finding firedrake transmitter(s)

[weatherall]

Part of my fascination with China includes a fascination with the firedrake/firedragon jammer.  It's not enough for me to know that the audio for these broadcasts come from China National Radio satellite feeds (as mentioned at http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html) or that direction-finding has revealed Hainan island as the probable transmitter location (as mentioned at http://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=257:fighting-the-chinese-government-firedragon-music-jammer-and-sound-of-hope-broadcasting-soh-taiwan&catid=66:iarums-success&Itemid=189).  I want to see a satellite photo of the transmitter site.  Does China use this site for any legitimate broadcasts?

Finding this transmitter site with satellite imagery doesn't seem feasible, as the island is over 13,000 square miles, and Google's images are only high-res for the heavily populated areas.  I don't know how precise of a location the direction-finding has revealed; that's something I want to read more about.  Suggestions on how to find this transmitter site would be appreciated.

[SW-J]

Suggestions on how to find this transmitter site would be appreciated.

Long baseline time-of-arrival/interferometry, like the chirper/Ionosonde-locating guys do it.

Will need at least two people with 1 PPS (pulse per second)-output capable GPS receivers, PC w/stereo sound card, the software for the PC ...

Found it -

Modest Equipment requirements - http://jcoppens.com/radio/prop/g3plx/tjz/index.en.php

ChirpView software - http://jcoppens.com/radio/prop/g3plx/tjz/soft.en.php

Poslines Software - http://jcoppens.com/radio/prop/g3plx/plx/soft.en.php

Poslines program

There is also a range plotting utility, (see table for download) which allows you to enter positions of receiving sites with their delay times, and will plot lines of equal delay on which the transmitter must lie. It will also plot antipodal circles from long path - short path differential delays. This software is ideal for locating unknown transmitters.

[Shortwave_America]

I'm not sure if ever I've heard the firedrake out here with all the other things I've heard, but am wondering when the best time is in the U.S. to listen for Firedrake would be if the signal even gets heard on this side of the world.

I've gotten interested in Firedrake ever since I've read about it and would love to catch this some time. I know the great people of China, Taipei / Taiwan hear it quite easily. Thanks for this post! If anyone ever gets closer to finding the TX site, please post it everywhere you can. We'd all love to hear about it!

[SW-J]

I'm not sure if ever I've heard the firedrake out here with all the other things I've heard, but am wondering when the best time is in the U.S. to listen for Firedrake would be if the signal even gets heard on this side of the world.

I've gotten interested in Firedrake ever since I've read about it and would love to catch this some time. I know the great people of China, Taipei / Taiwan hear it quite easily. Thanks for this post! If anyone ever gets closer to finding the TX site, please post it everywhere you can. We'd all love to hear about it!

Intro to Chinese "Firedrake" jammer - it (the audio) appears to be distributed via China Sat "6B" to places like the Hainan Island for transmitting on shortwave -

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_xWyR0BANE

I had not experienced it either, but ran across it this evening while doing a web search for something else ...

[Shortwave_America]

This should make all of you happy: I wrote a piece on Firedrake on the blog and included a link to this discussion, links used in this thread, added two youtube links; one of them the interview with Keith Perron of the man responsible for separating the audio channels used by Firedrake & making the only known CD quality copy of the Firedrake music used in the jamming episodes.

At the bottom of the post is the second youtube link which is actually embedded video of the above said CD quality audio of Firedrake.

I think you guys will love this! http://shortwaveamerica.blogspot.com

To take the audio off of the video for your own files, use http://listentoyoutube.com
This link will strip the audio and give you an MP3 for free.

Enjoy!

[moribund112]

Hey guys,
 I live in Kunming, China. Should be familiar to most of you watching this part of the world as quite a few big transmitters are located here on the ourskirts of the city. As you can guess, Firedrake comes in LOUD and CLEAR here daily. It's more of an annoyance than anything, and it seems that some of the transmissions don't reach across the ocean because they're literally all over the spectrum.

 It's cool to see some of you so interested in it - and I'd like to help out any way that I can, just let me know. Keep on keepin' on, haha.