7000 LSB - possible Brazilian pescadore activity

[BoomboxDX]

I'm wondering whether we're hearing different regions on the same frequency, depending on our own locations?  A fellow who speaks Portuguese listened to my recordings from 2008 or 2009 and confirmed those did sound like Brazilian radio operators.  Here in Texas I can often pick up Central and South America very well but rarely hear any Asian stations.  The last time I heard any 40m Asian amateur stations clearly was around 2007-2008 when propagation was still very good.

I think you're right.  Where I live it's closer to Asia -- whereas in Texas you're much closer to Latin America.

On some of those IARU logs on their website, where hams are monitoring ham band pirates and intruders, they seem to hear more of these guys from different regions depending on where they are located.

6999-7000 khz and thereabouts may be some sort of 'freeband' in various parts of the world.

[Kai]

Hi Lex!

What you heard (http://www.mediafire.com/?i1yydumyhzx) sounds very much like this recording from IARU Region 1’s monitoring system:

http://www.iarums-r1.org/iarums/sound/7000-ins.wav (an Indonesian net, according to IARU)

On both your recording and the one from IARU the ops end their overs with something that sounds like ’ganti’ – which is ’change’ in Indonesian (according to Google Translate)! (In Portuguese that would be câmbio).

So perhaps you can have heard Indonesian ops after all (I admit its hard to believe given the distance and the fact that you’re in Texas and not on the West Coast).

[BoomboxDX]

Ooops, I made a mistake on an earlier post.

The sound file I thought was Sealord's was actually Lex's 7000USB "Pesque Madness" 11-17-08 1337z Mp3.  That sound clip is eerily similar to what I heard on 8/28, including the didgeridoo like chanting in the background -- and the speech and chatter sounds similar.

I think I got it confused with Sealord's April 23, 2011 sound clip because I tried to get that one to load and had trouble loading it....

But the newest one Sealord posted, the Brazillian Pirates 7000LSB 1130z-1143z 3-04-11 also sounds a lot like what I've heard.

I have found a couple files on Youtube that are also similar:

this one from a guy in Australia who calls them "lima pirates" because they chant 'lima' 'lima' 'lima':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1J5FQ_IduQ&feature=related

This one a guy (also from Australia) calls the "Indonesian horse races":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTWsNvR80xk

There's some others on Youtube I haven't checked out yet, and I still need to check out some of the other sound files here.

It's possible this chanting thing isn't confined to one particular part of the world.

[BoomboxDX]

I monitored 7000 khz a few mornings back, and heard something that may give a clue as to this 'chanting' stuff our SE Asian ham pirate friends seem to engage in from time to time.

Around 1400 UTC 9/3 I tuned in to hear a guy say "hallo hallo ganti ganti... grup a grup...."  It registered S4 on my DX-398.  Then there was some chanting, although it could have been one guy using an echo box.  Another guy shouts out "Lima, Lima".  Then 3 or 4 guys chanting.  Then some chatter.  This went on for around 15 minutes, and I tuned further up the band.

I returned to 7000 khz at 1435 UTC to hear strong chanting, and then a break.  Then I heard what clearly was a recorded playback of the chanting I'd just heard. Then the main guy says some stuff in Malay/Indonesian, and OK OK, and then there's more chanting.  Then it stops, and the main guy plays it back for the rest of them.

This chanting, and recorded playback went on for maybe 20 minutes, at least until 1448 UTC.  During the prompts, some of the language sounded territorial, like Java, Cebu (Sibu?), Sulu, etc., but because of atmospherics I'm not really sure if those were references to different regions, or were just similar sounding words.

So maybe this chanting stuff is some sort of game, where a guy prompts others in certain areas to make all this noise, and then it's recorded and played back for them.  Or, this could be a fairly new take on the game.

At the same time there were other QSO's in the same language higher up the band with frequent use of the word "ganti".  So I think Kai is correct in that they use the word "ganti" the same way we use "over" in the U.S. and they use "cambio" in Latin America.

73
BoomboxDX
 

[Zoidberg]

Fascinating stuff!  If my recordings were of Asian comms rather than Brazil that's encouraging - perhaps propagation to my area isn't quite as bad as I'd assumed.  Thanks for all the research and tips, folks.  This has been one of the more interesting radio oddities I've ever heard.

[BoomboxDX]

Fascinating stuff!  If my recordings were of Asian comms rather than Brazil that's encouraging - perhaps propagation to my area isn't quite as bad as I'd assumed.  Thanks for all the research and tips, folks.  This has been one of the more interesting radio oddities I've ever heard.

Well, it looks like your Palstar and whatever antenna you were using picked them up quite well!

FYI: If you want to hear some legit SE Asian hams, there's a Borneo Net on 7045 khz that I hear on a lot of mornings around 1300-1400 hours, signals at varying strengths depending on propagation. They generally rattle out their suffixes, with the international phonetics, but sometimes you'll hear entire calls, mentions of territories like "Sabah" or "Kalimantan", etc.

If you're into hearing Asian as well as US pop music you may also try for Traxx FM Malaysia, it comes in at varying strengths on 7295 khz around the same time frame, with announcements in English.  Also, Sarawak FM Malaysia on 9835 khz, with Asian pop and announcements in Malay might be worth a try.