Auroral DX on the MW/AM band! OCTOBER 14th & 15th, 2024

My Realistic DX-350A, which for a few years in the 2010's was my mainstay MW DX radio, in front of my Crate loop I made in 2011. I still DX with the DX-350A maybe once or twice a month.... Radios are meant to be played.

Dear Readers: Here is a blog article I'd forgotten about -- I wrote it after a flurry of MW Auroral DX, where the ionosphere makes MW distance listening interesting by boosting signals from Southern US regions. Sorry for the delay, but here 'tis. 

Recently, as even non-radio hobbyists know, we've had a flurry of Auroral activity in the Northern Hemisphere (where there was any in the Southern Hemisphere I don't know -- it obviously didn't make the news here).

When there is Auroral activity, sometimes the Northern Lights show up as far south as the northern tier of US states. And the Shortwave and Mediumwave radio bands are affected as well. The extra solar radiation zaps the ionosphere and makes it absorb radio signals instead of reflect them back to Earth.

The overall effects of an Aurora can vary -- usually there are 'radio blackouts' (as just described). You'll hear distant signals on the SW or MW bands get weaker and weaker as the Aurora hits -- or you'll turn on your radio one night and there's nothing but grainy sounding static.

This happened recently. About three nights ago I turned on my Realistic DX-394 and tuned the SW ham bands. There was very low activity, and as I was tuning through the 40 Meter ham band, any and all signals just faded down to nothing. It was the same thing with the 30M ham band, and the 20M ham band.

The Shortwave broadcast bands were mostly dead. 49 Meters had non-existent audio for WRMI, WWCR, and Radio Marti was barely audible in the grainy static. A couple other stations that are usually on during the evening -- Radio Educacion on 6185 kHz, and Nikkei 1 and 2 on 6055 and 6115, were extremely weak carriers that even the BFO barely made audible -- you had to listen for them.

MW was like a poor summer night.

Then, after a day or so, the Aurora dissipated. When that happens, often it's a fun time to DX the AM band, because here in the PNW US that means that California, Nevada, and sometimes Mexican radio stations will show up!

On the night of the 14th, it was exactly that way. Some Northwest mainstays like KOAC 550 (Corvallis Oregon), KXTG 750 (Portland, Oregon), CBK 540 (Saskatchewan), KONA 610 (Pasco, Washington), and other regional stations were completely gone, replaced by other weaker signals from further south, or just static.

KXTG 750 was missing -- 750 kHz was just static. KOAC 550 (normally always dominant on 550) was gone, replaced by a very weak KARI Blaine WA (about 150 miles north of me), and 

The next night, the AM band returned at least partly to normal. KOAC 550 was in with Oregon Public Radio news, but conditions overall were a little different from normal. Some regular stations weren't in well, and I heard a few California stations much, much better than normally!

On 1270 kHz, I heard KXBX Lakeport, California with Classic Hits, and I also heard KBZZ Reno with Classic Rock and a full, "92.5 The Hawk!" ID! (Actually, they're called "The Hog"). I haven't heard KBZZ since it was a sports station back in the early 2010's! I also heard KEAR 610, a religious station out of San Francisco that plays soft music and hymns at night, and KLBS Los Banos, California, was in on 1270 also! They have Portuguese language talk and music, serving the Portuguese speaking people in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California.

A pic of my Sangean PR-D5 during better days, when I was Solar Eclipse DXing in August, 2017.

MORE ADVENTURES WITH MY SANGEAN PR-D5

As many of you may know, I have one of these Sangean radios that are known for being really good on MW/AM. Sangean PR-D5's are like mini-boomboxes, which also have an AUX IN so you can plug your phone or tablet into the jack and listen to streaming in stereo. I used to listen to Norway's NRK Norske Folkemusikk channel all the time on my PR-D5 that way.

I also discovered a button pressing glitch that seemed to occur on my PR-D5 after the radio had been powered up for several months. It seemed that the constant powering of the radio -- which kept the microprocessor working in the background, waiting for the Power button to be pressed -- would cause the microprocessor's firmware to read the buttons oddly. 

For example, I'd have to press the Power button several times to get the radio to recognise that I was pressing it. Sometimes I'd press a button and an entirely different function would occur (like I would press a memory channel button and the PR-D5 would switch from AM to FM instead).

I discovered the fix out of frustration. I pulled the batteries, and pulled the plug from the AC wall adaptor, and reset the radio that way.

The re-set worked. The radio's buttons started working normally. A few years later, sometimes the re-set wouldn't completely work. I found that pressing the Power button after de-powering the radio did the trick.

I wrote an article about this button issue in 2017 or so. Here is a link to that article, where I go into more detail about it. Other PR-D5 owners who had the issue also found that the re-set fixed their radios.:

Interrock Nation: How to quickly fix a SANGEAN PR-D5 Power Button malfunction -- and other easy fixes

Recently, that hasn't been working 100%. I finally resorted to spraying contact cleaner down the side of all the buttons a couple times, working them after each spray. I wiped the excess off the front of the radio with a paper towel.

Presto! The radio acts like new again.

It appears that if your PR-D5 has been sitting, unused, for several months (I hadn't used my radio in probably a year, using my Superadios in my writing Den instead), the buttons can either oxidise, or they need to otherwise be exercised to work properly again.

NOW, these fixes may work on many of the Sangean AM-FM only radios. I have experienced these button glitches with my PR-D5, PR-D14, PR-D18, and a couple times my PR-D4W even acted up. It's obvious that something in their firmware can develop these button glitches over time. 

The buttons are fine, the radio circuits and 'brain' are all fine, it's just that the firmware will act up if it sees continuous power for too long.

And the buttons themselves either need exercising (i.e., actual use) or they may need a shot of contact cleaner down the side of the buttons now and then. And periodically re-setting your radio (depowering it completely, letting it sit for 15 seconds or so, and maybe pressing the power button to clear the residual charge in the microprocessor) is probably a good idea, too.

This was another article sitting dormant, that I had forgotten I had written. So here it is, nearly two months late. Better late than never.

I still am finishing the article on the mediocre Solar Cycle 25. I have been sitting on that one for almost a year. Here it is, December, during a 'peak year', and the SW DX conditions are mostly crap and MW DX conditions aren't anything like they were in 2011-2014.

So, it's time to publish that article, being that my assessments of Solar Cycle 25 turned out to be very accurate.

I shall get that article out within the week. 

Peace,

C.C. 12-18-2024

DX Conditions = Abysmal; But MADAGASCAR Gets Through Anyway!

The antenna farm in Madagascar for MWV New Life Station, whose Russian broadcasts to Eastern Europe make it all the way to my location near Seattle -- even when the rest of the SW bands are dead, or mostly dead.

(photo courtesy Russian MWV website)

DEAR READERS: I'd forgotten I had this article written up. Here 'tis, over two months late. That said, DX conditions have still been poor over the past two months, so much of what I say here still applies. Plus, the new battery issue I encountered is probably informative -- batteries can be bad out of the box! Ya learn something new every day.

Peace, C.C.

I am still in a funk over losing my cat, and dealing with a bunch of different stuff here at home, but I have managed to tune the Shortwave bands -- usually in the morning hours, when Asia comes in -- and the MW band at night when I'm in my writing Den, or later at night when I am ready to hit the hay.

I am also working on finishing an article on the latest Solar Cycle, and how mediocre it is -- something I've held off on publishing for several months, in the event that the Solar Cycle somehow begins delivering the DX that it's supposed to be delivering (hint: so far, it really hasn't). There have been a few bright spots where there have been mornings and afternoons with some DX on the SW, and MW at night has picked up slightly, but it's also had swaths of 3-4 days where there are mediocre conditions, too.

That article will be posted by mid-October.

That said, the past few days here in mid-September SW and MW have been mediocre at best, abysmal at worst. I tune my DX-394 + wire antenna during the mornings and often during the evenings, and I use my Superadios, Sangean PR-D5, or Sangean PR-D4W for MW DXing at night (and -- on rare occasions, my trusty Panasonic RF-B45), all with a milk crate loop.

The last couple weeks have been pretty mediocre on both the SW bands and the MW band. Sometimes the most interesting catch I've had is the Desert Whooper on 4096 kHz, a small, low power beacon transmitting 'whoop' noises and some CW out of an undisclosed location in Desert California.

This particular morning (the 17th of September) was an example. As I was sipping my coffee, waking up, and tuning my DX-394, I heard mostly static. The 30 Meter Ham Band was dead, no Pinneberg military RTTY on 10100 kHz, no NAU USN RTTY at 10153, no CW and not even any FT8. WWVH on 10000 kHz was in the mud, and WWV was non-existent. The 20 Meter Ham band was dead except for very weak FT8 noises around 14075-14075, and the 40 Meter Ham band was nothing but static, except for a local (WA-OR-BC) net high up in the band, and even then I could only hear the two strongest stations.

The 31 Meter Band, which is a good SW broadcast band for Asia during the mornings, was nothing but static.

Except for Madagascar.

Lo and behold, 9885 kHz had not just a carrier, but audio! Pop music! The signal was weak, but quite audible in the static, and fairly readable. Then I heard some talk by a woman in Russian, and then a man talking in Russian, ID'ing the station as 'KNLS', which is a Christian station that operates out of Anchor Point, Alaska, usually beaming programs in Russian to Siberia and Chinese and English to Asia.

But KNLS also has a station in the Southern Hemisphere, that broadcasts to Russia and other regions of Western Eurasia from Madagascar.

This is the station I was listening to: the MWV New Life Station being transmitted from Mahajanga, a small city in NW Madagascar, not too far from the Indian Ocean coast!

MWV New Life Station seems to be the KNLS service to Western Russia, while KNLS proper serves Siberia. Both stations play a lot of pop music that ranges from 80's pop to 2010's pop. This morning I heard a pop-R&B track sung by a young woman I had never heard before, and then Harry Styles' 2017 hit Sign Of The Times.

After some more talk in Russian, they played some choral music, which was quite good.

I was able to record some of the Harry Styles' track and the choral music on my phone.

It was very odd hearing Madagascar on my DX-394 -- a very capable radio -- and not hearing anything else except very weak carriers with no audio, or static. But it is what it is: that station in Madagascar truly gets out!

What is really cool, at least for me, is that Madagascar is the closest large, populated land mass to the Antipodes of my home region -- it's on the opposite side of the world from here.

The real Antipodes of Seattle, of course, is near Kerguelen Island in the Southern Indian Ocean, but there are no radio stations on Kerguelen (aside from possibly a local, low power FM for the French scientific and military station there). Madagascar, maybe 1800 miles to the north of Kerguelen, shall suffice. :-)

Like I've said before, both here and elsewhere, when concerning the somewhat disappointing Solar Cycle, there are always some surprises, and this was one of them. To not hear much of anything slamming my radio out of Asia, and no Morse Code or sideband on an early Fall morning when the SW bands should be hopping with signals, only to hear Madagascar beaming a broadcast to European Russia, is just proof that even when conditions are down sometimes you get surprises.

FIRING UP MY REALISTIC DX-398 -- and a new BATTERY ISSUE

With a SIMPLE, EASY Fix!

Just this week -- Monday, to be exact -- I decided to fire up my trusty DX-398, which is probably the best radio I have for SSB and Morse Code reception. My DX-394 comes close, as does my Panasonic RF-B45, but the DX-398 pulls in Sideband signals just a hair better than both of them.

That is, when the signal levels across the band aren't cutting down a couple decibels, only to come back up 10-15 seconds later, as happened to me recently....

I had this happen Monday morning. It was odd -- nothing I'd heard before. Strange dipping and increasing of all noises -- both signals and static. It was like someone was messing around with an RF Gain or Volume control.

At first I thought it was the radio. My antenna is pretty solid -- being indoor, there is no corrosion. And I'd never heard signal levels, across an entire ham band, dip 2-3 db and then go back up maybe 2-3 db just 10-15 seconds later.

For a second I thought it might be the battery connection -- I'd just put in new batteries (Walgreen Alkalines I probably got in the 2010's some time, so they were 'new old-stock' batteries), and maybe I'd not put them in right. I double checked the way the batteries were inserted. They were firmly in place, with no corrosion to be seen anywhere.

Now, I'd had two separate issues with my DX-398 dealing with batteries in the past. One was in 2012 or so when the negative terminal spring weakened where it was soldered to the main PCB board. A good dollop of new solder fixed that. Then last year or so there was a time when the DX-398 would turn itself off after a minute of working, on brand new batteries. That was a bit of corrosion on the positive battery terminal plate -- something that was hard to see, but definitely there. Once I cleaned it, the 398 worked like a charm until the batteries were spent maybe a month or two later.

So this time, when the signal levels on the 10 Meter and 20 Meter bands were wigging like someone was messing with my RF Gain or Volume, I at first thought it was the radio. 

At the same time, I realised that it COULD have been propagation -- although that sort of band-wide dipping and increasing of all signals (and static) levels was something I'd never before encountered in all my years of DXing. I'd seen dips and returns in signals, but not the entire band -- static and all. 

This was something new. Something was awry.

I rechecked the antenna clip and connector. All was fine.

I took the new, old-stock batteries out of my DX-398 and put them in my trusty Radio Shack 200629 (the batteries in that radio were next to dead). I fired it up. It worked great, until the same thing started happening. Dips in both signals and static. It was almost like what I experienced when my antenna terminal was wonky, though I knew it was 100% secure -- and the DX-398's antenna terminal has always been 100%. And instead of cutting volume and then cutting it back up, like someone hit a switch, in this case it was like someone quickly turning an RF Gain or Volume control.

Same problem, both radios. That meant the problem was external to the radios. Meaning it was the antenna -- or the batteries.

I switched off the 200629 and DX'ed with my DX-394 (which works on AC power), deciding to let the problem sit for a while.

Later that day, the thought occurred to me that maybe the problem was indeed the actual batteries. Maybe they had gone bad in the package, even though they looked clean and normal. I'd heard of such things happening before.

After all, if a battery lowers in juice, all the circuits of a radio will decrease in volume and gain. Usually you don't notice this when your batteries weaken because it's gradual. But if batteries dive for some reason, you'll hear it. And when batteries are old or bad, they might put out 6 Volts for a while and then dip to 4 or 5 Volts, before surging back up to 6 Volts again. And your radio's circuits will be affected. A voltage regulator (in most radios) can only do so much -- it can't create power that isn't there.

Of course, this sort of issue hadn't happened to me before. But it was worth investigating.

So I went to my battery box and pulled out another set of new AA's, this time they were Energizers I probably bought before the Pandemic hit. Maybe they were 5-6 years old, but they were alkaline, so they should still be good.

I popped them into my Radio Shack 200629, Tuesday morning. I DX'ed the bands for over an hour with no glitching, no bizarre dipping of signals whatsoever.

The problem was the batteries. They were old, yes, but they were still in their case. But obviously, they were weak enough to where they were varying in output, and it was messing with the gain and the RF, IF and AF circuits of the radios.

You learn something new every day.

So remember kids, sometimes the issue you may be having with your radio just might be the batteries.

The Hearing and Un-Hearing of HEARD ISLAND

A vid clip of my Radio Shack 200629 receiving Australian ham VK1A, working US stations from his location just outside Brisbane, Queensland, during the CQ World Wide contest, the night of Oct. 26th, 2024 (Oct. 27th UTC). The ID of VK1A is right near the end of the clip.

Over this past weekend, there has been a 'contest' on the Shortwave Ham bands. These contests have been around for ages -- the bigger ones usually happen two or three times a year, where you'll tune the ham bands and they will actually be crowded with signals, with hams eagerly trying to contact as many other hams as possible

When I was younger, I would buy CQ Magazine periodically. It's a magazine dedicated to the ham hobby. There are articles on how to improve your antennas, and there would be schematic diagrams of projects hams and other radio hobbyists could build. And there would be articles on DXpeditions (where a team of hams will transmit from some rare island out in the ocean somewhere), and also the results of contests.

A QSL Card for Qatar ham station A7XB, a station I heard on 15 Meters long ago, on my Yaesu FRG-7 and 80-100 ft. outdoor wire antenna. It was my most memorable DX catch. I had tuned into a couple guys -- with American accents -- talking. The signals were weak. The one guy seemed to be in Qatar and the other guy had an unusual DX call -- maybe Indonesia or Afghanistan? I don't remember, and I never got his call right. He might have been part of the US diplomatic mission in one of those countries. When A7XB mentioned his callsign, and spelled out his location ("Q-A-T-A-R"), suddenly there was a churning barrelhouse of signals -- all these 10's or hundreds of hams trying to contact him to get Qatar in their logs. I never did find out who the ham actually was, and never heard him again. Even DX Callbooks didn't show up anything. This QSL Card I found on E-Bay, by chance last year, is the only verification I've got for a very rare reception.

 

One year there was a big article on a guy in Belgium who won the CQ Worldwide DX contest -- I don't remember which year, it was probably in the 1980s. There was a pic of him, sitting proud in front of his several, large and expensive ham radio rigs, and also some pics of his antennas, which -- if I remember correctly -- were very impressive.

Now, this weekend a similar contest is taking place, on sideband. So, for the first time in recent memory, the ham bands are fairly close to packed with all sorts of SSB signals -- it's just like it would be on a typical Saturday afternoon on 20 Meters back in the 80s-00's when the bands were always packed. Not so much anymore -- crap propagation and inactive hams, as well as those running the clown car noises on FT8 have made the bands more spare.

But, this weekend, the bands are very busy.

A map of CQ Magazine's 'DX Zones', with the 'Zones' being designated by the people at CQ Magazine, which sponsors the Contest. During the Contest, individual hams (or teams, in a club) try to get as many contacts as possible, from as many of these 'DX Zones' as possible.

Last night I decided to tune around. 20 Meters, of course, was dead except for one guy calling CQ Contest from the Netherlands -- PJ2T, on 14318. He was alone on the SSB section of the 20 Meter band. And although I could hear him readably on my 24 ft. indoor wire and DX-394, he had no takers, except one American ham, K3DXX.

So I tuned down to the 40 Meter ham band. I had a lot more luck. The band was packed. I logged Brazil, Japan, Barbados, Mali, a bunch of hams from all over the US, and -- at least for a while -- I thought I logged Heard Island!

HEARD ISLAND? NO.... NOT REALLY

Heard Island is a remote island that is south of Kerguelen (the Antipodes of WA state, the exact opposite side of the world), which means it's out in the middle of frozen nowhere in the Southern Indian Ocean. So, why did I think I heard Heard Island? Because the guy in Australia, VK1A, had a web page that indicated that he was transmitting from Heard Island [please see screenshot of the page below].

Here you can see what threw me off: the unusual VK1 ham prefix (Australian prefixes are generally VK2-VK7 for each State, with VK1 being ACT, the Australian Capital Territory -- I've never heard ACT), and this page, which clearly denotes this station as being on Heard Island. Obviously -- it's a joke, or somebody, either at the site or elsewhere, typed in the absolutely wrong geographical coordinates.

This is a Ham Radio Station Prefix map. Maps -- and lists -- help you identify the country of the station you just heard. This map may be hard to read, but it -- and others like it -- are available online. I used to have a small book that had a map just like this inside it.

VK1A's QRZ page (QRZ.com is sort of a clearinghouse of info on ham radio stations) didn't have a location (the location only is available if you are logged in, and if you are not a ham, even if you are logged in the information available is a bit restricted). His QRZCQ page of course, was another matter. QRZCQ.com often has a lot more location info available, and QRZCQ said this VK1A guy was on Heard Island. 

The latitude and longitude coordinates -- which somebody had to take the time to type in -- gave the latitude and longitude for Heard Island as well.

I made a recording of my catch, still thinking there was something awry about the location. The operator didn't speak with an Aussie accent, but he's Dutch originally, so that would figure. I even heard him on my Radio Shack 200629, which is an able receiver on SSB but not as good as my DX-394, DX-398 (out of batteries right now) or Panasonic RF-B45.

Anyway, I moved on and listened some more and then went on with my household chores -- feeding my three cats, making some celery soup for myself, etc.

So then I looked up the station again. VK1A -- very little info on his QRZ page, or his main QRZ page (he has several callsigns, apparently quite active). No info whatsoever on ANY ham operating out of Heard Island, even during a contest. No real bio. Just a bunch of callsigns he's used over the years.

I finally logged into QRZ (after signing up), and being logged in more location info appeared. 

It turns out that the guy's up in the hills just north of Brisbane, and the weird VK1 prefix (not a standard Australian ham call prefix) is for contesters and clubs. Why the misleading info on QRZCQ.com? Maybe someone was having a joke? Maybe they typed in the latitude and longitude coordinates too hastily? I've seen misplaced locations on QRZCQ before, but not 7000 miles off.

So, there ya go. I had thought I'd heard Heard Island, but I had NOT heard Heard Island.

But I did get a clear copy of a guy from Brisbane on my Radio Shack 200629, which actually is a decent catch for that radio and an indoor wire. In fact, VK1A came in as well on my 200629 as he did on my DX-394, which is one of my best two radios for SSB and CW. It may have been that the conditions were up. Either way, I'm still happy with the DX catch -- even if it wasn't in the Indian Ocean. :-)

And, in the process, I found out that Heard Island has numerous glaciers, and its mountain, 'Big Ben', is the tallest mountain on Australian territory (although most Aussies think of Kosciusko as the country's tallest one). And -- no one, meaning absolutely no one -- lives there.

Here's a pic. And remember, if it looks cold, it IS cold. Nothing lives there but elephant seals and some penguins.

A picture of Heard Island, located south of Kerguelen, in the Southern Indian Ocean. The mountain is Mawson Peak, part of the mountain complex called "Big Ben". Big Ben is still volcanically active. No one lives on Heard Island, aside from elephant seals, penguins, and some other birds.

Here is an article on Heard Island's volcanic activity, courtesy the Australian CSIRO.

Blowing the lid off the volcanic story of Heard Island - CSIRO

I will post a couple more short articles within the week.

I hope my readers are all doing well. It's almost Winter here in Seattle, although the temperatures have been more or less moderate for it being this late in the year. I hope that holds.

Racofrats, when a kitten, Oct. 23, 2011. Such a long time ago.

I'll close this article with a pic of my cat Racofrats, when he was very young -- still a kitten. He's on my lap, looking to attack the other cats when they go by. He's the survivor of that litter. I call him Rac-a-doodle. He's turning into an indoor cat now. The plush, antique chair on the upstairs landing is all his, as is the cat furniture there.

Peace,

C.C. October 27th, 2024

Shortwave Mystery: Roaring Jet Noises in 20 Meter & 10 Meter Ham Bands

A pic of my Radio Shack DX-394, when I was tuned to a mystery, RTTY signal on 14002 kHz (the readout on USB on a DX-394 reads 1 kHz low -- so '14000.8' = 14002, roughly) (Readout on LSB is pretty accurate, within 50-100 Hz).

The past few evenings and mornings I've been tuning my Radio Shack DX-394 into the Shortwave ham bands. The DX-394 is a pretty good radio if you live in a low signals area, as I do. I got my DX-394 a long time ago -- in 1998. It was made in March of 1997, about a year before they discontinued the DX-394.

That said, at least three times I've noticed this strange, noise anomaly just outside the top edge of the 20 Meter Ham Band. I also recently noticed the same -- or similar -- anomaly at least once in the middle of the 10 Meter Ham Band. The noise propagates, and there is some fading, which indicates it probably isn't local RFI -- although I won't rule that out, as I'm not necessarily an RFI expert (RFI is Radio Frequency Interference, for those of you who aren't SW Radio aficionados). Interference from your neighbor's house isn't going to fade from S0.5 to S4 and back down again, irregularly.

First I noticed this anomaly on 14356 kHz, just over a week ago. The second frequency where I heard it was 28191 kHz, and there the noise/signal was definitely fading, from S4 down to S0 and back up again, and it wasn't regular in its fading pattern. Ten minutes later when I checked for it, it was gone.

It's one of those mystery noises we Shortwave and Ham Listeners encounter when we tune the bands. Sometimes it can be a noise from your electronics in your home, or your neighbor's home, or even somewhere in your neighborhood. Some radios have internal noises that can interfere with genuine signals coming over the atmosphere. Some noises -- like Over The Horizon Radar (called 'OTHR' by SWL's) -- can have distant sources (like China, Russia, or the US) and be intermittent, and they do not always sound the same. They can sound like pulsing noises, or even buzzing noises -- as OTHR can be sent with different numbers of signal pulses per second.

There are also noises on the Shortwave bands that may be military or scientific in origin -- and there are SW enthusiasts who spend a lot of time trying to ID or track them.

I'm not one of those people. I can ID most of the sounds I heard on the Ham Bands (CW, USB/LSB, FT8, Olivia, RTTY, etc.), and I can ID the sound of an OTHR (usually), and I can ID coastal CODAR noises (which sound like sweeping noises that often cover wide swaths of the SW spectrum; it is used to measure ocean waves near the coastline), and a lot of RFI I can ID, but I can't always ID the stranger noises I hear on HF and SW.

UNIDENTIFIED JET NOISE -- PHASING AND PROPAGATING on 14356 kHz

And this is one of those occasions. It is a roaring, phasing, propagating 'jet noise'. It sometimes appears just above the 20 Meter Ham band. I asked a Radio forum about this -- I posted a question about the mystery noise on the HF Underground, an excellent forum for anyone who is a Radio hobbyist, DX'er, SWL, or SW anomaly enthusiast. One of the guys who responded asked if I had any recordings. I had made two recordings, taken from my phone -- so they sound tinny. The two clips, sounding as they do, are the best I've got. Being that I couldn't post them on the HFU site, and that I don't have a YouTube, I figured I'd post the clips here, for what it's worth.

Here's a link to HFU, for those interested. If you like SW or Radio DXing at all, there will probably be something of interest here on this site. The HFU Wiki also has a lot of info on the stranger stations and noises you'll often hear. I found out about the Desert Whooper using the Wiki on this site (as well as a thread dedicated to that cool sounding, 4096 kHz, mini-beacon).:

HFU HF Underground - Index

So, here are the clips of the 'Jet Noise', centered on 14356-14357 kHz, the first of which I took after 2 a.m. Pacific Time, about a week ago, on July 19th, UTC. This signal was fairly wide, ranging about 3-5 kHz each side of 14356 kHz. That is why on one clip the readout says 14356, the other says 14355 -- the signal is fairly wide in spectrum.

'Jet' noise, Radio Shack DX-394 + 25 ft. indoor wire, 14357 kHz, 0916 UTC (2:16 a.m. Pacific). July 19th, 2024.

'Jet noise', 14356 kHz, Radio Shack DX-394 (+ 25 ft., indoor, second story wire), July 17th, 2024, 11:05 p.m. Pacific, 0605 UTC.

A MYSTERY RTTY TRANSMISSION ON 14001 kHz

Here is another recording, that I took this morning, when I was tuning the high HF ham bands on my DX-394 again. This was in the 20 Meter Ham band -- some RTTY (Radioteletype / FSK sounds) at 14001-14002 kHz. I first noticed it around 1418 UTC (7:18 a.m. Pacific Time). It was propagating, and a weak signal, less than S1 on a scale of S1-S5. It was getting stronger and weaker as I listened to it. It was weaker when I checked it again at 1438 UTC. I did get a phone recording of it, so I am posting it here. As for the frequency being reported as 14001-14002, I never know exactly where to zero the signal, and even if I did, I can't read it anyway....

UNID RTTY/FSK, weak, inside the lowest reaches of the 20 Meter Ham Band, Radio Shack DX-394 + 25 ft. indoor, 2nd story wire; July 24th, 2024, 7:08 a.m. Pacific, 1408 UTC.

The reason this is interesting is because RTTY and FSK (Frequency Shift Keying, which is a term that covers all sorts of RTTY style modes) aren't allowed (or just aren't done) in the lowest part of the 20 Meter Ham band. Two to three weeks ago I heard a very loud RTTY / FSK station on this same exact frequency, around 2 a.m. my time, 0900+ UTC. Another DXer said he had logged that station also, and he believed it was some sort of 'intruder', which can happen in the Shortwave ham bands.

Being that the propagation would probably favor either the Western half of the US, or Asia, my guess is that this RTTY intruder may be Asian in origin, but that is just a guess. The times I've heard it, there usually is some Asian activity either on the 20 Meter ham band, or the SWBC bands are open to Asia. 

These "intruder" stations can be fascinating to hear, be they ham pirates (illegal stations using the ham bands), or government and military agencies, and the like. The most famous intruders are the mysterious "Lima Pirates", operators who chant together on the airwaves (it's a type of game, actually), in the lower reaches of the 40 Meter Ham Band. I wrote about them in an article last month, which you can read here. The article also has some pretty good YouTube sound recordings of them.:

Interrock Nation: 'Lima Pirates': the Bizarre Mystery of the Chanting, Indonesian Pirate Ham Radio Operators in the 40 Meter Band

There are plenty of mysteries and anomalies that occur in the Shortwave spectrum. A lot of the strange sounding signals are explainable by those in the know. There are SWL's who thrive on recording and ID'ing these signals, usually lumped under the term "Utility Signals", because they serve a purpose other than entertainment -- they are military, aeronautical, scientific, or maritime transmissions.

Often you need special equipment to ID or otherwise decipher these signals, and many -- because of their military and governmental nature -- are not decipherable at all, but the experts usually can ID the type and mode of signal they are.

For the rest of us? You just learn to track them by ear and log them down. :-)

FIRING UP MY YAESU FRG-7!

Well, that's the latest Shortwave goings-on that have been happening here at my location. I still have an article on the DX-394 in the works, and I've also started one on my venerable 1979 Yaesu FRG-7, which I recently fired up again after years just sitting in the corner of my DX room.

After exercising the controls to clear the dust and oxidation from them, the radio worked perfectly! I am working on an article about it that I will post in a couple weeks. Here are two vid clips, one of an Indonesian ham sending Morse Code in the lower reaches of the 20 Meter Ham Band, and another clip of China Radio International's broadcast in Turkish.

This morning had a couple surprises. First off, the 40 Meter Band was mostly dead, except for some Californians talking on LSB on 7199 and 7185 kHz. 40 Meters is usually fairly open to Asia in the early mornings here. 

The logo of a Brunei ham I heard earlier this morning on my DX-394, on 14013 kHz. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a recording of him. He sent good, clean CW/Morse code, and had a good, S1-S2, mostly readable signal. A little later I heard YB0E_T contacting US hams in CW also on 14013 kHz.

On 20 Meters, though, I heard the Indonesian ham, and a different guy contacting US and other hams in Morse Code, and he was in Brunei, sending Code on 14005 kHz. For those who aren't geographically savvy, Brunei Darussalam is a small, independent country on the northwest coast of Borneo, surrounded by Sarawak, East Malaysia. I looked up the ham after I logged his callsign, V85NPV, and V85NPV builds all of his own radios. Quite good, obviously, with electronics!

Here is a link to his QRZ page, where there are pics of all the radios he has built from plans, and from scratch.:

V85NPV - Callsign Lookup by QRZ Ham Radio

This following clip is of the Indonesian ham sending Morse Code early this morning. His call was YB0E_T (because of his fast sending speed and the fading I couldn't ID the entire call accurately) and he was looking for contacts with US stations. He had a solid CW signal both on my DX-394 and FRG-7, and got a few contacts, mainly from Californians. Here you can hear him sending "CQ USA". As you can tell, the FRG-7 is a great receiver for CW, although the bandwidth can be a bit wide for separating out signals. This particular a.m., there wasn't a ton of activity in that part of the 20 Meter Band to have to separate signals, though.:

Indonesian ham YB0E_T sending "CQ USA" in CW/Morse code. Approx. 14013 kHz, FRG-7, 25 ft indoor wire. After 1410 UTC.

This is a recording of China Radio International broadcasting to Turkey and the EU in Turkish. The location of the transmitter is probably Kunming, in Yunnan province in south central China. The frequency is 13710 kHz in the 21 Meter Band, and the time I heard this was 1504 UTC (9:04 a.m., Pacific Time):

Well, that's about all for this time around.

Until next installment,

Peace.

C.C. July 24th, 2024.

ADDENDUM, September 17th, 2024:

I neglected to update this article after a guy on HFU -- Thomas in Germany -- listened to my MP4 vid clips on here, and he said it sounded like a STANAG mode used by military (probably from an Australian military transmitter, at Humpty Doo, in northern Australia). The STANAG in question may be STANAG4285. 

There are a lot of modes used by military operations, and STANAG is one of them. I'd heard of STANAG, but never learned to identify it. Apparently buried in the jet noise is a form of digital transmission. 

Humpty Doo would fit, propagation-wise, as the time I heard the transmission was when the 20 Meter Band was open to Asia and Oceania.

Here's the link to the HFU thread I made about the 'Jet Noise'.:

UNID Jet noise, 14356-14357 kHz, S4 (out of 5) & propagating, 0824 UTC (hfunderground.com)

A shout out to everyone from HFU who has visited the blog -- from my Stats page I can tell there are at least a couple. Peace.