Messages

241

General Radio Discussion / Re: The Most Important Radio Station You’ve Never Heard of Marks 50 Years on the Air

« on: July 03, 2013, 1442 UTC »

I love WWVB, too, as I'm sure most who visit this board do (which was the point of my statement, i.e., my attempt to point out the irony of the title being posted here, as this message board is likely one of the few places on the Internet where EVERYONE knows and loves what non-radio geeks think of as an "obscure" radio station).  

.....certainly doesn't apply to most people who populate this message board!

Speak for yerself ... I <3 WWVB

Peace!

242

General Radio Discussion / The Most Important Radio Station You’ve Never Heard of Marks 50 Years on the Air

« on: July 02, 2013, 2209 UTC »

On Friday, July 5, 2013, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (WWVB) marks half a century as the nation’s official time broadcaster.

P.S. The headline used as the subject line for this post certainly doesn't apply to most people who populate this message board!.

Full story at: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/07/wwvb-time-radio/

243

General Radio Discussion / Re: Alan Myers, longtime Devo drummer, has died

« on: June 26, 2013, 1939 UTC »

I, too, am also a big fan, and saddened by this news. Devo was the music of my youth, and I still listen to them today. Rest easy, Alan.

244

General Radio Discussion / Re: History of the FCC Radio Intelligence Division Before and During World War II

« on: June 21, 2013, 1509 UTC »

Same for me.  I love WW2 history, radio, and cryptography.  I've been reading this book during lunch breaks at work.  Thanks to Fansome for posting the link to the .pdf

This is the coolest damn thing I have read in quite a while. I love ww2 history & I love radio so this is ideal for me. I find myself only reading so many pages each day so it will last longer.

Thanks for the post

245

Spy Numbers / Re: XP Polytone? 7096 kHz LSB 2226UTC 17JUN13

« on: June 21, 2013, 1504 UTC »

Thanks.  I have already included three of your videos into a playlist on my YouTube channel. You have a real knack for finding and recording the exact sort of stuff that I am most interested in. Nice work.

There are also examples of XPA on my YouTube channel, as well as a few other signals that are of interest to Utility / numbers / general shortwave monitors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA0X47UuZZs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM8PCBtIl7k

T!

246

Spy Numbers / Re: XP Polytone? 7096 kHz LSB 2226UTC 17JUN13

« on: June 18, 2013, 1600 UTC »

Great find!  I have added your video to one of my YouTube playlists.

I'm fairly certain this is some sort of a XP Polytone numbers station that I picked up a little bit ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_-ptXocjSs

247

General Radio Discussion / Submarine Cable Map & Landing Station Points

« on: June 14, 2013, 1635 UTC »

  Posting this just because I love databases of this type:

Interactive submarine cable map showing active and planned submarine cable systems and their landing stations:

http://www.submarinecablemap.com/

248

Other / Re: Strange Signal on 14435 kHz

« on: June 13, 2013, 0224 UTC »

Thanks, T!, that is what I initially thought the signal was, i.e., some sort of RTTY, as I have heard something very similar to this before (and it turned out to be a RTTY signal).

I am in Seattle, WA USA and when I tune around on the ham bands from here, I often can pick up a lot of voice traffic from Hawaii.

Cheers.

No, it is absolutely not a satellite transmission.  In the first place satellites do not, in general, use HF, and when they do it is generally a higher frequency (above 20 MHz in general).  And in the second place I know what it is, as would many on this board, lets just see if I can get the answer typed first. ;-)

This is a 850 Hz shift FSK signal, 50 or 75 bd (not running software to measure it right now).  It is a form of RTTY.  This is almost certainly encrypted (most of the 850 Hz stuff is).  It is sometimes referred to as STANAG 4481.

This is very possibly US Navy NPM, Lualualei, Hawaii, as they are known to use a frequency very close to this, and your example is slightly mistuned.

T!

249

Other / Strange Signal on 14435 kHz

« on: June 12, 2013, 1902 UTC »

Found this signal while scanning around on the 20 meter band, listening to ham radio talkers.

I'm thinking this may be RTTY or some other sort of data stream from a radio modem.  

Anyone else have any ideas as to what this might be?

http://youtu.be/EWWBnmaOZpQ

Update: One person commented on this video at my YouTube channel, identifying the signal as a satellite transmission.  Anyone else agree?

250

General Radio Discussion / Re: Declassified Spy Outpost Lurks on the Dark Side of the Earth

« on: June 11, 2013, 1847 UTC »

That is an interesting story.  I never even knew the place existed until I read the Wired article and the Wikipedia entry for the Canadian site.

I really like the fact that the filmmaker used a Russian numbers station broadcast in his movie trailer (or at least I think that was a Russian numbers broadcast.  Regardless, it is most effective for generating mood in the film clip).

A friend of ours was actually an operator there. The Russians were well aware that they were being monitored and would occasionally acknowledge the Canadians. There were even a few unofficial QSO's between the two sides.

251

General Radio Discussion / Declassified Spy Outpost Lurks on the Dark Side of the Earth

« on: June 11, 2013, 1539 UTC »

The Soniferous Æther is a 35mm film by Charles Stankievech.  The film was shot at the Canadian Forces Station (CFS) ALERT Signals Intelligence Station, a signals intelligence intercept facility that is only 450 nautical miles south of the North Pole.

Check out the haunting trailer here:

https://vimeo.com/studiostankievech/tsa-trailer

Full article at: http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2013/06/charles-stankievech-northernmost-settlement/

252

General Radio Discussion / Re: Please Make Some Suggestions for Seattle SWLing

« on: June 08, 2013, 0135 UTC »

Excellent, thank you for the links.  I've read Monitoring Times before, but not in a long while.

Monitoring Times magazine has a nice extensive listing of foreign and domestic stations / times, etc., in each issue. The following link will provide you with three sample copies (2 from 2012, and on from 2011. They all are PDF files and download fast. A great freebie!

Interestingly one of the Monitoring Times free for download has a fairly sizeable article on Pirate Radio!

Link: http://www.monitoringtimes.com/MT/html/free_issue.html

Best...   RCCI - Steve

253

General Radio Discussion / Re: Please Make Some Suggestions for Seattle SWLing

« on: June 07, 2013, 1338 UTC »

Thank you very much, BoomboxDX, what you wrote is very encouraging. I have the patience that it takes to find interesting stations (I told my nephew that it is a lot like fishing) but just wanted to make sure I wasn't seeking to catch a whale in a barrel.  

Your list and antennae suggestions will be a huge help. Again, thanks.

I wouldn't knock the fact you're using 'cheap portables' too much.  A lot can still be heard with inexpensive radios.  If your digital radio (does it have a model #?) has SSB, it's probably adequate for SWLing (the DX-350 is better used for bandscanning, and MW DXing / listening).

All I use is digital portables, and I've logged a lot of stations with them.  Here in the NW you can generally use more wire with digital portable SW radios than in other places, because our signal levels aren't as strong as they are back East where a wire can easily overload a portable radio's RF section.  You might try adding some extra wire to the SSB radio's antenna jack (if it has one) and see if you get better SW reception.  Try 30 or 40 ft of wire and see if that helps.  I once had a 70 ft wire and it didn't overload my digital portables.

As for what you can expect to hear, you'll probably hear a lot more foreign language SW broadcasts than English language broadcasts here in the NW US.  I receive a lot more Spanish broadcasts and Asian language stations than I do English ones.  

As for SW broadcasts, late evenings you can hear Cuba and Brazil (Cuba in English on 6010 and several other frequencies, Brazil in Portuguese on 6180 and 11780 khz).  Australia and New Zealand have strong signals on the 25 meter band (11945 khz for R. Australia and 11725 khz for RNZI) and the 21 meter band (13630 for R. Australia).  Radio Rebelde (Cuba) broadcasts in Spanish on 5025 khz.  China Radio International has a couple broadcasts in English that come in pretty well at night, as does North Korea.

When propagation is working right you can hear a lot of foreign language stations from Japan, China, SE Asia and South Asia on 41 meters and 31 meters in the early morning hours.

If you want to listen to the ham bands, the 20 meter band (14000-14350) and 17 meter bands (18068-18168) have a lot of activity in the late afternoon and early evening.  40 meters (7000 - 7300 khz) has a lot of activity during the night and early morning hours. Sometimes during the early morning you can hear the Indonesian ham pirates talking in Indonesian (and sometimes chanting) just below 7000 khz, or in the low reaches of the 40 meter ham band.

80 meters I've found more or less boring, and the higher ham bands (15, 12, 10 meters) are usually more or less dead.

I'm not that into utility or numbers listening, so the others here will have more to say about it than I can.

I've found the SW station lists on www.eibispace.de and www.short-wave.info very useful because those two sites are quite extensive when it comes to listing foreign language broadcasts (EiBi also has some of the main utility weather broadcasts listed) -- and most of what I hear seems to be in Spanish, Portuguese, or some Asian or African language.

254

General Radio Discussion / Re: Please Make Some Suggestions for Seattle SWLing

« on: June 07, 2013, 0125 UTC »

Thanks, and yes, I have checked out most of the online sources that list frequencies for number stations and other interesting signals. The trouble is, I can't manage to ever find any of them other than the Cuban "Atencion" station.  I was hoping that someone from my area might be able to suggest specific frequencies and times for stations that I can hear from here.

Thanks.

Checkout www.spynumbers.com; it has a lot of information on numbers stations. Get familiar with using the database; it has a lot of reports from users who have heard numbers stations, and includes data on when the station was heard, who heard it, and where the listener was located.

255

General Radio Discussion / Re: Please Make Some Suggestions for Seattle SWLing

« on: June 07, 2013, 0120 UTC »

Thanks, much appreciated.

I picked up Radio New Zealand a few nights ago.  If you know of any oddities or other traffic that I can listen for, please share.

www.primetimeshortwave.com I use the Shortwave schedule time sort database (@ the top) as there are signals that, though not intended for N. A. , never the less reach our area. (I live in western  Wa. also). Australia, New Zealand, BBC all intended for "Asia" reach our area. Try 1100utc and later.