5295.0 AM Ten Count Beacon

[Exo]

5295.0 kHz AM Synthesized Voice Beacon "Ten Count"

2130UTC 2021AUG20 started logging of an unknown AM voice transmission already in progress.
Signal approximately -95dBm with fading, weak readable.
2159UTC 2021AUG20 noticed that this beacon ceased abruptly in a mid-transmission.

PLAY AUDIO of the 5295 AM Ten Count Beacon

This UNID HF beacon or test transmitter was heard transmitting a series of repetitive sequential transmissions.
Some occasional gaps were heard between the repetitive sequences, which were about 3 to 7 transmissions in each sequence.
Each Transmission Duration: 10 sec.
Each Transmission Repetition Rate: 20 sec.

Sequence timing of each transmission was approximately as follows:
Carrier On, Silence for 500 mSec.
AM Modulation Beep Tone 440 Hz for 370 mSec.
AM Modulation by synthetic Asian male accented voice type EE (English), "Testing 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10" for 8.2 sec.
Silence for 500 mSec, Carrier Off.
Repeat at next 20 sec clock.

Appears to be standard AM (Amplitude Modulation) with both sidebands.

Estimated area: West Coast of North America or Eastern North Pacific.

[Teotwaki]

Amazing catch! That would win the prize for Very Very Unusual Beacon.    Thanks for the recording!!

Has there ever been a voice driven pirate beacon before? Any old timers know?

Honestly not sure if it can be called a pirate beacon just yet but hopefully it comes back on the air for further analysis!

Did the synthesized voice sound Australian to anyone else?   

[Exo]

Yes, it really is quite an unusual beacon, even more so if it turns out to be an HF pirate beacon. 

This was 5 MHz in the middle of the day, while propagation below 6 MHz was limited to only regional NVIS and without any distant DX propagation happening.
At first blush it seemed like it could be a new or unknown numbers station, so I hit the record button.
It might be good to continue to watch for it.   

Yes, there have been some other HF voice beacons, tests, or markers in the past... but not many pirate HF voice beacons.

It possibly could have been sent by a ham transceiver running a vox memory function, but the carrier appeared keyed prior to modulation rather than VOXed.
The precise timing makes it appear more likely to have been developed with a computer generated sequence. 
Yet another possibility, is that this is a little known transmit self-testing function built as a standard feature into some new asian-designed marine or commercial transceiver.

That unusual EE asian voice tonality pitch and asian-accented number pronunciation, could either be a clue or misdirection.
PLAY AUDIO of the 5295 AM Ten Count Beacon, listen to pronunciation of figure 5 and 7 in the test count.

Amazing catch! That would win the prize for Very Very Unusual Beacon.    Thanks for the recording!!

Has there ever been a voice driven pirate beacon before? Any old timers know?

Honestly not sure if it can be called a pirate beacon just yet but hopefully it comes back on the air for further analysis!

Did the synthesized voice sound Australian to anyone else?   

[Teotwaki]

Maybe it is a Chinese spy ring numbers station in the US?   

The frequency is buried in between a couple of the 5 MHz ham channels.