SHORTWAVE TRADING | PART I | THE WEST CHICAGO TOWER MYSTERY

[ChrisSmolinski]

In addition to this post, there are several others on the site. I wonder if these are some of the wideband digital transmissions we have observed, and chalked up as just another .mil transmission?

https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/shortwave-trading-part-i-the-west-chicago-tower-mystery/

[Rob.]

Very interesting reading at that website. Amazing what can be done when money is no option.

[KaySeeks]

Given the allocated frequencies for the particular TX site mentioned in the blog post (near Chicago) and a presumption that there are other "trader stations" allocated in those areas, I wonder how much of the data we hear in the 6800-7000 KHz area comes from such activity.

[ChrisSmolinski]

Given the allocated frequencies for the particular TX site mentioned in the blog post (near Chicago) and a presumption that there are other "trader stations" allocated in those areas, I wonder how much of the data we hear in the 6800-7000 KHz area comes from such activity.

I was thinking the same thing. Some of the signals we have chalked up as .mil could be this, or similar activities.

[KaySeeks]

Amazing what can be done when money is no option.

I might tweak that slightly to "amazing what can be done when there is a lot of money to be made and the economics and the physics make it feasible."

If they had to use LW for some reason, it probably wouldn't be so prevalent. On the other hand, if there is some sort of major solar event knocking out trans-Atlantic propagation for a few days, I bet you some stuffshirt Wall Street type will start funding ionospheric "cloud seeding" (as it were) and then maybe they would try LW too. 

Takeaways:
1) SW is cheap and effective.
2) These guys will stop at (almost) nothing for an advantage. (Cue memories of 2006-2008 when the entire world economy almost came crashing down.)

[ThElectriCat]

it seems that the "the RF spectrum is full" arguments and the new-ish allocations for things like this are in contradiction. I don't think its a case of available spectrum they're not telling us about, but rather a case of the FCC saying "we'll make room" when they see a profit. The FCC is severely underfunded when it comes to actual field work and enforcement.  I really want to build a radiometer that measures the total power received between 3 and 30 Mhz, and look at the dip in the chart when there is a major power outage. I would be willing to bet a signifacant portion of the white noise is a summation of services like this too far away or weak to be heard.

[Token]

Given the allocated frequencies for the particular TX site mentioned in the blog post (near Chicago) and a presumption that there are other "trader stations" allocated in those areas, I wonder how much of the data we hear in the 6800-7000 KHz area comes from such activity.

The vast majority of the data identified as .mil is identified by specific transmission features.  In other words, unless these folks are using the same techniques as the military users are they are probably not being miss-identified as mil transmissions.  The periodic wideband data seen (not to be confused with the much more common Chinese PSK radar, often miss-IDed as "data") could be a candidate, but various vendors have been working on that/those technique for military application for several years.

And given the military requirements for long term sustainability, interoperability with partner nations, and the extended timeline to change or get new systems to IOC, compared with potential civilian integration times, there is no reason to suspect such institutions as those discussed would be limited to using the quite old techniques the military is currently using.

T!

[Josh]

Also, most of the mil waveforms are known to radio hobbyists who follow such.

[Pigmeat]

Jam 'em all and let God sort them out!