CountyComm GP5/SSB, aka Tecsun PL-to 365
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tom Kamp (PA/DF5JL), who shares the following brief report and video:
Today (September 21, 2022) around 2015 UT strong signal on 5006 kHz (CF) from JG2XA beacon from Japan (0.2 kW) near Den Helder, in North-Holland, The Netherlands.
JG2XA transmits continuously at 200 W on 5006 kHz and 8006 kHz. The type of radio signal is H2A (amplitude modulation with coded tones in the single sideband).
Received with the Tecsun PL-368 and the built-in telescopic antenna! The dBm display of the unit is very inaccurate (in USB), yet S5-S7 should be rated appropriately. Top signal, top RX ?
73 Tom Kamp PA/DF5JL
That’s quite a catch for the PL-365. Thanks for sharing this, Tom!
LOL nope XD
It’s an FSK modem so commonly found all over the place on SW that mostly originates from a Navy of a certain big country in the East of Europe which is too barbaric to spell its name out. Of course this country is not Poland either ?
After various TDoA tests, there is much to suggest that it is RUS Navy Kaliningrad CIS36-50 / 250 Hz Shift and not JG2XA. It seems that they have hitchhiked both channels, 5006 and 8006 kHz. Meanwhile I have received the callsign RJD69 in F1B with QTC at 2142 UTC on 26 SEP at 5006 kHz. It is a pity that it is not JG2XA. I had assumed that if there were two synchronous signals on the respective frequencies of JG2XA, they would also come from there. But that was a big mistake. Unfortunately, despite several enquiries, I have not yet received a reply from Japan about this frequency assignment from a third party.
It would have been so nice ? Unfortunately, some Polish station has hijacked the two frequencies of JG2XA and led me around by the nose. Lengthy locating attempts using TDoA yielded this disappointing result. Annoying. Sorry
It would have been so nice ? Unfortunately, some Polish station has hijacked the two frequencies of JG2XA and led me around by the nose. Lengthy locating attempts using TDoA yielded this disappointing result. Annoying. Sorry
Great intercept Tom. Beacons are always fun to log. Try also listening to ham beacons from 28.100 – 28.300 MHz also.
I love beacons and also the shortwave miracle that rather suddenly and suprisingly you can receive them with no patricular sophsticated instruments when “Mother Nature” is favoring you.
I love that they are weak-signal and the fact that reception simply works.
When I find a contact email from an amateur radio beacon, I like to send a SWL reception report.
Best 73!
I note the receiver was tuned to 5005 kHz on the video. Is this due to the transmission method, or was it not the Japanese station?
That is completely correct: An SSB receiver shows the frequency of the suppressed carrier of the signal. If you receive a carrier and set the frequency 1 kHz below or above the signal, the carrier can be heard as a 1 kHz signal.
There was a time when I drove in my car at night, even during the winter. Quite often I could hear Japanese radio amateurs in CW on 40 m with an 1.7 m long antenna and my FT-857.
Or read reports from the early 1920s when radio amateurs made the first intercontinental shortwave contacts: They started in the 160 m band.
Everything is easy if two conditions are met: Good antenna at the transmitter and low noise at the receiving end. A good antenna at the receiving end is not necessarily needed: The natural noise is easily much louder that the internal receiver noise. You only need a reasonable signal/noise ratio.
What did they transmit and how to decode it?
How do you identify the beacon? Do they ever transmit a call sign?