{"id":64443,"date":"2025-10-31T07:36:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=64443"},"modified":"2025-10-31T07:36:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:36:54","slug":"from-missouri-to-oklahoma-discovering-americas-secure-nets-on-5140-khz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/from-missouri-to-oklahoma-discovering-americas-secure-nets-on-5140-khz\/","title":{"rendered":"From Missouri to Oklahoma: Discovering America\u2019s Secure Nets on 5140 kHz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor\u00a0Don Moore<\/a>\u2013noted\u00a0author<\/a>, traveler, and DXer\u2013who shares the following post:<\/em><\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

\"Icom<\/a>The Missouri and Oklahoma\u00a0<\/b>Secure Nets<\/b><\/h1>\n

By Don Moore<\/b><\/p>\n

Don\u2019s traveling DX stories can be found in his book\u00a0Tales of a Vagabond DXer<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>[SWLing Post affiliate link]<\/i>.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0If you\u2019ve already read his book and enjoyed it, do Don a favor and leave a review on Amazon.<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019m always looking for new stations to add to my logbook, and the more unusual, the better.\u00a0 So I was intrigued by a pair of messages in the Utility DXers Forum<\/i> (https:\/\/www.udxf.nl\/<\/b><\/a>) email group in mid-August. Steve Handler posted a list of emergency station call signs from the state of Missouri that he found on the web in a 2014 emergency plan document. Then Jack Metcalfe responded that the last time he had checked, in early 2024, they ran a regularly scheduled net on 5140 kHz.<\/p>\n

I immediately sent an email to Jack to find out more. He answered that on Wednesdays the Oklahoma State Secure Net had been doing a check-in at 0900 local time and that the Missouri State Secure Net followed at 0930 local time. Both of these started on 5140 kHz and then moved to 7477 kHz.<\/p>\n

Going After the Secure Nets<\/b><\/h1>\n

I was spending my summer at an Airbnb in the north suburbs of Chicago. It wasn\u2019t a good place to DX from, but I had already found a good listening site at the Old School Forest Preserve near Libertyville, Illinois. I began a series of regular Wednesday morning listening sessions. I knew that this wasn\u2019t the best time of year for reception on lower frequencies, but I wanted to give it a try.<\/p>\n

All I got from the Oklahoma net was a few very weak and unreadable signals. From the Missouri net, I got two loggings of the net control station, WNBE830, and of WQKX373 in St. Charles County. Two other Missouri stations did check in, but they were too weak for me to copy the call signs. They did say that the net is only on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. And there was nothing on 7477 kHz, so they apparently stick to 5140 kHz only now.<\/p>\n

Recording of WNBE830 as heard on 5140 kHz at 1430 UTC on 03 September 2025, as heard in Old School Forest Preserve:<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MO_5140_WNBE830_03Sept2025_1430.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

In mid-September, I left Chicago to visit my daughter in western Colorado. While I was planning my return drive back east along I-70, I realized that I would be spending the night of Tuesday, October 14, somewhere around Kansas City. And that meant I would be in the area the next morning for the third Wednesday of the month. I made plans for another mini DXpedition.<\/p>\n

I found a hotel in the west suburbs and the next morning headed to a picnic shelter in nearby Wyandotte County Park for another remote DX session with my Airspy HF+ Discovery SDRs and PA0RDT mini whip. It was an excellent location. I logged five stations participating in the Oklahoma net. During the initial chitchat before the roll call, it was mentioned that some of the participants were at a conference. I might have gotten more stations if it hadn\u2019t been for that. The Missouri net, on the other hand, did not make an appearance even though it was the third Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Recording of roll call in the Oklahoma State Secure Net on 5140 kHz at 1407 UTC on October 15, 2025, as heard in Wyandotte County Park.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/OK_5140_OKEmergencyNet_15Oct2025_1407.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

How To Log the Secure Nets<\/b><\/h1>\n

I didn\u2019t hear as many new stations as I had hoped, but then I was listening in late summer and early autumn. There had already been several hours of daylight before the net started, which isn\u2019t the best for propagation on the lower shortwave frequencies. The northern hemisphere is moving into winter, and as that happens, sunrise times will move later. And that will allow 5140 kHz to be heard at greater distances during the timeslot these nets are on. If you can hear WWV on 5 MHz in mid-morning in mid-winter at your location, you should have a chance at these.<\/p>\n

The nets are on at 0900 and 0930 local (Central) time. When I was tuning in, that was 1400 and 1430 UTC, but when the US goes off of Daylight Savings Time on November 2nd, that changes to 1500 and 1530 UTC. From what one of the Oklahoma stations said, it sounded like the Oklahoma net is on every Wednesday. The Missouri net did say only first and third Wednesdays, but according to Jack Metcalfe, it was weekly some years ago. And for some reason, they weren\u2019t on the third Wednesday of October.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to be spending the next four months traveling in Southeast Asia, so I won\u2019t be DXing these again until I return to Chicago for a short visit in March. But hopefully some of you reading this in North America will try to hear these networks, too. Given that there is some question as to which Wednesdays these networks take place, I suggest setting up your SDR to make a spectrum recording including 5140 kHz every Wednesday at 1400\/1500 UTC for the next few months. And let me know what you hear by dropping me a message to Don AT DonMooreDXer DOT com. If I get enough good information, I\u2019ll put together an update to this article.<\/p>\n

And that brings up something else. Do you know of any other regularly scheduled utility voice networks on shortwave like this one? Over twenty years ago, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Aviation Administration had weekly voice nets, but those are long gone.<\/p>\n

Please post what you know in the comments or send me an email to the above address.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma Secure Net Stations<\/b><\/p>\n

On logs going back to 2005, these are the stations that Jack Metcalfe has heard participating in the net.<\/p>\n