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As Hurricane Harvey makes its slow trek through toward Corpus Christi, we’re watching what might become one of the most damaging storms this decade in the States.
Each hurricane season, I receive emails from readers asking about frequencies to monitor as the storm approaches.
Hurricane Watch Net (HWN)
The Hurricane Watch Net is a group of amateur radio operators who are trained and organized “to provide essential communications support to the National Hurricane Center during times of Hurricane emergencies.” The HWN focuses on “ground truth” observations (much like SkyWarn nets).
The Hurricane Watch Net is activated when a hurricane is within 300 statute miles of expected land-fall. The HWN covers the Caribbean, Central America, Eastern Mexico, Eastern Canada, and all US Coastal States.
The HWN operates in both English and Spanish, and is active on 14.325 MHz (upper sideband) during the day and 7.268 MHz (lower sideband) at night.The HWN is known to operate on both frequencies if propagation allows.
Please keep HWN frequencies clear
If you’re an amateur radio operator, please avoid using 14.325 MHz and 7.268 MHz anytime the HWN has been activated.
Monitoring hurricane frequencies
If you have a shortwave radio with a BFO/SSB mode–and you live within the propagation footprint–you can monitor the Hurricane Watch Net.
Note that you’ll need to use upper sideband on 14.325 MHz and lower sideband on 7.268 MHz.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:
There’s been a new flurry of these posts on eBay, always the WJ 8711A. These items have prohibited listing practices, and should be ignored — definitely not something to bid on. I have reported these on numerous occasions to Ebay, which has expressed appreciation, but they keep coming back. Location is often listed as Pennsylvania, and other states.
Example of item title
And they can’t even get the spelling right!
Thank you for the heads-up and warning, Dan!
It’s frustrating and I assume it’s a scammer who has hijacked valid eBay seller accounts. The seller above, for example, has 16,000+ feedbacks 99.7% positive. TIn every way, the top of the listing appears to be valid.
But if you scroll down the page, you’ll find this message:
Let’s be clear: If you ever see the message above, you are viewing a fraudulent eBay listing!
The scammer actually embeds the convoluted BuyItNow message above as a graphic in the eBay listing. This makes it difficult for eBay to automatically find the scammers and delete the postings.
Many thanks, Dan, for apprising us of the situation.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, for sharing the following guest post:
August 21, 2017: Individual Recordings of MW During Totality
by TomL
I setup flimsy “Backpack Shack” loop antenna and preselector to my Sony ICF-2010 to listen to any propagation of MW signals as each transmitter experienced Totality. My location was a picnic area facing southwest with only a small hill to the east at Ferne Clyffe State Park near Goreville, IL.
I did not bring a DSP radio and computer which would have been better in hindsight. My observations were generally as follows:
Anything west of my location, except for local St. Louis stations were not identifiable.
Noise levels were somewhat elevated because of thunderstorms that had just moved through the area during the evening.
Anything east of my location experienced dramatic increases in signal along the path of totality.
Since large signal increases were seen with the Umbra moving AWAY from me, it would be more beneficial to use a DSP receiver with good outdoor antenna than a single frequency radio and preselector like my setup. The loop antenna sitting on a picnic table acted great and was usable to get strongest signal for each station.
It is still unknown why I could not identify any stations west of me with the Umbra moving TOWARDS my location and needs further study. I thought I heard KTWO in Casper WY, but upon listening to the recording, it was a male announcer buried in the noise and unintelligible.
A transmitter being IN the path of Totality has a better chance of lasting longer with a strong signal than one that is just outside of Totality. Compare behavior of WSB vs. WBT.
If this happens again, make sure to make multiple hotel reservations and cancel the ones not needed. Traffic was horrible and had to stay in a hotel half way from home and I aggravated an achillies heel problem in the stop and go traffic (YUK).
So, it was quite disappointing to not hear anything special west of my location. As Totality neared my site, I just left the radio tuned to KNOX for the people around me to hear. Its signal did become about 25% stronger and near the end of the recording you can hear other weaker stations trying to break in.
As soon as totality was over, and my picture taking was done, I returned to the radio and found 1510 khz WLAC Nashville, TN was moderately strong! And this was seconds after their Totality had already ended. A baseline reading beforehand showed this station coming in very very faintly. Subjective SINPO rating beforehand=15452, just after Totality=34433.
The next surprise was tuning to 750 WSB Atlanta GA was BOOMING in! They were very clever and had no announcers. Instead they were playing snippets of songs about sun, moon, dark themes. Very entertaining! Baseline beforehand was just moderate noise, no signals. During recording, SINPO=55444 with propagation getting slightly worse near the end of the recording.
Final surprise was 1110 WBT Charlotte, NC, which was not in the path of Totality but just north of it also booming in but not as strongly. Also, near the end of the recording, the signal dropped off very sharply, unlike the WSB signal which stayed strong throughout the 5+ minute recording. Baseline beforehand was low noise and no signals. During recording, SINPO=43434 at 14:40 ET, then approximately 1½ minutes after their maximum eclipse (14:43 ET), SINPO=33423, then at 14:46 ET a SINPO=22422 with another unidentified station breaking through playing a Johnny Cash song.
Tom, thank you for taking the time to share your recordings and listening experiences with us! Snagging a daytime MW broadcast from the Atlanta, GA and Charlotte, NC regions is most impressive. I reckon they were about 400-500 miles (as the crow flies) from your Ferne Clyffe, IL location.
Sounds like you had an amazing experience, despite the stop-and-go traffic!
From the Isle of Music, August 27-September 2
No interviews this week – this week we focus on some great moments in recorded Cuban Jazz during the past few decades that you may have missed when they first appeared.
Four opportunities to listen on shortwave:
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in all directions with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Kostinbrod, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EDT in the US)
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.
It’s a funky world….
Episode 27 of Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot tears the roof off of Planet Earth on Thursday, August 31 from 2300-2330 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 KHz on the short waves. We’ll have funky stuff from a few different countries plus yet another contest.
I find old radio souls now and again who seem, at least to me, to be in touch with the spiritual side of radio. I am not talking about religious programming or some weird cult, but rather they are folks whose souls have been touched by the magic of radio. It is mystical, magical, and at times seems to connect our physical bodies to the very electrons which flow through the air. It is as though our minds are connecting with the radio signals like old friends, able to hear and be heard.
Yeah, I know, I am weird. Radio is in no small part connected to me in a special way because of the role it played in my youth. Perhaps more recent generations will not be able to relate since their exposure to media has been raised by orders of magnitude compared to my generation. For me, and at least some of the “old souls” I have met, radio touched a very special place in our hearts and in our imaginations. It was “other” and yet uniquely ours.
When I discovered shortwave radio I thought I had found radio nirvana (okay, maybe that really came only after I got my amateur radio license and could talk, literally, around the world). Shortwave radio first connected me to the world, however, as finding stations on the air meant being exposed to people from completely different cultures who were both unique and yet just like me.
Music has always had a direct path into the soul, but it is not just my own culture’s music which stirs me–I find life in the music of all cultures. Shortwave radio allows me to experience this life as a welcomed outsider. The music and words are there for me to take in, offered from the hearts of those who created it. We become bound together in our humanity in those moments, much as we become bound together with nature as we listen to waves crashing against the beach or when rain splatters in the forest.
The comedian and banjo player extraordinaire Steve Martin once said in a comedy routine, “You can’t play a depressing song on the banjo,” and proceeded to demonstrate the perky, upbeat sounds of the instrument. I feel this is similar to listening to music from around the world–we cannot be disconnected from those with whom we share such intimate moments though music. I may not understand the words, but my soul understands the heart within the music.
There are those who say shortwave radio is dead because so many stations have gone off the air. Shortwave is alive and well, and evidence of this is there for all to see if they are willing to look. It is not FM, it is not audio streaming. It is radio. Signals speeding through the air, bouncing off the atmosphere, crashing waves of electrons hurtling through the ether to find expression through our speakers and our headphones.
The noise and static which may accompany the signals are evidence of the hard-fought battle waged by those electrons to reach our shores and thus our ears. “You made it!” “You made it!” The signals arrive scarred from the journey, but they are here and they speak to us. And they arrive all up and down along the dial on every band, on every day without fail. They are here, just waiting to be discovered, even if now and again they must play a game of hide and seek with us because of seasons and solar cycles and shortened propagation paths. They are here, nevertheless, I promise.
Radio is the medium which brings together all of these things for me and fills my soul with gratitude. -73, Robert
A SHORT DRIVE south of Alice Springs, the second largest population center in Australia’s Northern Territory, there is a high-security compound, code-named “RAINFALL.” The remote base, in the heart of the country’s barren outback, is one of the most important covert surveillance sites in the eastern hemisphere.
Hundreds of Australian and American employees come and go every day from Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, as the base is formally known. The official “cover story,” as outlined in a secret U.S. intelligence document, is to “support the national security of both the U.S. and Australia. The [facility] contributes to verifying arms control and disarmament agreements and monitoring military developments.” But, at best, that is an economical version of the truth. Pine Gap has a far broader mission — and more powerful capabilities — than the Australian or American governments have ever publicly acknowledged.
An investigation, published Saturday by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in collaboration with The Intercept, punctures the wall of secrecy surrounding Pine Gap, revealing for the first time a wide range of details about its function. The base is an important ground station from which U.S. spy satellites are controlled and communications are monitored across several continents, according to classified documents obtained by The Intercept from the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.[…]
Consternation, mourning and national soul-searching greeted the temporary silencing of Big Ben last week, but at least another favourite fixture of the nightly and early morning radio is to continue. The hymnal cadences of Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, through Shannon, Rockall, Malin all the way to south-east Iceland, will be heard as usual on Thursday, as the shipping forecast celebrates 150 years of uninterrupted service.
The shipping forecast, the longest continuous weather forecast ever made, has been a public service since 1867 when it was used to warn of storms. The warnings were first issued using the electric telegraph until radio became available. Storm warnings were sent over the telegraph wires to harbours, where signals were hoisted to warn ships at sea.
When the BBC was formed in the 1920s, the maritime forecast became a fixture of the daily wireless programme where it would remain with occasional modifications and a break during the war when the broadcast was discontinued for fear it would help the enemy. The forecast was still made, however, and disseminated to the Royal Navy.
Though today’s seafarers have access to many more sources of meteorological data, and many radio listeners famously use the late-night incantatory broadcast – never more than 380 words, and always following the same strict format – for soporific rather than navigational purposes, the broadcasts still fulfil a vital safety role.[…]
If you love The Shipping Forecast like I do, check out our archived posts.
I especially love these posts by SWLing Post contributors Dave Porter (G4OYX) and Kris Partridge (G8AUU) who have both inadvertently caused the shipping forecast to repeat!
Long live The Shipping Forecast!
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The Hurricane Watch Net is a group of amateur radio operators who are trained and organized “to provide essential communications support to the National Hurricane Center during times of Hurricane emergencies.” The HWN focuses on “ground truth” observations (much like SkyWarn nets).
