Wednesday 31 January 2007

E25 with a lot of pops and breaks

I tuned on 9450 kHz at 1201z and a nice carrier was present. But with a lot of pops and later with transmission breaks.

  • 1201z: Carrier was present.
  • 1212z: Music intro: "Arouh Le Min".
  • 1217z: Music stops, hum, bump, man starts calling "8... 830 13".
  • 1223z: Mic taps, QRT.
Recording

And then the breaks party begun:
  • 1241z: Carrier up again.
  • 1246z: After a series of test tones and transmission failures, a man starts calling "780 785..." failure again...
  • 1249z: Background noises! A voice! Door screeching, then man calling "780 785 29 30 788 27 28" many times.
  • 1253z: OM calling "780" many times.
  • 1254z: Message of 6 groups: 1310 0160 1111 1754 2130 1111
  • 1255z: Repeat.
  • 1256z: EOM EOT, QRT.
Recording

Important observation!
Richard from e2k group noted:
The last 2 digits of the second group indicates group count. For example, 2nd group today was 0160, the last 2 digits are 60. If you reverse the order (06) you have the group count!
Try it in every message I posted and see that it works! Thanks Richard! This tip seems to work even in my old logs!

Big news from E10 YHF

Massive traffic from E10 these days. YHF is sending 3 or 4(!) messages in a slot, which is rare. More info can be found in the Enigma2000 group, the one of the greatest Number Stations resources.

This morning, YHF resend the massive 4 messages. I was tuned on 7918 kHz not to miss the unique oportunity to listen E10 Lady saying "Four messages!" Here is the recording. Some noise reduction and dynamics processing was applied, just for your listening pleasure!

Warning:
It is a little more than 6 Mb and lasts 55mins. Listening to numbers for such prolonged time may have undesired mind-controlling side-effects! (Just kidding!)

Enjoy!

UNID HF-Fax station: Tashkent?

Yesterday I decided to look again for that UNID Fax station on 4067 kHz, and got 4 complete transmissions and a partial one. Again the problem is the spacing: 1000 Hz instead of 800 Hz, and also some faults during the beginning of the broadcast.

4067 kHz, 30/01/2007 1451z Partial image.

This one probably started at 1430z. Well it still seems Russian to me :-)

4067 kHz, 30/01/2007 1601z

4067 kHz, 30/01/2007 1709z

You see, my environment is not QRN-free! That zig-zag lines are caused by QRN.

4067 kHz, 30/01/2007 1801z

Use the times given as a guide to hunt for this one! Unfortunately the images are not clear and I can't read the boxes. If anyone is familiar with Tashkent fax service, is kindly requested to post a comment saying so.

Monday 29 January 2007

Reverse E25

After a hard weekend I'm back! E25 on the air today with another surprise:

  • 1241z: Carrier.
  • 1242z: 1000 Hz tone.
  • 1245z: OM starts calling "780 30 29 788 28 27" then correctly "780 785 30 29..." (Initially he missed 785). Note the countdown!
  • 1251z: "780" repeated, then message:
9496 9080 1831 3673 1003 5721 2851 1831
  • 1253z: Repeat.
  • 1254z: "End of message, end of transmission", then QRT.
It's the first time I see a countdown! Usually the reverse was the case! Here is the recording! Note that some clicks/pops heard are due to a faulty antenna connection. Luckily, it was easy to repair!

Yesterday's transmission:
After listening Sunday's recording, this transmission was the same, but without yesterday's failures! A lot of breaks happened during the calling session (780 785 etc...). Today I was experiencing "technical difficulties"!

Friday 26 January 2007

Murmansk, Russia Meteo HF-Fax

An unusual HF-Fax station logged today with success. It is supposed to be Murmansk Radio. Rfax info is partially outdated.

8444 kHz, 1330z

This station must be decoded with the receiver in LSB mode. My Sangean was tuned on 8446 kHz LSB. The transmission was wider than 800 Hz, and I didn't noticed the series of tones that triggers the decoder. So another difficult station, not because its distance!

I logged this station yesterday at 1456z and 2007z, so keep an ear(!) at 1440z and 2000z (or something like that!) on 8444 kHz!

E25: Entirely new music theme but no message

For at least 25 minutes E25 was on air today, playing music. Not the usuals. I tuned on 9450 kHz at 1207z and it was already there, until 1229z. I think they tried to transmit a message with no success at 1223z. Here is the sample, ~1221z till the end of the TX. Any ideas about the music?

Yesterday only two "control" messages:

  • 9450 kHz 1226z 25/01: "Arouh Le Min" intro, 557 4, RTTY QRM
  • 9450 kHz 1246z 25/01: 785 29 30 788 27 28, RTTY QRM

Wednesday 24 January 2007

E25

Two messages today but with a lot of transmitter failures and four(?) announcers. Carrier was present at 1221z until 1252z, with many breaks. Two messages were sent, old ones with just a minor difference:

  • 1226z: "Arouh Le Min" music intro by Umm Kulthum. A lot of breaks.
  • 1230z: OM calling "555".
  • 1232z: TX failure.
  • 1233z: TX on, other OM into 17g message, as of 23/01!
  • 1235z: Repeat.
  • 1237z: EOM EOT. Carrier left on.
Listen here the sample! Then another message:
  • 1244z: Another OM (more familiar to me!) calling 780.
  • 1246z: Message: 21g message from another guy! As of 21/01 but with one exception: 2nd group "8012" instead of "7012"!
  • 1249z: "Re beat!"
  • 1252z: EOM EOT, QRT.
And here is the second sample! Both transmissions with excellent signal strength.

The other musical theme is "Inte Omri" also by Umm Kulthum. I like them both, actually I like this type of music for its instrumental richness, tempo and vocals. After all, Greek music is influenced by oriental music. A Greek label (EMI) has released some of her art, as you can read here.