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bladernr posted:You do not gently caress with Buzz Aldrin I guess he can intimidate any company he wants into branding products in his likeness/name. Radios, electric countertop grills, fleshlights, rectal thermometers, etc. He loving earned it, too. Fucker went to the loving moon. Edit: Holy gently caress, this is the 2000th reply! We are officially in double megathread territory. Page 51 snypah reprezent, biznatch!
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May 28, 2008 17:06
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Okay, I just got my G6. One thing I'm having trouble with is that I can't seem to change the time zone. I press 8, the letters ANC appear as they should, but spinning the wheel and pressing the 8 button multiple times does nothing. Otherwise, I'm slowly getting the hang of this thing. Haven't picked up anything worthwhile yet, but that might be because there's a rainstorm going on outside. EDIT: Just picked up some sort of crazy RTTY/beep boop transmission on 9215kHz Unboxing Day fucked around with this message at 20:51 on May 28, 2008 |
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May 28, 2008 20:42
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ok, this numbers guy is new to me: currently on 5773kHz USB at 20:45z. Male voice reading 5 figure groups. [edit]finished shortly afterwards, ending with "zero zero zero" repeated twice. End of transmission here if anyone wants to hear it. http://llamasoft.co.uk/yak/numbers_5773.mp3 stinky ox fucked around with this message at 21:55 on May 28, 2008 |
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May 28, 2008 21:45
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I MUST have the online SDR for my very own! How are they doing this? How can I do this? It's just the most amazing thing... What do I need to buy in order to do this kind of thing at home?? (/relurk)
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May 28, 2008 21:47
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stinky ox posted:ok, this numbers guy is new to me: currently on 5773kHz USB at 20:45z. Male voice reading 5 figure groups. That sounds totally new to me too! Just out of curiosity, where are you listening from? I'll do some checking on Simon Mason's page and see if I can find anything that matches this format. I want to compile as much information as I can about this thing. It could be an unknown station or a one-off transmission. 5 figures English Male 5773 USB AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 02:23 on May 29, 2008 |
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May 29, 2008 02:20
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Okay, I'm not seeing jack squat on Mason's master frequency list matching 5773 kHz. Maybe you should send this clip to him and see if he has any input on what the hell this thing is. Good find and great recording!
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May 29, 2008 02:28
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Okay, I'm listening to Radio Havana Cuba and being able to listen to news updates with a Cuban spin on them is honestly pretty awesome. One oddity I've noticed is that sometimes the volume will osculate in and out, sometimes becoming incredibly quiet and then riduclously loud. Is this normal, a misconfiguration, a potentially faulty radio, or what?
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May 29, 2008 02:36
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Emo Businessman posted:One oddity I've noticed is that sometimes the volume will osculate in and out, sometimes becoming incredibly quiet and then riduclously loud. Is this normal, a misconfiguration, a potentially faulty radio, or what? Totally normal. Propagation conditions are constantly varying, an fading and strengthening of signal is something to be expected. Some nights the same signal will come in extremely loud and strong, while other nights it will be totally inaudible. OP updated, bizznatches. Edit: I just noticed that a week from today will be the one year anniversary of the posting of the Shortwave Radio Uberthread! I NEVER thought it would last this long! AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 02:59 on May 29, 2008 |
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May 29, 2008 02:56
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AstroZamboni posted:Okay, I'm not seeing jack squat on Mason's master frequency list matching 5773 kHz. Maybe you should send this clip to him and see if he has any input on what the hell this thing is. Yeah, had a poke around myself and couldn't find anything like it already there. I've emailed him with the details and a link to the recording, maybe he'll know what it is. As for the recording, a good signal and my trusty E1 are responsible for that  . In fact the line level into my PC is way low and I had to normalise a bit to bring it up, which also increased the noise floor a bit. It sounded much clearer out of the radio. Some of the clearest numbers I've heard; I wonder where they are coming from...[edit]oh, forgot to mention, I am listening from west Wales, UK.
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May 29, 2008 09:59
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stinky ox posted:Yeah, had a poke around myself and couldn't find anything like it already there. I've emailed him with the details and a link to the recording, maybe he'll know what it is. Rockintacular radio you gots there, and that is one drat fine recording. Also; euronumbers=COOL. If you get a response from Mr. Mason, be sure to share it with us. I may send him a link to the thread to show him how his websites have helped to inspire a new generation of  radio geeks. They sure helped me get hooked!
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May 29, 2008 14:56
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Just found my first numbers station, and I'm still in Chicago, too. Centered around 5881 and 5882, woman's voice reading numbers in English. It's staticky and difficult to hear, but still pretty exciting. Edit: after going out into a room with better reception, I think it's actually Spanish, not English. Yeah, it's not a terrific signal but I'm still pretty impressed I can get it on my G5 with just the onboard antenna. Foggy fucked around with this message at 08:24 on May 30, 2008 |
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May 30, 2008 08:09
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AstroZamboni posted:If you get a response from Mr. Mason, be sure to share it with us. I may send him a link to the thread to show him how his websites have helped to inspire a new generation of Here you go - just had a reply from the man himself: quote:Hi stinky ox, So looks like I found a parallel transmission, and I'm pleased he can use my clip on his site .
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May 30, 2008 13:38
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stinky ox posted:Here you go - just had a reply from the man himself: Schweet. You've hit the numbers traffic big leagues there, boy. Foggy posted:Just found my first numbers station, and I'm still in Chicago, too. Centered around 5881 and 5882, woman's voice reading numbers in English. It's staticky and difficult to hear, but still pretty exciting. Almost certainly a V2/V2a transmission. Cuban in origin.
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May 30, 2008 16:02
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I think I've got the Atencion lady around 5885, at 07:10 UTC.
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May 31, 2008 08:11
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Accursed posted:I think I've got the Atencion lady around 5885, at 07:10 UTC. I've picked her up on that frequency a few times before.
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May 31, 2008 14:58
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I listened to the Atencion Lady for her entire transmission last night, all 40 minutes of it. What I found interesting is that she gives a one minute warning before beginning. I tuned to 5883kHz a few minutes before 7:00 UTC when I suddenly heard the voice saying, "uno,uno,uno,uno,uno..." It made me laugh because I thought it was a malfunction and it was stuck in a loop. Then a minute later it started up with the "Atencion," followed by a few numbers. This message repeats a few times before going into a 40 minute sequence of numbers, though of course each individual message in the sequence repeats itself a couple times. Then at 7:40 UTC there was a paused followed by "Finale, finale." And then I could go to sleep. Still, it was pretty interesting to get a clear transmission of the whole process.
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Jun 1, 2008 17:43
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Illegal Clown posted:I listened to the Atencion Lady for her entire transmission last night, all 40 minutes of it. What I found interesting is that she gives a one minute warning before beginning. I tuned to 5883kHz a few minutes before 7:00 UTC when I suddenly heard the voice saying, "uno,uno,uno,uno,uno..." It made me laugh because I thought it was a malfunction and it was stuck in a loop. Then a minute later it started up with the "Atencion," followed by a few numbers. This message repeats a few times before going into a 40 minute sequence of numbers, though of course each individual message in the sequence repeats itself a couple times. Then at 7:40 UTC there was a paused followed by "Finale, finale." And then I could go to sleep. Still, it was pretty interesting to get a clear transmission of the whole process. The warning process is critical considering the often fickle nature of shortwave reception. Sometimes they need a little warning if they need to use/adjust external antennae in the event of bad reception. The numbers during the callup process probably specify who specifically the message is intended for.
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Jun 1, 2008 17:49
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Apparently the USAF have their own numbers-style thing going on. The other day I encountered a female voice calling out a string of phonetic alphabet stuff followed by the termination "Andrews out". I just now caught a male voice calling out similar stuff on 6739 kHz USB, again ending with "Andrews out" (and just before my recording software finished booting, dammit). A little digging online reveals the following: quote:The "Sky King" Interesting, and worth keeping an ear out for .[edit]hung around on that freq and managed to catch a repeat which I recorded. Missed the preamble (which was something like "all stations all stations this is andrews andrews break break") followed by http://llamasoft.co.uk/yak/usaf.mp3 . I guess this stuff isn't strictly numbers, since it's military rather than spy, but it's still pretty interesting to hear what's flying around theough the airwaves out there. stinky ox fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Jun 1, 2008 |
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Jun 1, 2008 20:00
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stinky ox posted:Apparently the USAF have their own numbers-style thing going on. The other day I encountered a female voice calling out a string of phonetic alphabet stuff followed by the termination "Andrews out". I just now caught a male voice calling out similar stuff on 6739 kHz USB, again ending with "Andrews out" (and just before my recording software finished booting, dammit). It's poo poo like this that is eventually gonna make me spend money I don't have on a radio with SSB. By the way, Yak, izzat you?
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Jun 1, 2008 20:42
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:It's poo poo like this that is eventually gonna make me spend money I don't have on a radio with SSB. Well if you're into the nerdier aspects of SWL then SSB capability is pretty much a necessity since so much of the geekier stuff is in those sidebands. And yes, it is me, hey there Rev, long time no see, I haven't been on usenet since goat knows when . Good to see you again .
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Jun 1, 2008 21:03
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stinky ox posted:Apparently the USAF have their own numbers-style thing going on. The other day I encountered a female voice calling out a string of phonetic alphabet stuff followed by the termination "Andrews out". I just now caught a male voice calling out similar stuff on 6739 kHz USB, again ending with "Andrews out" (and just before my recording software finished booting, dammit). Yeah, a few months back there was a lot of discussions of USAF Emergency Action Message stuff. It IS encrypted, but not using one time pads, typically. The existence of these messages isn't classified, but their content is. I've picked up a few EAM transmissions. They usually aren't automated and there can be just about any voice (since they use real people, not computers). Still, they have a lot in common with numbers traffic. The Cuban military also has a number station called "the Babbler" which is a male voice singing the number transmissions.
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Jun 1, 2008 21:38
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Oh no, the antenna on my G5 broke  Specifically the top two segments became disconnected from the rest of the antenna and now slide freely up and down, and a little copper-colored piece of metal about half an inch long popped out.So far I can't actually tell if anything's different since I had never really noticed a difference between the antenna extended and closed, but now I can't even extend it (the top two segments just slide out instead of pulling the rest of the antenna with it). Perhaps this is a sign that I should start working on putting together an external one..
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Jun 1, 2008 21:56
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I too am getting the Andrews message. I've been hearing garbled messages on 6739 kHz at certain times over the last hour, but after a little fine tuning on the SSB on my E5 I was able to get a clear signal. This is cool as I was oblivious to these messages before today!
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Jun 2, 2008 02:23
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Exi7wound posted:I MUST have the online SDR for my very own! I don't think there is anything out of the box available yet. If you can program you might start up a project.
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Jun 2, 2008 02:40
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Illegal Clown posted:I too am getting the Andrews message. I've been hearing garbled messages on 6739 kHz at certain times over the last hour, but after a little fine tuning on the SSB on my E5 I was able to get a clear signal. This is cool as I was oblivious to these messages before today! I regret selling my Satellit 700...Seaturtleman.
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Jun 2, 2008 02:44
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Foggy posted:Oh no, the antenna on my G5 broke You can also order replacement whip antennae from eton for $15 at this page. Once you have the whip, replacing/repair isn't difficult at all. In fact, I still need to order one because my E5 whip is barely clinging to life.
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Jun 2, 2008 02:45
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Well holy poo poo! I just got home from work and found my first QSL sitting in the mailbox! Voice of Vietnam finally responded to my QSL from late March. They sent me a nice, bright "Verification Card" with the details of the broadcast I reported (and my name) handwritten in, a postcard of Ha Long Bay with "Best wish from the Voice of Vietnam" written on the back, a schedule/brochure for their English service which also has photos of the team and a brief blurb about the station, and most awesome of all, a bookmark/doll dressed up in traditional Kinh clothing. This is loving great! If only the Taiwanese postal service wasn't staffed by imbeciles - they folded the envelope to stuff it in the mailbox, but fortunately they only bent the postcard. gently caress them regardless though. Definitely going to have to get more QSLs out now, and keep waiting for Voice of Mongolia to get back to me.
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Jun 3, 2008 10:23
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I was wondering when one of you would find the US HFGCS. It's so exhilarating to hear a Skyking message and realise that you are hearing something incredibly top secret compared to a normal message.
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Jun 3, 2008 11:38
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thehustler posted:I was wondering when one of you would find the US HFGCS. I like how there's an actual person sending the message. I find number stations are too impersonal with the electronic voices. Last night I heard a female who had a cute voice, and as I sat here in the dark I felt that I had made a friend. But seriously, I also like how they specifically say where they are coming from and the general serious nature to them. When the static was suddenly broken by "All stations, all stations, this is Andrews Air Force Base," I knew something cool was happening.
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Jun 3, 2008 12:52
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Illegal Clown posted:I like how there's an actual person sending the message. I find number stations are too impersonal with the electronic voices. Last night I heard a female who had a cute voice, and as I sat here in the dark I felt that I had made a friend. But seriously, I also like how they specifically say where they are coming from and the general serious nature to them. When the static was suddenly broken by "All stations, all stations, this is Andrews Air Force Base," I knew something cool was happening. Last year when the MIG fighters were buzzing Guam, the air was full of SkyKing messages. I'll go back through the thread and find the list of USAF HF comm network frequencies....
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Jun 3, 2008 15:53
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Found it! From page 21, a master list of Skyking frequencies. 3137 4721 4724 4894 5117 5708 6712 6721 6728 6731 6739 6993 7567 7933 8032 8058 8992 9006 9012 9025 10648 10780 11053 11056 11118 11129 11159 11175 11181 11220 11226 11232 11244 11269 11271 11460 11484 13200 13215 13254 13440 13822 14896 15016 15043 15087 15091 15095 18003 20390 20910 23337
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Jun 3, 2008 16:00
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Illegal Clown posted:I too am getting the Andrews message. I've been hearing garbled messages on 6739 kHz at certain times over the last hour, but after a little fine tuning on the SSB on my E5 I was able to get a clear signal. This is cool as I was oblivious to these messages before today! I realized the next day that my thinkpad has an excellent mic that records radio really well. Sigh. This reminds me. I haven't brought out the E5 too much since I got my ham license, aside from when I was on vacation. While on vacation I tried to spin the dial a bit, but I was on a yacht and there was a metric assload of interference making everything from 3MHz to 9MHz useless unless the signal was really strong. I could pick up AM stations out of Florida from the Bahamas decently, but shortwave was nuked pretty hard in the part of the spectrum that's interesting at night, and I was more interested in beaches and sailing and observing bikinis during the day to turn the radio on. I'm not sure if it was all the marine radio traffic stomping on sw, or maybe just noise off of the boat's electrical system. Either way, shortwave sucked while I was down there. I got Radio Havana and that was all. UHF and VHF listening also sucked, but only because there was no broadcasting going on aside from marine band (which was super active).
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Jun 3, 2008 23:41
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sklnd posted:I was on a yacht and there was a metric assload of interference
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Jun 3, 2008 23:52
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I'm looking to get into this and could really use a recommendation on a radio. What I'm looking for is (please pardon my noobishness): - Ability to hear USB/LSB and CW - As wide a frequency range as possible - Some sort of standard connector for an antenna - An RS232 port for control from PC - Audio out jack for connection to PC I want to be able to control the radio and tune/scan via software on my PC, essentially-- and then view things like CW/RTTY/SSTV on the PC. Also I am trying not to spend too much money, maybe $150 total w/ the radio and antenna. Is there anything out there that would suit my needs for that price? Also if anyone is selling some cheap SW gear I'm very interested. 
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Jun 4, 2008 00:16
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Epicenter posted:I'm looking to get into this and could really use a recommendation on a radio. What I'm looking for is (please pardon my noobishness): There are a lot of PC controlled radio units on Universal Radio, so you might want to try searching there and see if you find anything that fits your requirements in your price range.
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Jun 4, 2008 00:39
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I have the ICOM PCR-1500 which I find to be an excellent PC-controlled wideband receiver, great for scanning because it is infinitely easier to manage loads of frequencies on the PC than through a fiddly radio interface, and you can do cool stuff like set it to monitor frequencies and record anything it finds to your PC for you to listen to later. That said, for shortwave listening I use the Eton E1. For shortwave I don't really use PC control, I like sitting smoking a spliff and spinning the dial with my hand. It wouldn't be the same clicking on a widget on my PC screen - for SWL I like to have a physical interface to the radio. It's fun to twiddle. It has a line out hooked up to the PC so if I need to record anything or decode some digital mode the stuff I need is all there. Plus the E1 has an excellent facility whereby it'll "lock on" to a broadcast SW station and eliminate a lot of the drifting that is characteristic of distant SW stations, making listening to them a lot less tiring. It'd be nice to be able to manage the memories on the PC though. Can't beat the PCR for that. Depends how you want to use the radio in the end I suppose. For scanning and logging frequencies easily the PCR is great. For sctually listening to stuff the E1 is superb, but also pretty expensive; the E6 sounds like it's a good choice from what I've heard. I have an E5 myself for if I'm travelling and have found it to be very good. stinky ox fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Jun 4, 2008 |
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Jun 4, 2008 00:55
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$369 at the very cheapest  I understand the Ten Tec RX-320s are very good for the money but drat, I was hoping to be able to start with something a little less expensive. But it doesn't seem there is anything, I can't find any old radios with RS232 on eBay either. EDIT: No luck finding a PCR-1500 either. Did these things just drop off the face of the earth? That Ars Technica article made it sound like this was a common feature.
Epicenter fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jun 4, 2008 |
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Jun 4, 2008 01:05
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I guess RS232 control is out of the question. The price is just too outlandishly high... at least to my budget. I was just using the 'software radio' linked in the OP and the ability to view the spectrum and scan with my PC only seemed very appealing. I assume this can't be done without such a setup, and I'd have to just view a very small portion of the spectrum at any given time. Or is that not even a feature of a higher-end reciever? Do they have a separate spectrum analyzer running, there? And the tuning is entirely different monster? What would be my best bet in an inexpensive tabletop reciever I can just plug into my PC's soundcard input and interpret what I find? I figure I'll just buy an antenna; something that'll work reasonably well indoors or poked out a window will have to do since I can't run anything on the roof etc. It would just need to meet the other requirements besides RS232 control, and have an LCD/LED/VFD frequency readout. Thanks again for the advice.
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Jun 4, 2008 01:37
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Epicenter posted:I guess RS232 control is out of the question. The price is just too outlandishly high... at least to my budget. I was just using the 'software radio' linked in the OP and the ability to view the spectrum and scan with my PC only seemed very appealing. I assume this can't be done without such a setup, and I'd have to just view a very small portion of the spectrum at any given time. Either way you're looking at more than $150 dollars, bub. That's fairly expensive and specialized equipment.
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Jun 4, 2008 02:31
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What's something cheap that isn't crap, then? I don't see how a shortwave receiver with a digital frequency readout is that 'specialized'. I just don't want an analog readout because they piss me off.  Or is SSB an expensive feature?... If it doesn't have a proper antenna connector, screw it, I'll solder one in. Same for audio out for my PC; I just would prefer if there were already jacks.I just don't want to get a portable thing that will be a waste of money, and I don't want a $300+ monstrosity I probably won't get the fullest use out of. EDIT: I found a Panasonic RF-4900 on eBay and made a $120 offer on it, they want a BIN of $200 + shipping. Does this look good/worth the money? A googling shows some positive reviews including people who successfully viewed SSTV with it. Epicenter fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Jun 4, 2008 |
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Jun 4, 2008 03:42
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