UNID Spanish Language 6950 kHz USB 1445 UTC 23 August 2017

[R4002]

Frequency: 6.950 MHz 6950 kHz
Mode: USB
Language: Spanish

Unknown source traffic this morning (tuned in at 1445 UTC, 1045 local time), not sure what's up with the uptick in morning pescadore or 43 meter freebander logs lately...maybe I'm just paying more attention than I used to? 

Anyway, I am hearing some weak Spanish voices on 6950 USB.  This frequency and mode has been heavily used by pescadores (fishing fleets, marine mobile radio, HF marine, etc) using non-marine radio frequencies, as the 6765-7000 kHz portion is allocated to fixed mobile (the marine band is lower on 6 MHz, but we know these guys don't care).  That is, assuming they are coming from fishing boats in the first place.  This traffic may be freebanders (land based transmissions) but again, due to the frequency and mode choice, its difficult to make that call.  The conversation is casual and ham radio like, leading me to think they're just freebanders operating below 7 MHz, which is quite common.  Freebanding operators also seem to stick with the 5 kHz steps (at least the Spanish speaking ones do) and operate much like they do on 11 meters / 27 MHz. 

Now (1449 UTC) hearing another station checking into the "net", asking for signal reports (I think, more like "hey what's up everybody?!") followed by silence. Not sure if conditions are changing or if he's working a station that I can't hear.