Messages

5056

European Pirates and Private Stations / Re: 3920 AM UNID Euro Pirate 0830+ UTC 27 JAN 13

« on: January 29, 2013, 0151 UTC »

anybody up around CATSKILL NEW YORK that can listen to 560Khz or 3920 and see if YOU hear this 7th harmonic //  of WCKL or the fundamental freq ....get it while it's there...tho if it IS them, sounds like they might have gone full time :-)

If no one is around there, try their stream? Assuming its in sync with the radio...
http://familybroadcasting.net

5057

Shortwave Broadcast / Firedrake Jan 22, 2012 2345Z

« on: January 23, 2013, 0000 UTC »

Only found one lonely Firedrake on 12870 around 2345Z. About 35433, S8. Plus in the middle of some stupid noise.

At 0000Z, off the air.

5058

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: Listening in on weather balloons with RTL SDR

« on: January 22, 2013, 2357 UTC »

Oh, fun. Didn't know about this.

May have some hope here since the NWS has an office about 20 mi from my house. Plus a major university, int'l airport.

5059

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: Firedrake Jan 20, 2012 2340Z

« on: January 22, 2013, 2332 UTC »

Does the Firedrake program content repeat on an hourly basis? That is, is the music heard at say 0917z exactly the same as what was aired at 0817z ?

Good question. There's a 60 min recording that a guy got off of satellite (which I think is fed to the SW transmitters).
http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html

With this recording, need to confirm if they continue to use the same recording and then if it repeats at the top of the hour.

Would expect it would repeat, as why would they put much effort into a jammer? But then, I'm not a Chinese jammer so perhaps there's some nuance that I can't possibly understand.

5060

Shortwave Broadcast / R Thailand 13745 kHz AM Jan 21, 2013 0000Z

« on: January 21, 2013, 0015 UTC »

250kW @ 6 deg (to U.S. east coast)
0000Z 35423 S9 News in English. Signal quite fluttery.
0013Z 35423 S9 Ad for Bangkok Airways
0016Z 35423 S9 ID "You are listening to Radio Thailand news."
0016Z 35423 S9 Ramada Plaza Menam Riverside hotel ad.
0018Z 35423 S9 Global news brought to us by Air Asia.
0029Z 35423 S9 End of global news
0029Z Off for a couple of seconds

250kW @ 30 deg (to U.S. west coast)
0029Z 35433 S9+ Back on. (Switching antennas)
0030Z 35433 S9+ Morning news hour
0031Z 35433 S9+ Some English then into Thai. Some guy talking for a while.
0035Z 35433 S9+ "This is Radio Thailand news. Business news."
0043Z 35433 S9+ End of the business news
0043Z 35433 S9+ Bangkok Airways ad.
0045Z 35423 S9+ "Radio Thailand news."
0049Z 35423 S9 Sports news
0053Z 35423 S9 End of sports news.
0056Z 35423 S9 Tourism
0056Z 35423 S9 "Keep in tune with Thailand news on FM 88"
0057Z 35423 S9 End of the morning news hour.
0059Z Off air for a couple of seconds

0100Z 35422 S9 Back on. Switched antennas. Now reportedly at 38 deg.
0100Z 35422 S9 "The time is now 8 am"
0100Z 35422 S9 IS & National anthem
0100Z 35422 S9 YL speaking in Thai.
0109Z 35422 S9 Music
0135Z Been slowly fading for the past 20 minutes and now gone.


_{Perseus SDR with Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop}

5061

Shortwave Broadcast / Firedrake Jan 20, 2012 2340Z

« on: January 20, 2013, 2345 UTC »

2341Z 13850 45434 S9+
2342Z 12980 55434 S9+!5
2342Z 12370 55434 S9+10
0000Z 4 time pips then all three freqs off the air


No additional broadcasts heard below 12370 to 5 MHz* and nothing above 13850 to 30MHz.


* There were reports of them on 6970 via IRC, however nothing heard here on 6970.



_{Perseus SDR with Wellbrook ALA-1530S+ loop}

5062

Spy Numbers / HM01 11530 AM Jan 20, 2013 2321Z

« on: January 20, 2013, 2322 UTC »

2321Z 55445 S9+20 In progress. YL voice + digital.
2325Z 55445 S9+20 Last group
2328Z 55445 S9+20 A bunch of groups in voice only.
2332Z 55445 S9+20 Now digital + voice.




_{Perseus SDR with Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop}

5063

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6950USB *0134- 20Jan13

« on: January 20, 2013, 0152 UTC »

0151Z In the noise to very weak. Also have a blob of noise 6952-6953.

5064

MW Loggings / Re: 1134 Voice of Croatia as heard in Michigan

« on: January 19, 2013, 1821 UTC »

Awesome catch!

Been missing them on SW. Have poked around MW looking for the Europeans, but so far only see faint carriers and no audio.

We have a local on 1130 (50 kW day, 25 kW night) so this could be difficult unless I take a trip out of 1130's pattern. And 1120's IBOC joins in the fun and interferes with 1130-1135.


The Croatian transmitter is in Zadar-Nin at 44.231400, 15.237448

Google Maps has a bad blurry picture of it, but Bing maps has a clear picture of it.

The thing puts out 600kW at 330 deg.

More info:
http://www.oiv.hr/broadcasting/terrestrial/analog-radio/analog-radio_en.aspx

They say 330 deg, but the following states 315 deg.
http://fmscan.org/ml.php?r=m&t=988

At 330 deg, that puts it to the NAm west coast. At 315 deg, that puts it into the center of NAm. Mpls is at 314.8 deg.

Considering the official plot of the pattern says 330 deg, that's probably the accurate one. Wish they would move it to 315 deg.


 

5065

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: ADS-B aircraft transponders

« on: January 18, 2013, 0547 UTC »

Interesting... I have an RCA amplified TV antenna as well, but never thought to try it here (in fact, forgot about the thing. My rabbit ears seem to work better).

5066

Utility / Re: Canadian Trenton Mil warns US Navy off freq, 5717 kHz, Jan 18, 0118 UTC

« on: January 18, 2013, 0546 UTC »

Nice catch.

5067

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: ADS-B aircraft transponders

« on: January 17, 2013, 0212 UTC »

Very nice Chris!

5068

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: ADS-B aircraft transponders

« on: January 16, 2013, 0422 UTC »

This is a pretty cool idea:
http://www.sportys.com/PilotShop/product/17165

Could probably do that with an SDR to grab the ADS-B weather with an app on a computer that will then stream it via local wireless network (multicast), unicast or even on the Internet to other devices running another custom app.

5069

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: ADS-B aircraft transponders

« on: January 16, 2013, 0352 UTC »

At any given time (in the evenings), I see 1 to 10 aircraft. I'm about 10 mi away from the major airport.

See a lot of zeros.
Some give their flight number
Some give their alt.
Some also give lat/long, track and/or speed.

A fraction give all of the info. Certainly see a lot of 0's for the data.

Interestingly, I now have one that has zero for the altitude (a4b15d).

After typing that up, now there are two more with zero altitude. And one of them is on a heading of 259 doing 422 kts.

Don't know if this thing has problems decoding or if the aircraft isn't sending all of the data. The default for dump1090 is max gain & no AGC.
I'm too far from the ground station (assuming its at KMSP) so I wonder if its giving useful data to fill in stuff so the a/c doesn't have to.

Seeing FDX320 from Memphis to Grand Forks at 38000', 453 kts, and a heading of 334 deg. Confirmed that with PlaneFinder.net. Lat/long had been 0 for a while on it, but they eventually filled in. And after that, it populated the flight #. Hope he has a little fun and tunes into Kenie (AA) on 365 kHz in Fargo.

Also seeing a couple of MN ANG C-130s... GOFER22 & GOFER03. Both of them have all zeroes.

Meanwhile, VIR20F (SFO-LHR) has all of the data and CKK234 (China Cargo Airlines, ORD-PUD)

For a brief moment, one aircraft was at 7375'. Looked at that number and though back to the last frequency Radio Croatia used to broadcast to us a couple of weeks ago. Miss them, a lot.

Still just using the little UHF magnetic antenna that came with the USB stick. Gets the job done for now and will be perfect when I zip by the airport one of the these days with the laptop and see if I can get any other data. Also need to find out were the ground stations are around here.

5070

Longwave Loggings / Re: recent longwave logs

« on: January 15, 2013, 1254 UTC »

Congrats on Raize!

Here's a short blog about Raize:
http://www.kg0vl.com/?p=427

You'll like our Minnesota beacons. Some of the nicest beacons around. 

One of my favorites is AA, Kenie, in Fargo, ND on 365 kHz. That one has been going strong since I first heard it (and used it while flying) in 1988.

We have one lone NDB left in Minneapolis, PPI on 400. Used to have a couple of others, but they've disappeared.