Can you help George identify the mystery pip?

WWV format

WWV format

SWLing Post reader, George (NJ3H), writes:

I quite often see a spike in the evening on 4996 khz. From the listing, this is suppose to be RWM, in Moscow, a time signal station.

When I listen on remote receivers in Poland and Denmark, I do not hear time pips, but rather just hash.

On my Perseus, I can watch the spike go up and down each second. This makes me think it is caused by WWV. However, the 29th second seems to make the spike move up, even though WWV doesn’t have a pip at second 29. The remote receivers in Europe that I just mentioned do not have any time pips being broadcast. Does WWV cause a signal on 4996?

Can you shed any light on 4996? Should we be able to hear RWM in the Eastern US?

Good question, George, and I’m hoping a reader can shed some light on what you’re seeing on the spectrum display. I’m not sure what could be causing the 29th second spike unless it’s WWV transmitting a sub-audible tone.

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3 thoughts on “Can you help George identify the mystery pip?

  1. kvzichi

    It probably IS RWM … where are you located?

    Do you hear any audio?
    Does the audio change from one 10 minute period to the next?
    How about listening at minutes :09 and :39 to verify the CW ID ….

    This is a pretty common catch in eastern North America, ( I logged them in Michigan 4 times in 2014 on both 4996 and 9996 kHz) and there will be times when it ‘skips over’ Europe and makes it here ‘over the pole’ particularly in the 05 UT time slot when daylight is approaching there but we are still in full darkness and so is the pole (eg — winters)

    Reply
    1. George - NJ3H

      Thanks for both replies. I must have missed the fact that they were broadcasting using cw. Once I realized that, they were easy try to log here in Virginia on 4996, 9996, and 14996 using a Perseus and my Wellbrook ALA1530AL antenna.

      I even copied them on my Kenwood TS 940 with a vertical antenna up against the house on 14996. All receptions were during the cw id minutes 09 or 39. I did notice that they do not appear to be exactly on .996, but slightly higher. WWV is spot on at. 000, therefore radio calibration seems a-ok. Again thanks for the replies.

      Regards,
      George

      Reply

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