Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Carlos Latuff, who writes:
Today (June 5, 2021) I heard another mysterious CW transmission here in Rio Grande do Sul coast, this time on 8779 kHz, 18h31 UTC.
I did some research and this frequency is related to Rome Radio (which is no longer transmitting in CW) and a marine channel (ITU821) related to Cape Town Radio but I’m not sure:
https://capespectrum.wordpress.com/hf-marine/
I’m sure your readers will solve this puzzle as well.
Thanks for sharing, Carlos!
Post readers: Can you help Carlos ID this station? Please comment!
Here’s another sample of UNID signal.
I thought it was RTTY, I tried to decode with FLDIGI but got no good results.
https://youtu.be/Yisu4iCsaZo
I sure is RTTY and it might be this:
https://twitter.com/IZ0WQY/status/418336043398488064/photo/1
I found this post on Twitter too but if you try to decode this signal you won’t see anything that may resemble a real message.
Maybe it’s me that’s not decoding properly.
That’s the “message” I got from the audio:
KMAUOA..(. (.ONNLLLT79-/9.,. CN
2. A
IO VLLAOUOL
AMAKNKO7.- MO7&(- M.997.- OKMUMCNMU OTKMOA. UKN ONA V. UNATU
MMOU UAA MMUMMA
C O OMTM.7:;
MTMN
KVOUAA-9U AA
OMCAAAO9.-((7’OAO
UNI
MU( I
U9-I
MV MNA.99)).-59::( 5
);:.M
T7..97.9 OMAMOOUWAMKUUOU M.(9785- A TOUMMKKM-: -89,.’U5 T, AA.79-(;:59.-; MOUA OKNANOOM-:)
MOMMK M..22
#;5,,,7(-77(., A O UMMMOV
ILNKUAVOOM5 L
OM (-9..
7VOAMMLTO7-UA(9 A
(O
AA-ONNOIMAKU MONAAA. O OOGO912 MM7 TU
UCIOU:.97,- UI.7.9.85,-9-7-. VKHIOP-)
:9
AOAA,,.
MMGANO KOI MYMNMUK M
OUAM,9979 M,.99.CBTOAAM
UV ICMUAAVMLLLUMUAIONKAA
MMUAM77.., OOAOM K OK7,:9 TMVCAAV-9;MUM U OTAOOK.8-1-;OUAAU
):78,N AOV. AO,,
T
IM 2,MI OGM.7(( OMMMOONMAUIINMV..7&97 LIT
GLTLMO.:-,,,9 OM
O 797KN MOKA9 OANKNM C
V
KMAM OAMNOA
IMNTM
NOKONKAOU M9-..1O097.,19,.#.5!.9-.57.,..-7,-MLM
NMMUVM..;VQUUKI L.
&&.MUO7 LT
V MAMMOMMKWAOUO(9.–ZTGVOTV MUMNVMKNKOTNT9UA
NZ. AOA-,9()5
MUONOMMAM IAAAMUA
CLOMLG-#.
OO ON N–.- OOAUMUMKMMN NA.927 OAMO
U.A QNKAO MV
M AKMA97 2.,.AAUM
Anyway, if we are talking about a possible transmission from NATO, I must assume this message is encrypted.
XHDATA RADIWOW SIHUADON official website?https://radiwow.com/
‘Cut numbers’ from a spy station?
I’d have to slow that down as I don’t copy that fast but that frequency sounds familiar. Cuba?
I’ll have to check. They haven’t used code in a long while but this wouldn’t be beyond possibilities.
I was thinking in a marine channel but do you believe it could be a numbers station?
I suspect it is a military station. They use these codes and they often do not care too much about band boundaries.
I’ve already listened CW transmissions from the Russian Navy here in Rio Grande do Sul, in fact, it seems, there is no specific frequency.
I looked at my records.
M08a showed up at 1400 UT on 8096 and 2000 UT ON 7554 and 2300 on 8135 all in CW with ‘cut numbers’ (eg T=1 A=2 etc)
Close but not exactly but then again, Cuban spooks have been known to show up in unexpected places!
Thank you, Ken.
Well, here in this post we have many different opinions about this transmission, but at least we can say what this signal is NOT: marine channel.
It seems that these alphanumeric codes are probably military. Maybe we’ll never know.
It is transmitting five random-letter groups at a speed of at least 20 WPM. No numbers or punctuation marks. You may have to listen longer to perhaps get a station ID.
hmmmm “five letters groups” rings a bell, it’s the same format which was used by the WWII german “enigma” machine
… and by every numbers/characters station of any spy organization ever since, and known (properly identifying) military stations like for example the Israel navy (4XZ). Also every old morse tutor record or program uses random groups of 5 for some reason. Apparently car sellers do too but that’s probably a different story. 🙂
It might be a poorly-designed transmitter spewing harmonics.