false starts) it then starts an SDR recording of that frequency. The SDR recording is terminated when the signal has been gone (using the same detection technique as used to trigger recording) for a specific period (to avoid stopping recording with a temporary signal fade) or when the signal has exceeded a certain age.
A separate SDR has all predicted V24 activity in its monthly repeating record schedule.
Between those two I typically get all V24 activity, predicted or unpredicted, if it is on a frequency V24 has ever used before. However, it does not find new frequencies, those I still have to find manually. And as it has been a couple of years since I last found a new freq I wonder if there is an unknown V24 freq in use someplace.
T!
44
Spy Numbers / Re: V24 logs, February 2019
« on: February 04, 2019, 1309 UTC »
February 03, 2019
5290 03-02-2019 1430z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair to strong here in the Mojave Desert of California.
6310 kHz not heard at its scheduled time of 1530z. Which is opposite of last month, when 5290 kHz was not used, and 6310 kHz was.
The K-Pop intro music is interesting, but I liked this station better when it used martial and traditional Korean music.
T!!
5290 03-02-2019 1430z V24 AM
South Korean numbers station V24, YL, KK, K-pop intro music, fair to strong here in the Mojave Desert of California.
6310 kHz not heard at its scheduled time of 1530z. Which is opposite of last month, when 5290 kHz was not used, and 6310 kHz was.
The K-Pop intro music is interesting, but I liked this station better when it used martial and traditional Korean music.
T!!
45
Shortwave Pirate / Re: X-FM 4085 AM 0125 UTC 27 JAN 2019
« on: January 27, 2019, 0141 UTC »
Bummer man, X-FM is 25 kHz wide, but my widest filter setting in AM is only 20 kHz. 
A tad over S9 here in the Mojave Desert of California.
(edit) I agree X-FM, Plasma TV is hard to beat for smooth color saturation and color contrast. I love my Plasma in the library. But, because I have so many radios on all the time I seldom turn it on. I have LCDs in the living room for everyone else to use.
T!
A tad over S9 here in the Mojave Desert of California.
(edit) I agree X-FM, Plasma TV is hard to beat for smooth color saturation and color contrast. I love my Plasma in the library. But, because I have so many radios on all the time I seldom turn it on. I have LCDs in the living room for everyone else to use.
T!