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Author Topic: 6900 LSB Spanish Language Marine Freebanders 0034 UTC 15 April 2018  (Read 946 times)

Offline RobRich

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One operator has extremely strong modulation. Heavy compression and/or cranked the mic gain dial to 10. o.0
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Offline R4002

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6900 LSB is the "canale del casa" (home channel or home frequency) - listen for them to say "cambio" or "gambio" (depending on the accent).  That's Spanish for "over" or "back to you".  Activity on 6900 kHz could be from anywhere, I've heard stations from various parts of the lower 48 as well as Mexico, South America and the Caribbean.  No doubt marine mobile stations are on there too.  Most of the stuff I've heard has been land-based transmissions however.

Some of these guys are running high-end amateur gear, and you're right about heavy audio processing and microphone gain.  Reminds me of 26715 AM and other 11 meter freeband activity when that band is open.  I've actually monitored chatter on 6900 LSB where the ops were talking about DX conditions on 11 meters.

A lot of these Spanish-speaking operators start at 6900 LSB, using it as a calling channel, and will then move up or down in 5 kHz steps to get away from QRM or to have a ragchew-like QSO on their "own" channel.  6895 kHz and 6905 kHz seem to be the most popular.  One night I heard a station jamming the 6900 LSB crew so they moved to 6905, the jammer followed them, so they moved to 6920.  Other times you'll hear Spanish language freebanders on 6900 LSB and 6900 USB at the same time.

I'd rather have them in the 6765 kHz to 7000 kHz fixed mobile band "43 meters" than the 6525 kHz to 6685 kHz regular "on route" aeronautical band.  The 6685 kHz to 6765 kHz band is "off route" aero and is usually used for military purposes but I've heard lots of UNID Spanish language traffic in that portion too.  See my other logs in this sub forum. 

Always nice to see another DXer logging these guys.  Keep it up! 
U.S. East Coast, various HF/VHF/UHF radios/transceivers/scanners/receivers - land mobile system operator - focus on VHF/UHF and 11m