Messages

1216

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6928 USB 1850 UTC 12/17/2017

« on: December 17, 2017, 1855 UTC »

SIO 444 here, but a poor frequency choice, as it is causing QRM to Amphetamine Radio on 6925.

Roger that. That's how I found them.

1217

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6928 USB 1850 UTC 17 Dec 2017

« on: December 17, 2017, 1851 UTC »

1850 Tune in. Country music.
1853 Cutesy, Shirley Temple-like song.
1856 Off

1218

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Amphetamine Radio 6925 USB 1830 UTC 17 Dec 2017

« on: December 17, 2017, 1836 UTC »

1835 - Tune in with a Black Sabbath song.
1837 - ID "Amphetamine Radio, High Speed Pirate Radio". Announcer with PA/MD/DE/Northern VA accent.
1845 - Patti Smith, "Because the Night"
1847 - ID given and into new song.
1903 - Somebody whistling over the top, intentional QRM.
1904 - Tune out. See ya!

Reception best in VA, MD, PA and NJ. Barely above the noise in NH, OH and upstate NY.

1219

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Radio Illuminati 6920 AM 1704 UTC 17 Dec 2017

« on: December 17, 2017, 1820 UTC »

1816 Tune in. S3-S7 with a lot of the usual daytime background QRN.
1820 Propagation "fell off a cliff". Stuck at S3-S4, half in the noise.
1825 Signal is back. The Kinks, "Father Christmas".
1826 "This is the Azimuth Coordinator..." with signoff announcement - email QSL address given (6150)
1827 Star-Spangled Banner.
1829 TX off

The only thing on the band on an SDR in New Hampshire.

1220

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6940 USB 0031 UTC 17 Dec 2017

« on: December 17, 2017, 0049 UTC »

0047 tune in
0048 "Silver Bells"
0052 "Little Drummer Boy"
0100 SSTV
0103 some Death Metal song
0105 OTHR QRM is strong
0108 "Deck the Halls"
0111 "Grampa Got Runover By A Reindeer"

SIO 242 in New Hampshire. Occasionally listenable in Ohio and New York but everywhere else barely noticeable.

1221

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6930 LSB 2330 UTC Dec 16, 2017

« on: December 17, 2017, 0046 UTC »

Agreed, and I am hearing the peskies quite well tonight. Though I'm confident I heard some music and something resembling a sign on announcement.

1222

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6930 LSB 2330 UTC Dec 16, 2017

« on: December 16, 2017, 2331 UTC »

Faint on OH SDR. Music and speech but just above minimum discernible. Sounded like they were testing at 2329 then commenced transmission at 2330.

Edit: this is on LSB

1223

Longwave Loggings / Re: December 2017 NDB Logs

« on: December 16, 2017, 2310 UTC »

Look at the heavy black marks in the Sherbrooke<->Niagrara Falls corridor. Also, lots of them in western North Carolina too.

1224

Longwave Loggings / Re: Winter NDB Logs

« on: December 16, 2017, 0126 UTC »

 - and Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan

We may never know,  n'est-ce pas?

I thought we aren't supposed to answer a question with a question. 

1225

Longwave Loggings / Re: December 2017 NDB Logs

« on: December 16, 2017, 0124 UTC »

Yeah, I noticed YX was listed as an icebreaker. So I guess it is a mobile NDB?

It would seem so. Then I have to wonder what is the purpose for navigation. I guess it must be so that the helicopters that will land on its deck can find it or to aid with local Coast Guard activity (who have presumably been advised as to its true location). Because if its location is not on an NDB chart, it's not clear to me what is the benefit to general aviation.

1226

Longwave Loggings / Re: Winter NDB Logs

« on: December 15, 2017, 0223 UTC »

btw,  Riviere du Loup...   River of the Wolf,  another cool NDB name.

I have always been partial to Medicine Hat, Alberta, Portage La Prarie, Manitoba - where they had to carry their canoes over the prairie between bodies of water - and Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, because it's an unanswered question.

About Riviere du Loup: I bet you don't get as excited about the Wolf River, near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 

1227

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6940 AM 0100z Nov 9, 2017

« on: December 10, 2017, 0129 UTC »

0121 tune in after Offspring song. KUNT ID heard.
0124 switched to USB.

QRM from LSB peskies on 6943.
Poor audio quality - sounds like speaker-to-microphone.
S8 signal on SDR in New Hampshire but with deep fades. Not heard on RXs in Quebec or Pennsylvania.

1228

Longwave Loggings / Re: Some NDB Logs 0000 UTC 7 Dec 2017

« on: December 07, 2017, 0845 UTC »

I now understand how the different ID periods are a good thing, if you have two beacons on the same frequency, you can pick out the IDs as the relative phase between them changes.

Yes, that and the tone frequency differences (1 KHz vs. 400 Hz).

An SDR and ability to adjust the passband really helps, IMO.

The CW speed is slow enough that you can read many of the characters right off the SDR screen if the scroll rate is fast enough and SNR is high enough.

1229

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: KUNT 6925 USB 0047 UTC 7 Dec 2017

« on: December 07, 2017, 0833 UTC »

KUNT, "University of Texas radio.  Keeping up the tradition of University of Texas radio on shortwave." 

Given the alleged callsign, seems like it ought to be from The University of Northern Texas. 

1230

Longwave Loggings / Re: KaySeeks' NDB Loggings

« on: December 06, 2017, 0643 UTC »

YHD, nice one from HI...  sometimes can't receive it here in Michigan.

It was one of those "brief encounters" - YHD and AA faded up enough for me to find them and when I checked back about 10 minutes or so later, they were buried in the noise. I just got lucky.

When I looked up the two stations in the databases, I was thinking that Dryden, Ontario (YHD) was in southeastern Ontario (closer to Toronto) but it was only after I looked on the map that I realized it's actually in western Ontario, about 150 km from Manitoba and north of Minnesota. That puts it close to the line of axis between Hawaii and Fargo (AA). Had I known at the time, I would have pulled out the NDB beacon map and done some concerted hunting for more signals from that approximate geographic area since I had clearly "struck a vein", so to speak. C'est la vie.

In any case, NDB is kind of interesting. I'll do some more NDB stuff over the coming years while I wait out the HF perturbations and low sunspots....