HF-GCS playing with the date, Feb 14, 2018

[Token]

The HF-GCS network is not really something I pay a lot of attention to.  After a few EAMs and Skykings it can get pretty boring waiting for the odd phone patch.  However, I  do occasionally tune to it just for grins, and I often end up recording messages on HF-GCS in the process of grabbing spectrum for other purposes.

Such was the case with the first Skyking of the day at 0453 UTC on Feb 14, 2018.
http://www.tokenradio.net/Radio/SharedFiles/AudTfer/Skyking_Roses_4724kHz_USB_14022018_0453.mp3

Now you don't think that code word was an accident, do you?

With that said, many years ago when I was active duty, we used a hand coded message format very similar to EAMs for certain types of communications.  We periodically had to practice using this format, as it was somewhat cumbersome.  A friend of mine, who I had grown up with, was on watch on another ship on the HF net.  We transferred multiple messages back and forth in about a 30 minute time period, from 30'ish characters to over 120.

I am sure if any hobby listeners had heard us, and who knows, maybe some did, they might have wondered what all this "high priority" coded traffic was.

What were we discussing?  Why of course, what bar to meet at in Olongapo.

T!

[Strange Beacons]

The HF-GCS network is not really something I pay a lot of attention to.  After a few EAMs and Skykings it can get pretty boring waiting for the odd phone patch.  However, I  do occasionally tune to it just for grins, and I often end up recording messages on HF-GCS in the process of grabbing spectrum for other purposes.

Such was the case with the first Skyking of the day at 0453 UTC on Feb 14, 2018.
http://www.tokenradio.net/Radio/SharedFiles/AudTfer/Skyking_Roses_4724kHz_USB_14022018_0453.mp3

Now you don't think that code word was an accident, do you?

With that said, many years ago when I was active duty, we used a hand coded message format very similar to EAMs for certain types of communications.  We periodically had to practice using this format, as it was somewhat cumbersome.  A friend of mine, who I had grown up with, was on watch on another ship on the HF net.  We transferred multiple messages back and forth in about a 30 minute time period, from 30'ish characters to over 120.

I am sure if any hobby listeners had heard us, and who knows, maybe some did, they might have wondered what all this "high priority" coded traffic was.

What were we discussing?  Why of course, what bar to meet at in Olongapo.

T!

No, I don't believe that the code word heard in your sound file was an accident.

I also share your sentiments about listening to the HF-GCS network. It becomes a bit boring after awhile, with only the occasional, out of the ordinary transmission appearing to liven things up.

The story you shared is interesting and confirms what I suspected while listening to the HF-GCS over the past few weeks, i.e., that on several transmissions, it sounded like the normally stiff and unflappable radio operators were having a little too much fun with what they were doing.

Curt / W9SPY