TRICK-OR-TREAT 2025, and SWLing without Up-to-Date SW Schedules

 

A blast from the past -- a pumpkin I carved for Halloween, 2010!

This was the first or second time I used a stencil I had bought with some pumpkin carving tools at a local box store. A moon and stars -- and if you look at the Jack O' Lantern at an angle, it's also a face.

Today, as I start this article, it is All Soul's Day, November 2nd, and it's rainy out. Not too cold, but dreary weather, which matches the month, being that November is the shittiest month of the year. 

Two nights ago it was Halloween. I had 15 Jack O' Lanterns out, so the front of my house and drive looked fairly cheery. I got about 11-12 trick-or-treaters -- three groups of them -- who braved the light rain and I gave them all extra candy, being that I had a couple bags of it.

I also played my bagpipes outside after the first group of trick-or-treaters left. The new reed I had in my pipe chanter held up really well, and I'm finally getting used to the easier air pressure needed to play the instrument. I played the closest thing I know that sounds 'spooky', a tune called The Dark Island. I don't know if anyone heard it, being that there were few trick-or-treaters out on the streets of my neighborhood, and it was drizzling.

Here is a piper who calls herself the Dark Isle Bagpiper, playing The Dark Island. She adds some Irish trills and plays the tune slightly differently from the way I learned it, but the basic tune is the same. She is playing this tune in Greenland, although she is based out of LA. The Dark Isle Bagpiper has played pipes on several TV shows. If you check out her vids on YT, she plays a lot of really good slow airs, and other tunes, too.

I also was fighting off a cold, so when the night was done I took some extra zinc and echinacea, and spent some time clearing files off my laptop computer before I went to bed. I've found that extra sleep helps kill colds. The zinc tabs help, too.

WRESTLING WITH CONSTANT UPDATES

My computer is over 8 years old, and it needs a lot of older files removed, because the hard drive is getting full -- not just full from my files over the years, but the endless plethora of mostly useless, bloatware updates all have been gradually filling my hard drive with their code.

For the life of me, with all the gigabytes of updates that slam my computer a few times a month, nothing seems to run better. All those 'improvements' never really improve anything. Some of the updates were AI-related programs I didn't ask for, and don't want on my computer because they just take up resources and I never use them.

They always say the updates are for security, but do you really need to slam someone's computer with multiple gigabytes of updates over a period of several months, just for security? How many gigabytes does it take to make a program, app, or OS 'secure'?

Oftentimes, when the updates are kicking in, my computer slows down. I'll hear my hard drive being slammed. In fact, I just heard my hard drive being slammed as I was typing this sentence, and -- looking at Task Manager -- it was another bunch of bloatware updates trying to cram into my laptop.

I'll spend several hours removing files onto a USB drive, and soon enough, the various, bloatware updates will fill it right back up. So far over the past several days, I've cleared off over 2-3 gigabytes of space, only to see it quickly filled by update bullshit.

It's maddening. And it isn't just the company that made the OS. Both browsers push their updates, and a PDF reader's updates slow my computer to a crawl when they kick in. I'm figuring out how to stop all updating, because frankly I don't think they make the computer any more secure, and they definitely don't improve anything.

So it's been an ongoing fight with the software companies, whose 'business model' seems to be to piss off as many people as possible.

NO REAL PLANS, EXCEPT GET THROUGH NOVEMBER

As for the rest of this month, I really don't plan on doing much aside from continuing to straighten out finances and get through November, which is a cold, rainy, dreary month. And, frankly, Novembers are months where people in my family, extended family, and several of my cats have died. Not good overall.

CQ Magazine's DX 'Zones', which ham radio operators use during the big radio contests.

DX HAS BEEN TOUCH AND GO...

On the radio and DX side of things, the ionosphere has been touch and go lately. The past couple days have been mediocre, and the week or two before that, there were a few good mornings and nights to switch on the radio and tune around.

A couple weekends ago, there was a ham radio contest, the biggest contest of the year, the CQWW contest, where ham radio operators all over the world try to contact as many other hams as possible, in as many ham radio 'zones' as possible. 

I tuned in during the morning after it started, and the HF ham bands were quite lively. Even 15 Meters had a considerable amount of activity, which was a pleasant surprise. 15 Meters used to be a popular ham band. I recall hearing LOTS of activity on 15 Meters during the summer afternoons in the early 1980's. That's when I heard A7XB out of Qatar. But ever since the last Solar Cycle died off in late 2017, 15 Meters has never been the same. Most afternoons I'd tune it in during the peak year last year, 15 Meters was like 12 Meters -- mostly a ghost town.

Even 20 Meters is not what it used to be. Every Saturday afternoon 20 Meters used to be wall to wall CW and SSB signals, invariably, with most of them splattering on each other. This recent CQWW contest was the first time I've heard 20 Meters so packed in ages. It reminded me of how the band used to be on a typical weekend afternoon.

It was refreshing.

WHEN SW SCHEDULES CHANGE OVER, YOU GET CREATIVE

This is also the time of the year when SW DXers have to be creative when figuring out what they are hearing. Most SW broadcasts anymore are in non-English languages, so even if you can ID the language, it doesn't necessarily follow that you can understand what's being said. So you have to listen to the TYPE of broadcasts, and tone of it. Does it sound like news? A feature? An interview? Does the programming match the BBC, or CNR-1, or NHK?

And the online SW schedules are a bit off, because it takes some time for their creators to compile the new broadcast information, because the end of October is when SW stations all change their schedules.

So, you get creative. The other morning, I heard Japanese on 7380 kHz (at 0522 UTC), that sounded like NHK. But neither EiBi or Short-wave.info had ANY Japanese programming listed that frequency and hour. I was sure it was NHK in Japanese, but had no schedule info to back up my suspicion.

So I went to Short-wave.info and used the 'Any Station' dropdown and 'Japanese language' dropdown, and I found out that NHK had a regular broadcast in Japanese to SE Asia during that hour. They had moved their frequency lower to the 41 Meter Band from the 25 and 21 Meter Bands because the 41 Meter band is more of a Winter SW band.

Remember, SW listeners -- there are ways to find out what you're hearing, even if the SW lists online are getting out of date. ID the language. LISTEN to the programming, even if you do not know the language! Does it sound like CNR-!? Does it sound like the BBC? Does it sound like NHK? 

A lot of American SWL's bitch and gripe about most SW being in non-English languages. But griping about most SW being non-English is backwards thinking. A lot of the non-English programming is pretty cool to listen to -- and even if you don't understand the language, it doesn't mean you can't ID the station or the program.

I've learned to ID non-English languages, and find it challenging. I also have learned that a lot of the non-English stations play really cool music -- music I'd never hear on US radio. Japan has some really cool soft pop-rock hits from the 70's that NHK plays. I've heard some great K-pop on KBS World Radio. CRI plays some great music, too. And a lot of SWL's poke fun at Radio North Korea, but the music they play is interesting, and very well made -- their musicians are excellent.

I've heard really cool stuff on CNR-1. They have kids' programming over the weekend mornings (evenings, China time). Imagine that: a radio company that cares enough about kids to program a radio show for them. Doesn't happen here in the US or Canada. The last radio company that catered to kids -- Radio Disney -- pulled the plug completely in 2019.

But CNR-1, China's national broadcaster, that has numerous transmitters on SW, has a radio play or storytelling episode for kids that you can hear during the mornings, US time, every weekend.

American DXers and SWLs, open your ears!

MORE MYSTERIOUS SIGNALS NEAR THE 40 METER BAND

The only other radio 'catches' of note have been mystery carriers -- dead signals that have appeared over several nights just below the 40 Meter Ham band.

I've logged a dead carrier at 7000 kHz over several nights and mornings, and others have shown up on 6988 kHz, 6938 kHz, and more recently, 6979 kHz.

What the purpose of these dead carriers -- if any -- happens to be is a good question. No one in the SWL community seems to know. The dead carriers don't get mentioned much online, but there have been some SWL's on HFU (HFUnderground) who have logged them.

I also heard a single letter beacon on 7057 kHz, a continuous 'F' being sent, and it was very weak in strength. I haven't heard it since. Most 'single letter beacons', which are continuous repetitions of the same letter in Morse Code, are associated with the Russian military, particularly the Russian Navy, and their frequencies are well known, and appear in many SW lists. But this 'F' beacon on 7057 is a mystery.

There are a lot of such strange oddities in the SW bands. You just have to tune around and listen to catch them.

MYSTERY RANCHERO MUSIC ON 1560 kHz

One other 'mystery' signal wasn't as bizarre as a Morse Code blipping away in the ether, or a dead signal, but I heard a mystery ranchero music station on 1560 kHz last night (the night of the 3rd) beaming mostly North-South.

Usually on 1560 I hear a mix of just two stations -- KNZR Bakersfield, which is a news-talk station that comes in with varying strengths, and KVAN, Tri-Cities WA, which is a Spanish language religious station. This station was neither.

The only ranchero station on 1560 is a daytimer, KIQS, Willow, California -- but when I checked their stream, it was not the same music as what I was hearing on the radio. And KVAN does NOT play ranchero, nor do they have rapidfire announcements and advertisements.

A view from Interstate 5 not too far from Montague, California. Much of the far north of California looks like this -- green and golden ranch country.

pic courtesy Dreamstime

MONTAGUE, CALIFORNIA CHECKS IN ON LONGWAVE

Last but not least, the past few evenings I've gotten really decent catches of a Longwave beacon out of Northern California -- MOG, out of Montague, a small town not too far from Yreka, which is the first city you hit on I-5 after crossing the Oregon/California border.

I recently got an XHDATA D808, and it's great on Longwave. It's possibly my best Longwave radio. That said, there isn't much on Longwave anymore -- the few aeronautical beacons are disappearing. The maritime Longwave beacons disappeared years ago.

But it's great to hear MOG, beeping away.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll close this article with another old Halloween pic. I couldn't take any on my phone or camera because their memories are also full and need to be cleared.

A pumpkin I put in my tree, on Halloween 2023.

Peace.

C.C., November 4th, 2025

Mystery CW Signal on the 40 Meter, Shortwave Ham Band

My Radio Shack 200629, which I recently re-batteried, and did some SW DXing with. The Radio Shack 200629, which is Radio Shack's badged version of the Sangean ATS505, is a good radio for MW DXing, FM, and SW listening and DXing. It has great sound through headphones, and the SSB is easy to use on it, too.

This morning while I was tuning the 40 Meter ham band, and below (where I heard some Indonesian ham pirates chanting for a short period on 6965 kHz), I came across a strong CW (Morse Code) signal.

SLOPPY HAMS SEND SLOPPY MORSE CODE

Like a lot of CW you hear, it was fast, and sloppy. It seems that a lot of hams love to send faster than their ability to send clean, often with use of paddles and the like -- running characters together, and ensuring that their dits and dahs are similar.... That sort of thing.

This signal was like that, except the characters were so convoluted it was hard to tell one from the other. For a while I thought it was Japanese code, but it was too sloppy to tell, and it was around 18 wpm or so. Long, continuous CW gibberish.... Minutes worth.

The signal was S4 out of 5, and had a polar flutter or warble to it at times, indicating that it may have been skirting the auroral radio zone, which may or may not have indicated a signal from Asia somewhere, despite how strong it was.

I first heard it on 7041 at 1431 UTC. Then I heard the same exact CW on 7048, at 1437 UTC. It was definitely NOT a QSO. There was no change, like you hear when hams are talking to each other in CW. It was a continuous blather of CW gibberish, all sent around 18 wpm in slop code.

When I checked later, it was at 7062 kHz, same strength, same characteristics.

Then it switched OFF, right at 1500 UTC. It was as if someone pulled the plug.

It started up again at 1502 UTC 1 kHz up, at 7063 kHz. Then, at 1510 UTC, it instantly flipped to 7062, as if someone bumped the tuner knob on the transmitter.

Then it stopped abruptly at 1530 UTC. Then it was back on again, on 7063 kHz.

I checked a few minutes later, and it was now on 7062 again, still S4, still with the 18 wpm, continuous CW gibberish, with the same slight flutter to the signal.

I then switched off the radio, as I had some other things to do. When I checked the 40M frequencies later around 1737 UTC, the 40M band was MIA.

I had heard this gibberish CW on four radios -- Radio Shack 200629, Tecsun PL330, and DX-394, and even my DX-398. So it wasn't overloading on my radio. Same indoor, 25-30 ft wire.

I have no idea what it was. Some ham had his keyer set to gibberish and had his rig on by accident? Cat bumped against the tuner knob, changing the frequency? Somebody's kid playing a joke on dad's ham rig? Some Japanese ham had a bit too much sake? The signal may have favored Asia but at S4 out of 5 it was a bit strong for Asia at that time in the morning. So, who knows what it was?

You never know what you're going to hear on the 40M band.

A GRAB BAG OF SW SIGNALS

The 40 Meter ham band has a tradition of having odd signals. During many early mornings one can hear Indonesian ham pirates in the lowest sections of the bands. On 7200 kHz on some evenings, you can hear a lot of yelling, swearing music being played, etc. There is the 'A' Beacon that appeared for several nights on 7259 kHz, which would be sent continuously until being shut off abruptly around 2 a.m. or so Pacific time, as if someone pulled a switch.

I've heard repeating sentences in Morse Code (CW) sent on 7260 or thereabouts, addressing a ham operator, and insulting him at the same time. This CW message would sometimes be shut off, as if someone flipped a switch.

For a few months, on and off, a mysterious carrier appeared on 6988 kHz, which another SWL monitored for a while and saw a few equally mysterious data bursts occurring.

The 40 Meter Ham band is sort of unique in that it's usually active at night, and can be worldwide in reach. It's a fun band to monitor, because you get CW, SSB, and even broadcast stations, along with mysterious signals and ham pirates -- all in the same swatch of frequencies between 7000 and 7300 kHz. If you go down towards 6900 kHz you can sometimes hear pirate radio stations at night.

It's an interesting chunk of radio spectrum to listen to.

There is an international organization of ham radio operators who monitor the bands and check for illegal intruders. I'm not sure if they've heard the CW gibberish I talked about earlier in this article, or other anomalies like the 'A' Beacon, but they do register a LOT of different anomalies and mystery signals, as well as known intruders. Here is a link to a PDF report by the IARU.

Not all the IARU 'regions' have reporting. But a perusal through this document will show that there is a LOT of strangeness that goes on in the SW Ham bands.

https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IARU-IWS-Newsletter-2025-07.pdf

IN OTHER LIFE...

The weather here has been moderate, and variable. This morning there was a very, very light rain. The overnights have been in the 40's F, which is between 4-5C. Daytimes are between 68-75F (15-20C or so).

I've been playing my bagpipes a lot, trying to get the ability back again. It's taken more work than I thought it would. The year of not playing, and the 8 years of playing a very easy reed before that, weakened my lip muscles, and my diaphragm and left arm as well.

It's coming back, but it's been a frustrating, slow process. When the lips start to give out, the fingers mess up. If the diaphragm isn't pushing the air enough, the fingers mess up. When you have to push more air into an instrument than you're used to, you get oxygen depletion, and the fingers mess up...

You get the idea.

I'm also getting the place ready for my favorite holiday, Halloween. I've already got a few electric Jack O' Lanterns out above my garage door. I hope to have all of my electric Jack O' Lanterns working, outside and glowing ahead of the holiday this year.

That's about it for now.

Peace.

C.C., Sept. 29th, 2025.

ADDENDUM, October 16th, 2025:

I heard this mystery CW / Morse Code signal once again, yesterday morning, the morning of the 15th here in Washington state. I was tuning my brand new XHDATA D808 to the 40 Meter ham band and heard this super-fast, Morse Code gibberish on 7044 kHz at 1527 UTC, which is 8:27 a.m. Pacific time.

At 1530 UTC, it flipped off mid-sentence, and when I tuned around, I found it right away just two kHz down, on 7042 kHz. Like last time, on Sept. 29th, it was as if someone just flipped a switch from 7044 to 7042 kHz. Both times -- Sept. 29th and Oct. 15th -- it had flipped 2 kHz away right at 1530 UTC.

In the background was a lot of continuous, propagating OTHR (Over The Horizon Radar, which sounds like digital pulses).

Then, at 1550 UTC, the gibberish CW signal FLIPPED BACK UP TO 7044 kHz. This is the same time in UTC that the CW signal flipped back up in frequency last time.

Last night, an SWL who frequents one of the Shortwave subreddits logged a similar signal in the 19 Meter SW band. There was speculation that it was Russian Military, or Russian Navy CW, which often is sent ultra fast and sometimes appears anywhere on the SW spectrum.

But that was just speculation.

I know that there is a Cyrillic version of the Morse Code, but this CW I heard was so fast and continuous that I couldn't decipher any characters, much less read any of it.

Obviously, it's a definite Shortwave mystery.

C.C.

ADDENDUM, April 22nd, 2026.:

I have since learned that these mystery CW signals are actually a Russian version of FSK -- Radioteletype -- with each component about 7 kHz apart, hence the two frequencies coming in with the same or similar CW sounds, simultaneously (for example, 7041 and 7048 kHz are 7 kHz apart). The characters are not CW / Morse Code. They sound like a strange version of it, but it's a strange form of RTTY. So, I suppose this mystery is mostly solved. Online sources, and other SWL's on social media, say this Russian FSK comes from a military station in the Crimea. However, there have been some nights, or mornings, over the past several months where I've heard two of these transmissions (on 4 different frequencies) with different signal strengths, and one of the signals is always very strong -- telling me it may be from the Russian Far East somewhere, perhaps Vladivostok or Petropavlovsk.

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.

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

What's that strange, and haunting noise on the radio? It's the chanting, shortwave 'Lima Pirates'!

Shortwave radio has always been a medium that has had its strange mysteries. 

Being a worldwide medium, it has plenty of odd phenomena that one can hear on their radio... From strange transmissions like the Russian 'Buzzer' (which some believe is a 'dead man's switch' associated with Russian nuclear policy), to the mystery of the CB Sideband's "GI Joe" in the late 1980's; to Spy Numbers stations (where a woman with a robotic like voice counts out letters and numbers, in Spanish, monotonously, in between digital bursts), to strange, unlicensed and illegal, low powered 'beacon' transmitters that run off solar panels and put out varying dits and dahs... There are a lot of odd things that go on when one is tuning the bands.

Here is an article I wrote on the mysterious, late 1980's CB Sideband character "GI Joe", an American guy who was in Belize, and routinely talked to hundreds of US and Canadian CB'ers who all wanted to contact him. He was clearly audible all over the US, was heard by probably thousands of CB sidebanders, and just simply disappeared into the ether some time after 1990. Internet searches on the guy, including on radio forums, bring up absolutely nothing.:

Interrock Nation: The CB Mystery of "GI Joe" in Belize -- and 105F in the Shade

Well, this is another one of those mysteries. 

Early one morning in the Winter of 2002-2003, after I got home from work -- probably around 4 a.m., as I was working late night shift at that time -- I tuned my Realistic DX-440 around on the shortwave bands. At the time I had a 100 ft. / 30 meter wire antenna, that went from my bedroom window out to a poplar tree across my side yard. The antenna worked really well, and because 2002 was the peak of a Solar Cycle the Shortwave bands were also working really well.

I tuned to the 41 Meter SW broadcast band, and checked out what was on the airwaves there, looking to see if the RTM Malaysia SW stations were audible. Then I tuned down to the 40 Meter Ham band, which is just below the 41 Meter Broadcast band. The 40 Meter ham band is, and was, sort of a hodge podge at night -- you get some broadcasters in the band, a couple Russian Single Letter Beacons, and a smattering of hams talking, using sideband or Morse Code (CW), and there were some digital noises on the band, too.

At the time, the 6900-7300 kHz spectrum was my favorite prowling place for SWLing and DXing, as it was such a grab bag of various signals. In fact, the 6900-7300 kHz spectrum still is a lot that way.

Back in 2002 the 40 Meter ham band was a bit more active than it is now. I already knew that during the early mornings Asian stations -- both ham and broadcast -- would be coming in fairly well on SW, and it's always cool to hear signals from that part of the world because it's literally an ocean away -- SE Asia, for example, is around 12,000 miles from the NW US. This particular morning I heard some Japanese hams trying to talk to American hams, and I probably also listened to the CW / Morse Code sections of the band trying to see who was contacting who, some of them probably being Japanese as well. If I remember correctly, I probably heard the mysterious Russian Single Letter Beacons on 7039 kHz -- "M" and "K", the military 'marker' stations in Magadan and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which just send out a long, unending sequence consisting of one letter ('M' for Magadan, 'K' for Kamchatka) in Morse Code, over and over again. 

THEN, THE EERIE CHANTING.....

I tuned lower, hearing talk in SE Asian languages, in sideband (LSB) -- something I hadn't noticed before. The transmissions were apparently unlicensed, or otherwise illegal, as nowhere in the world can hams talk on sideband on or near 7000 kHz. The IARU states that only CW / Morse Code can be used between 7000-7030 kHz. So these transmissions were ham pirate transmissions. 

Then I tuned even lower -- and that's when I first heard the chanting, somewhere around 6999 kHz. It sounded very eerie -- like some sort of primeval religious rite, and the phasing and fading quality of shortwave made it seem even more weird and exotic. Then it stopped. Then it started again. Then it stopped. Then there was just some talking in some SE Asian language between 4 or 5 guys.

The language I was hearing sounded like Tagalog or Malay -- I didn't know what language it was, but it definitely sounded SE Asian.

The stations never gave out call signs, and their frequencies were illegal for people to be talking on, as the 40 Meter ham band stops at 7000 kHz, and anything lower is "no-go territory", at least legally -- and this rule is worldwide. 

That made these talkers and chanters "pirate hams", i.e., illegal ham stations.

I heard these 'pirate chanters' a few more times over the Winter of 2002-2003, but mostly I heard them talking instead of chanting. And the language intrigued me. I assumed they were fishermen, or possibly Malaysian, Philippine, or Indonesian mariners.

In 2002-2003 I didn't pay enough attention to the pirate hams because I was very busy tuning the Shortwave Broadcast bands -- hearing all sorts of cool stuff, from Vividh Bharati's Indian movie music, to RTM Malaysia's station in Kuching, Sarawak; to the BBC broadcasting out of Singapore; to Singapore's SBC station, broadcasting in English, Chinese and Tamil; to Bayern Rundfunk and all sorts of interesting broadcast stations. Unlike today, the 49, 41 and 31 meter bands were packed with signals to listen to and ID. 

So the SE Asian language pirate hams were put on the back burner for a few years.

And after 2004 I took a break from SW DXing, and frankly, I didn't give the chanting pirate hams a thought for several years.

BACK TO THE RADIOS IN 2011, AND THE CHANTERS ARE STILL THERE!

When I got back into the hobby in 2011, I started hearing these pirate chanters nearly every morning, and even though I was using slightly different equipment (a Realistic DX-390 and DX-398, primarily -- along with my 25 ft. / 8 meter indoor wire), the pirate hams were quite audible, and sometimes I could hear them talking, chanting, and doing more talking, sometimes as late as 9-10 a.m.

Most of all, I found the chanting to be very bizarre and intriguing.

Here's the best video I could find of this 'pirate chanter' phenomenon, which I found in 2012. The DXer recorded it in 2009, and it sounds just like I heard it on my radios. He calls them the "Lima Pirates", because a) they are technically pirate hams -- illegal hams, and b) one of the louder chanters says "leee-mah! leee-mah!" a lot. I also heard "Leee-mah!" being chanted a lot during the early 2010's when I heard these folks doing their thing. Have a listen.:

Pirate party 7000kHz: the "lima pirates" (youtube.com)

The video was posted to YT by an Australian DXer, who used a Sangean ATS-505 (similar to my Radio Shack 200629). I am pretty sure this is the recording I found in 2012, when I did searches and some research on the "Lima Pirate" phenomenon.

Another Australian posted this video -- also around 2012, of some 'Lima Pirate' chanting.:

Indonesian Horse Races 7000kHz 5 May 2012 1256z (youtube.com)

This DXer, who used a Kaito radio, also recorded a little bit of the banter in Indonesian in 2017, and a commenter gave some useful info on the way these Indonesian Pirate hams operate. He described it as a sort of radio based, bravado contest.:

Bizarre Chanting, Indonesian "Bandracers" aka 'Fish' Station (7020khz, 4/7/17, 1500utc ) (youtube.com)

This DXer, using a Philippine WebSDR, recorded some "Lima Pirate" chanters just a year ago.:

Indonesian "Bandracers" aka Lima Pirates aka Bizarre Chanting (7000kHz LSB, 1000+ UTC) (youtube.com)

So, obviously, this pirate ham phenomenon has been going on since at least the Winter of 2002-2003, when I first heard them. 

And it seems that one of the monikers for these unique, illegal ham operators is "Lima Pirates".

VERY LITTLE INFORMATION, EVEN ON HAM FORUMS & WEBSITES

Anyway, in 2012 I set my mind to find out just who, and what, these chanting "pirate hams" or "Lima Pirates" are. After all, they were taking up at least 40 kHz of one of the most popular amateur radio bands, so one would think there would be plenty of information available.

And by 2012, the WorldWideWeb had pretty much became standard issue media -- nearly everyone had used it at least a few times by then, especially ham radio people. So you'd think there would be plenty of information on this illegal transmission phenomenon, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

Mostly, I got dead ends. There was a ham radio operator in Australia who mentioned Indonesian ham pirates on the 40 meter band on his blog. I emailed him, asking what he knew about the phenomenon. I never got an answer.

I checked out the ham radio forums, and some websites for ham radio societies. I searched them for info on illegal, pirate ham activity on 7000 kHz and therabouts. I came up with nothing. 

That was odd -- think about it: your ham band has illegal operators talking and chanting between 7000-7040 kHz, and it's clearly audible 12,000 miles away, and you aren't talking about it at all? I found that strange.

I found web pages put up by Indonesian and Malaysian hams. Still, I found no mention anywhere of the high numbers of illegal ham pirates talking from 6900-7040 kHz in their region. It was the usual pictures of ham gear, club stations, towers, etc.

I finally found one website operated by the International Amateur Radio Union, with reports by hams who monitor the ham bands for intruders, and -- after all -- technically, these "Lima Pirates" were intruders. In the IARU's reports I did find some information on the chanters in the listings: they were called "Asian, Village Radio", with the source of the pirates being 'INS', i.e. Indonesia. You can read one of the reports here.:

Microsoft Word - R3 MS Report August 2012.doc (iaru-r3.org)

Most of these reports of the "Lima Pirate" activity were recorded by a couple Australian and NZ hams. There are other such reports here on the IARU site.:

IARU Region 3 Monitoring System Newsletter (iaru-r3.org)

The pages here are from 2012, because that's the page I found when I first did my research. 

So now I had the pirate hams located in Indonesia. Somehow these Australian and NZ hams knew that the chanters and talkers were in Indonesia, even if their reports gave no further information about the phenomenon. That would make the language they were speaking the Indonesian form of Malay -- Bahasa Indonesia.

They called it "Village Radio". That begged the question: what's Village Radio? 

I did searches on Village Radio. I came up with nothing, aside from just one mention on some missionary's blog, where he mentioned that some villages in the remote areas of Kalimantan (Borneo) had ham radio transceivers at one main building in the village, and those radios were used by villagers to talk to the outside world, because at the time, there was no internet there, little if any cell or phone service -- ham radio (illegal ham radio) was IT.

I wish I would have kept that missionary's website's address, because I can't find it now. It's ten years later, and a lot of blogs have disappeared. Searches today, using the three main search engines, of course, bring up nothing.

Meanwhile, I kept listening to these fascinating transmissions in 2012, and one morning the 40 Meter ham band was open late, until around 9-10 a.m., and I heard several guys on my DX-398 -- all talking in Bahasa Indonesian. They were chatting up a young sounding woman, who said she was in the Philippines. The propagation to SE Asia was crisp and clear that a.m., with the conversation sounding like CB radio did during its heyday. 

One of the guys said he was in Kalimantan, Indonesia -- Indonesian Borneo. The guy and the Filipina seemed to be having fun talking -- if I remember it was a combination of Bahasa Indonesia, Tagalog, and perhaps some English thrown in.

Eventually, I determined, through the little information that was available anywhere, that Kalimantan indeed has a lot of these ham pirates, because Kalimantan is sort of the Wild West of Indonesia. There is a lot of lumbering going on, and it's not quite as populated as the other parts of Indonesia. I also was able to determine, from the guy saying he was in Kalimantan, that the language was indeed Bahasa Indonesia. So that helped.

ENTER HF UNDERGROUND... A FORUM DEALING WITH SW MYSTERIES

Some time before August, 2012, I joined the SW website HF Underground, which covers nearly all subjects SW, MW, FM, and DXing, and even covers some ham radio, too. The site caters mainly to the aficionados of pirate radio activity, especially SW radio pirate stations.

But the forums on HFU have a lot of loggings and talk about nearly every unusual signal you'll come across on the Shortwave spectrum -- from unlicensed mini-beacons that put out dits and dahs in the 4 MHz spectrum, to strange military transmissions, to the illegal transmissions of the "Peskies" -- fishermen who use HF tranceivers illegally to talk, joke, laugh, swear, and whatever, often just below the 40 meter ham band. 

On the East Coast of the US most of these "Peskies" (short for Pescadores -- "fishermen") talk in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. But on the West Coast we hear them in Japanese, Korean, some Chinese, and -- yes -- Indonesian.

I found a thread on HFUnderground where a guy had been talking about these "chanting Peskies", and he wasn't sure of the language. He posted a sound clip. It sounded like the Bahasa Indonesia pirate hams I had been hearing. I told him about my experiences in hearing the Indonesians chanting in Bahasa Indonesian. Another forum poster mentioned that some of the words heard in one of the sound files posted was "ganti" -- Bahasa Indonesian for "over". That forum poster, a DXer in Norway, also may have led me to the IARU reports mentioned previously.

Then I started hearing these pirate ham guys using the word "ganti" when they were just talking to each other -- they'd use the word the same way we English speakers say "over".

THE CHANTING IS A SORT OF RADIO GAME

It was then that I also determined that the chanting is a game. I noticed a pattern: one guy would be talking with a few others. Then he'd say "Go!" Then a bunch of the others would all be chanting a single word or phrase, over and over again. Then they'd stop. Then the main guy would say a few words. Then I'd hear a click. Then I'd hear the same exact chanting I just heard previously, the same exact words. The tonal aspects of the sound, of course, was slightly different, but the chanting was an exact replica.

In other words, it was a recording.

After listening further, I noticed the same pattern, being repeated. One main guy would say a few words. Then he'd say "Go!". Then there would be a ton of chanting. Then they'd stop. Then the main guy would say a few words. Then the replica of the chanting would be played over the main guy's radio. A recording. They were recording the shouts and chants -- as if it was some sort of game, to determine who's radio gets out better.

On the HFU forum that August, some of the others agreed that it sounded like a call and response, recording and playback sort of thing.

You can read the entire HFU thread here.:

7000 LSB - possible Brazilian pescadore activity (hfunderground.com)

And while you're there, check out the rest of HFUnderground. It's fascinating reading. A lot of the posters there are quite knowledgeable about nearly ANYTHING you'll hear on the SW/HF spectrum, and a lot of them are knowledgeable about radios and antennas, too.

Here's the link to the basic forum. The HFU site also has a Wiki on all sorts of radio subjects. It's a great site for DX'ers.:

HFU HF Underground - Index

SO WHO AND WHAT IS 'LIMA', ANYWAY?

So, now that we've figured it's a game -- similar to the bravado one would hear on the CB band in the US, during the heyday of CB in the 70's-90's ("You don't get out, ha ha" / "I get out better than you!" / "you've got a 10-9 station, ha ha") -- there's one obvious question left: Who's "Lima"?

Although I don't have a concrete answer to that question, I do think the answer is fairly obvious: If you're running some sort of competition over the airwaves, to see which station gets out the most, there has GOT to be identifiers for the stations. Otherwise, the contest really is of no use.

My guess is that "Lima" is, or was, the name, or nickname of a guy who had one of the unlicensed ham stations in Kalimantan. If you listen closely you hear these various names, or words, repeated -- usually two or three syllables at most. They've got to be the names, or "handles", of the operators -- maybe the name of the guy who owns or runs the station, or, if the "Village Radio" concept actually is a thing -- maybe it's the name of a village or location.

I've heard "Lima!" and -- more recently --"Wa-Cha-Pi!", and a bunch of other words and short phrases repeated during these chants over the years. In 2012 I noted that I heard a guy repeating loudly "Da-Nam! Da-Nam! Da-Nam!". Another guy was shouting "Nga! Nga! Nga!" 

Some on the internet speculated it was chanting the Koran, or perhaps some other religious phrase or text, but this is nothing like the Koran chants one sometimes hears on Saudi Arabian and other official SW radio stations, where verses from the Surahs are sung. And these aren't really phrases they're shouting into the mic. This is nicknames or handles, obviously.

It would seem more probable that they're very similar to the CB "handles" used in the CB band.

There's no other viable conclusion to be made. 

A pic of my Radio Shack 200629 when I heard the 'Lima Pirate' chanters on the airwaves the morning before I wrote this article, early May 28th. They came in maybe S3-S4 around 1144 UTC, 4:44 a.m. here in the Pacific Time Zone.

THE 'LIMA PIRATES' ARE STILL ON THE AIR, DOING THEIR THING

Amazingly enough, it's 12 years later and these 'Lima Pirates' -- Indonesian ham pirate stations -- are still on the air, talking, chatting, and chanting. I heard some chanting a few mornings ago, and this previous a.m. (May 28th) I heard a lot of talking, and even some chanting on 6975 kHz (see the pic of my Radio Shack 200629 just above -- I took it when I was hearing the 'Lima Pirates' chanting). It still seems to be the fun thing for them to do, I guess.

On the 26th, I heard some chanting on 6925 kHz, with the loudest guy chanting "Wah-Cha-Pi! Wah-Cha-Pi!" on my Panasonic RF-B45 (+wire antenna). That was around 1250 UTC (5:50 a.m. Pacific Time). I also heard some talk in Malay or Bahasa Indonesia, where the guys were saying "ganti" (over) during their convo.

During that same morning, I heard what sounded like Malay or Bahasa Indonesia on 10145 kHz, 10155 kHz, and possibly some Bahasa Indonesian speech on 7040 kHz (all around 1230 UTC). So they may talk on other frequencies, but the chanting seems to remain around 7000 kHz or just below.

It's still odd that there is so very little info on these Indonesian ham pirates. Not that their activity being unlicensed or illegal is very shocking or off-putting, but one would think that their activity would be mentioned more often in ham radio and DX circles, especially when the Indonesian ham pirates often take up 40 kHz of prime, 40 Meter ham band territory. But it isn't.

So, for those of you who are in the Pacific or Indian Ocean regions -- anywhere from India to Australia and NZ, to the West Coast of North or South America, and probably eastern Asia as well -- tune your SW radio to the 6900-7040 kHz spectrum, switch on the SSB (LSB, mostly), and tune around. You may hear the chanting of the Indonesian "Lima Pirates". If I can hear them on my Radio Shack 200629 and 25 ft. / 8 meters of wire, you can, too.

And even if you're not in the areas I mentioned, you still may hear them. In 2012 a DXer in Texas seems to have heard them, and a DXer in Northeast Florida heard them back then. With the Solar Cycle picking up, it's worth a try, to be able to hear these fascinating SW transmissions.

Until next time, my friends,

Peace.

C.C. May 28th, 2024.

May 29th: I added a section "Who Is Lima?" and also changed the top pic, as the first one was a bit dark and drab. I moved that pic down to the bottom half of the article. The replacement pic, of course, is dark, because I DX in the dark (easier to concentrate on what I'm hearing); but the new pic of the Panasonic looks a bit better. And I was listening to these chanters and unlicensed operators when I took it. I also made a couple small edits here and there... typos, etc.