Tag Archives: shortwave

Can you help Rob identify two mystery signals on the 20 meter band?

I received the following message from my buddy Rob (NC0B) who is trying to identify a couple of signals on the 20 meter band. Rob kindly gave me permission to post his email here on the SWLing Post with the idea that someone may be able to help him solve this:

The following is a description of two odd digital signals observed on 20 meters with transmission modes I do not understand. They may not amateur transmissions, but I have no way to decode them. They stick out like a sore thumb on 20m in the Extra portion of the phone band. The time of day on August 20th was between 11:50 AM and 12:00 PM MDT.

Two weeks ago I was in QSO on 14,170 kHz and occasionally there was the same 10 kHz wide digital signal but centered on 14,171 kHz. It sounded like the old Russian jammers buzz saw modulation. Those signals from decades ago were much wider, and or course we didn’t have high resolution spectrum scopes back then. Today the same transmissions occurred several times, and more than once a minute for about 5 seconds each. In total the transmissions may have occurred on and off for about 10 minutes.

Then after a few 10 kHz transmissions a different signal came on the air a few times with what looked like a digital modulated carrier plus digital sidebands on each side of the middle signal.

Look at the attached JPG file and I’ll try to make sense out of it:

The waterfall image lasts about 50 seconds on the Icom IC-7610 set on slow. There are two different signals to differentiate in this image. The signal I observed two weeks ago and today is 10 kHz wide and today spans from 14,178 to 14,188. It shows up in green on the band scope, and just under it in blue on the water fall for about 3 seconds of the approximate 5 second transmission. You can also see at the bottom of the waterfall the previous transmission that has about 4 seconds worth saved on the waterfall running off the bottom. The horizontal span of the scope was set to 5 kHz per division.

Once the 10 kHz wide signal started, I went to Dual Watch so I could listen for KL7QOW on 14,170 kHz for a sked, and hear the buzzing signal on 14,183 kHz in SSB mode. That frequency placed the carrier position of the SSB 2.8 kHz bandwidth in the center of the 10 kHz wide signal.

Soon after I started observing the relatively flat spectrum of the 10 kHz signal, a new digital signal appeared about 3 kHz lower in frequency. At first it had a much stronger center modulated carrier about 2 kHz wide and then two symmetrical digital signals on each side within about a 6 kHz total bandwidth. I wasn’t able to capture the best picture of the 2nd signal as it appeared to be tuning up. The amplitude difference between the central signal and the separate sidebands initially was about 15 dB. Vertical divisions are 10 dB.

On the waterfall you can see the second type of signal is centered on about 14,180 kHz. The modulation depth of the outer pairs of signals were not constant, possibly due to selective facing. QSB was quite significant at this time at least to Alaska. You can see there was a short break of a few seconds in the 6 kHz wide signal. Every time I have seen the 10 kHz wide signal its amplitude across the transmission bandwidth has been fairly constant, always of short duration, and repeating several times within 10 minutes before terminating.

Does anyone have any idea what either of these transmissions are? I have heard of email digipeaters, but I would not think their bandwidth would be this wide.

Rob, NC0B

SWLing Post community: Please comment if you can help Rob ID these signals!

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Jerome’s response from Australian Foreign Affairs regarding shortwave to Pacific

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jerome van der Linden, who shares the following response from from the Australian Foreign Affairs department regarding any future shortwave services to the Pacific. As Jerome notes, the letter “suggests that all is not yet lost, though it’s lacking in commitment.”

Click here to download a PDF of the response.

Quite correct, Jerome. The letter is noncommittal, but at least acknowledges the government will take this under formal review. I doubt anyone should hold their breath, of course.

Thank you so much for sharing!

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Upcoming High Power Broadcast of VORW Radio International to Europe & Beyond

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Hello shortwave listeners! I wanted to make this little post as a reminder for an upcoming broadcast of mine – transmitted with high power for listeners in Europe and beyond!

Friday 1600 UTC (7 PM EEST/MSK) – 9670 kHz – Moosbrunn 100 kW – Europe, Russia, The Middle East, Central & East Asia

You can hear this airing every Friday, the program is 1 Hour in length and features miscellaneous discussion (sometimes about current events, other times about random subjects on my mind) at the start of the program and is then balanced out with good listener requested music. I hope for it to be an enjoyable light entertainment program with good music and discussion.

For this airing only, I verify reception reports with a special e-QSL! Listener reception feedback is much appreciated at [email protected]

Happy listening!

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The solution for apartment/condo dwellers, perhaps?

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By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM

It was research on preselectors that led me to this: Improving HF Reception – The RadioReference Wiki

In that section of the RadioReference Wiki, written by Mike, KA3JJZ, I found the following:

Another way an active preselector could be used is to use it to load a very short dipole – say not more than 1 meter (roughly 3 foot) for each leg. A number of years ago, a company called Datong marketed such an antenna (with a preamp right at the antenna feedpoint) that was popular in Europe and to some lesser extent in the Americas because it’s easy to hide the antenna.

In the magic of my mind, I could picture using the short dipole strung across two windows — or a large window — in an apartment or condo (or anyplace with antenna restrictions) and connected to an MFJ 1020C. I had not yet done the experiment, but I had tested the 1020C and found it to be a worthy piece of gear. So I thought the short dipole/1020C experiment might be worth a shot.

The heart of the short dipole, the LDG 9:1 unun.

So I cut two yard-long lengths of wire and attached them to a 9:1 unun. I created loops at the outer end of each leg of the dipole and hung the whole assembly from a curtain rod covering two windows. A coax links the short dipole to the MFJ 1020C, and a jumper connects the output of the 1020C to my Satellit 800 receiver.

The completed dipole. Not fancy, but it works.

Bottom line: it works. The vast majority of the time, even when the 1020C preselector is in bypass mode, the short horizontal dipole/1020C combo delivers a better signal-to-noise than the Satellit’s vertical telescopic antenna. (In rare cases, they are equal.) And when the preselector amplification circuits are activated and properly tuned, the signal is usually improved, often significantly. The Big Trick is to use the preselector to peak the noise at the frequency you want to hears and then tune slightly to the side of best listening.

Obviously that would be cumbersome for band-scanning, but you could band-scan in bypass mode and then tweak the “hits” with the amplification circuitry. In all, if you are living in an antenna-challenged situation, the short dipole/1020C combo just might make your shortwave listening better.

Final thought: Mike, who wrote the section of Radio Reference wiki that inspired this experiment, said:

You do have to watch your gain otherwise you will get a lot more noise than signal. I did my experiment using an old Palomar preselector. You can also try using a YouLoop as the antenna – it should, in theory, work even better than just a simple whip.

One thing that you could mention in your article is that there is an advantage to having a small dipole like that as the receiving element. Not only is it fairly easy to hide, it can be moved around to find a somewhat quieter location. However the coax should be kept as short as you can, otherwise there is a chance that common mode noise would become an issue – particularly if it runs near computers or other RFI sources

Remember that even a 1 or 2 S unit improvement might make the difference between hearing a signal and not hearing it at all. All we are doing here is trying to improve the signal/noise ratio coming into the unit. That little vertical whip on the 1020c is not likely to be the best choice, and that’s what I am trying to improve upon.

– Mike KA3JJZ

Thanks, Mike!

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Radio Waves: Ofcom London Pirate Stats, RNZ Invests in New SW Transmitters, Public Media Supports Ukraine Refugees, and Migration to DAB+ Spurred by Energy Costs

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Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Eric Jon Magnuson for summarizing these news items for Radio Waves!

Pirate radio stations operating outside London (Southgate ARC)

In a Freedom of Information request Ofcom were asked to provide details of pirate broadcast radio stations outside of London for the years 2021-2022

Ofcom refused to give names of the stations but they did provide some statistics, see this link.

You can submit a Freedom of Information request to Ofcom online at
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/new/ofcom

RNZ welcomes Pacific infrastructure investment

Released at 3:19 pm on 19 May 2022

RNZ Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief Paul Thompson has welcomed the budget investment in RNZ Pacific shortwave transmitters.

In Budget 2022 the Government announced $4.4 million dollars capital funding for a new transmitter for RNZ Pacific.

RNZ Pacific broadcasts into the wider Pacific on shortwave 24 hours a day, collaborating with 22 broadcasting partners across the region. Its current primary transmitter is nearing end of life, and its other transmitter has in effect already been retired.

“The value of the RNZ Pacific service can’t be underestimated. Our voice reaches all parts of the Pacific, at times with critical information such as cyclone warnings. During the Tonga eruption, when the undersea cable was cut, RNZ Pacific short wave was a lifeline source of information,” said Thompson.

This investment secures a productive future for our unique voice. The attraction of the shortwave service is its robustness, and the ability to have the signal travel great distances, and achieve good audiences,” he said.

RNZ Pacific broadcasts enhance the Government’s Pacific strategy as we share our history, culture, politics and demographics. The strategy is underpinned by the building of deeper, more mature partnerships with Pacific Island countries, and by supporting their independence and sustainable social and economic resilience.

Since the ABC ceased its shortwave broadcasting the only other shortwave broadcaster in the region is Radio China. Thompson says RNZ can now start work on its infrastructure development with a new transmitter likely to take approximately 12 months to get in place depending subject to further project planning.

Click here to read at RNZ.

Public Service Media Continue To Mobilize Wide Range Of Support For Ukrainian Refugees (EBU)

More than 14 million people have fled their homes since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war shows no sign of ending. For World Refugee Day on 20 June, we are highlighting some of the issues faced by displaced Ukrainian people – and reaffirming that the support from the EBU and its Members will continue.

That support has manifested across a range of projects:

Air strikes on the TV towers in Kyiv and Rivne underlined the vulnerability of broadcast communications in a war zone. Together with our Members, we have coordinated the supply and delivery of critical equipment such as IP connectivity solutions, satellite phones, AM transmitters, and studio support to enable the uninterrupted transmission of vital news and information.

In these circumstances, being able to rely on accurate news sources is key. Many EBU Members have launched dedicated news services specifically for refugees in their own language, so that they can tap into vital updates from home, wherever in the world they are. Rai News in Italy has a daily news bulletin in Ukrainian; RTBF UKRAINE is a new web-based radio station for Ukrainian refugees in Belgium, with 100% of its content in Ukrainian; and Yle in Finland has a Ukrainian-language news service for providing the latest news bulletins in Ukrainian. Many public media outlets are also re-transmitting content directly from Ukrainian public broadcaster, UA/PBC for Ukrainian refugees.

Providing practical information to help people navigate the uncertainties of settling into new homes has also been a priority and has seen the launch of many dedicated programming and channels: GPB has a hotline for Ukrainians in Georgia; Czech Radio and Radio Prague have launched a podcast, ‘News for Ukrainians in Czech Republic’, that offers practical information for incomers. While ARD in Germany presents How To Deutschland Insta; Swedish Radio’s Ukrainian service for new arrivals includes practical advice on how to access medical care or education facilities for kids and RTP’s online service helps with learning a new language.

For children, displacement through war is particularly traumatic. TVP in Poland has developed a site for kids from Ukraine which, as well as showing selected content in Ukrainian, also presents lessons in learning Polish; ARD and ZDF in Germany have included content in Ukrainian for children, including German-language learning programmes, and Czech Radio has recorded fairytales in Ukrainian.

Noel Curran, Director General, EBU, said “Few of us can understand the trauma of being forced to leave our homes, not knowing when or if we will return. I’m proud to belong to a community that has mobilized a wide range of practical support so quickly while ensuring trusted news and information continues to reach those who need it, wherever in the world they are. World Refugee Day is a moment to reflect on a situation that continues to need targeted support. And to reaffirm our commitment to giving it for as long as it takes.”

Click here to read at the EBU website.

Rising Energy Costs Could Spur Digital Migration (Radio World)

Projected cost reductions cited as reason for Germany to accelerate the migration to DAB+

As energy costs rise, Deutschlandradio Director Sefan Raue sees a further reason to hasten an FM switch-off for Germany.

“We will not be able to afford two terrestrial distribution channels in the long run. The signs are clearer than two or three years ago,” Raue told German press agency dpa, according to Hadelsblatt. “FM is an energy guzzler.”

A public broadcaster, Deutschlandradio is based in Cologne and Berlin and operates several national channels on DAB+ and FM. The channel been steadily replacing its remaining FM transmitters with DAB+; six of its short-range analog transmitters are going dark at the end of June 2022. The broadcaster expects to have at total of 161 locations broadcasting its DAB+ channels nationwide by year-end, reaching some 90% of the German populace. [Continue reading at Radio World…]

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Upcoming High Power Broadcast of VORW Radio International!

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Hello shortwave listeners! I just wanted to make this short post as a reminder for an upcoming broadcast of mine – transmitted with high power for listeners in Europe and beyond!

Friday 1600 UTC (7 PM EEST/MSK) – 9670 kHz – Moosbrunn 100 kW – Europe, Russia, Central & East Asia

You can hear this airing every Friday, the program is 1 Hour in length and features miscellaneous discussion (sometimes about current events, other times about random subjects on my mind) at the start of the program and is then balanced out with listener requested music. I hope for it to be an enjoyable light entertainment program with good music and discussion.

For this airing exclusively, I verify reception reports with a special e-QSL! Listener reception feedback is much appreciated at [email protected]

Happy listening!

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W9IMS: A Radio Run at the Indy 500

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W9IMS: A Radio Run at the Indy 500

By Brian D. Smith, W9IND

You can’t win the Indianapolis 500 until they wave the checkered flag – and you can’t win a W9IMS Checkered Flag Award unless you contact the Indy 500 special event.

You’ll have that opportunity from now through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, May 29 in Indianapolis (0359 UTC Monday, May 30) as W9IMS fires up daily on 20 and 40 meters SSB. usually on or around 7.245 and 14.245 MHz.

The Indy 500 special event is the second of three W9IMS operations commemorating the major auto races at the Speedway. The first event of 2022, which ended May 14, honored the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and the third will run from July 25-31, during the week preceding the NASCAR Brickyard 200.

Both hams and SWLs are eligible for the Checkered Flag certificate and the three individual QSL cards, all of which boast new designs for 2022. To earn the certificate, however, you must work (or tune in) W9IMS during all three of this year’s special events – and it’s too late to catch the first race. But even if you miss the trifecta, you can still claim collectible QSLs from the other races.

Tips on finding W9IMS:

Check DX Summit (www.dxsummit.fi) for spots listing the current frequency or frequencies of W9IMS, if any. By typing “W9IMS” in the search box at upper right, you can customize it to show reports for only Indianapolis Motor Speedway special events.
Go to the W9IMS web page (www.w9ims.org) and look for the heading, “2022 Operating Schedule.” Click on the Indianapolis 500 link, which opens into a weeklong schedule listing individual operators and their reserved time slots. Your odds of catching W9IMS on the air improve significantly during these hours.
Prime operating time on weeknights is 6 to 10 p.m. Indy time (2200-0200 UTC). However, W9IMS can appear anytime, even on two bands at once, between now and 0400 UTC Monday, May 30.
Remember that the published schedule can be shortened by adverse circumstances, such as noisy band conditions, local thunderstorms or a lack of calling stations. Don’t wait till the final hour to chase W9IMS!
Operators often get on the air at unscheduled times. That’s why DX Summit is your best bet for locating W9IMS’s current spot(s).

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