When I'm not fixing sets or on general Dad duties I like to have a twiddle about on the short wave bands.
I have a few sets with several dedicated SW bands which perform quite well within the limitations of my aerial (a loop running around the loft) but even my little Pye P75 is quite responsive. Last month Radio Australia was coming in quite well on one of my Murphys.
Even before I got into repairing old sets I've always found it quite enjoyable searching for the most distant broadcast on my more modern comms receivers. Of course, there are also features about other nations and their culture we might not otherwise know about which are educational in themselves. One of the more interesting of these I've come across recently was a feature on Radio India on the Indian Durga Puja festival. China Radio also has some excellent features on their culture as does Rumanian radio.
A couple of months ago I repaired a GEC set and almost the first thing I picked up on its return to life was a numbers station on the 31m band. This was a very strong signal and it was quite weird listening to the robotic counting of number codes while wondering where it was being broadcast from.
Does anyone else have any other interesting stations to look out for?
Andrew
Thank you for that Post, Andrew. Like you, I also like to wander around the broadcast bands to see what I can find. Amongst those stations you have listed, some are new to me; would you be kind enough to list their frequencies and (if possible) times of your reception of them?
Thank you.
Al.
Al, these should be times and frequencies.
Radio Australia
12.00-19.00 9475, 9625, 11660
19.00- 04.00 9475, 9500
All India Radio - General Overseas Service
AIRs website seems to be playing up at the moment but frequencies should be
17.45 - 1945 7410, 9950, 11620
20.45 - 22.30 7410, 9445, 9950
Radio Romania International RRI are a proper listeners station with QSL cards, section to report reception, a listeners chat corner on their website etc etc
06.30-07.00 7310
12.00-13.00 15460, 17530
18.00-19.00 7415
21.30-22.00 7380
23.00-24.00 6015, 7220
China Radio International transmit on several frequencies, lots of station ident call-outs through each programme so easy to pick out. I think CRI may be re-broadcast (??) from within the UK so reception is pretty good. I enjoy their news features, they also have lessons on how to speak Cantonese which are quite fun to follow.
This is the link to their winter schedule frequencies
http://english.cri.cn/7146/2010/03/30/2141s560016.htm
Numbers stations seem to occur all over the bands but aren't that easy to find. If you're hearing a string of numbers spoken by a synthesised voice than you've found a station. Usually they will start on the hour with a pre-amble such as 5760, 5760, 5760, 5760, 5760, 5760, 5760, 5760 repeated several times. They may even have a small piece of music before this, like for instance, the defunct 'Lincolnshire Poacher' station which used to broadcast that particular folk songs melody before starting the number sequences. After the pre-amble then they go into the message which will be several blocks of seemingly random numbers. These may be repeated every quarter hour. There are several videos on Youtube of people receiving these. Of course the number stations are not very interesting to listen to...more to wonder who, what and where they are.
Andrew
Thank you Andrew; I've made a note of that information.
As for number stations, these have been the source of much puzzlement amongst many for a long time. The favourite theory is that they are coded messages to various government agents operating in various countries. Me? I simply don't know ~ but I'm open to plausible suggestions.
Al.
(03-11-2011, 05:35 PM)Skywave Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you Andrew; I've made a note of that information.
As for number stations, these have been the source of much puzzlement amongst many for a long time. The favourite theory is that they are coded messages to various government agents operating in various countries. Me? I simply don't know ~ but I'm open to plausible suggestions.
Al.
No worries. I just updated RRIs winter schedule while you were posting.
That's my theory on numbers stations. I can't see what else they'd be
Andrew
Thanks for an interesting post Andrew!
There's some info about 'numbers stations' at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
Seems a peculiarly old-fashioned and overt way to pass encoded data in the age of internet. I guess the assumption is that they're involved in espionage. I wonder if anyone has tried to decode the messages - the Americans for example, but then it might well be they who are sending them! Great to listen to if you can't get off to sleep - ten minutes and you're in the land of nod
I recently found some QSL cards cards I received when I sent ISWL listener reports to broadcast stations in the late 1950s in my teens as a Short Wave Listener (before I discovered girls!).
Hi David,
I think the ease of this is that with passing messages over the internet you have traceability. With these broadcasts the agents do nothing that leaves a trace, all they have to do is pop by the nearest Rumbelows and buy a Sony ICF or something, sit down in a comfy chair with a glass of red, flip open the one-time pad, tune in and John Le Carre's your uncle.
And of course radio signals know no boundaries. Broadcast at, say, Western Europe and the agents could be anywhere. From what I understand of the one-time pad, if done properly it's unbreakable.
Andrew
Update to Posts #3 and #4.
Since those posts I have been having a 'listen around' ~ and can report the following:
Radio Australia.
9475 kHz: Has been reliably received on several occasions. Signal strength has varied between fairly strong to weak, and always with considerable fading. Occasional severe on-channel interference from an unidentifed station (Asian voice).
9625 kHz: No copy.
9500 kHz: R. A. received, but virtually unintelligable due to S9 on-channel interference from an unidentified station, speaking (probably) German.
All India Radio.
11620 kHz: No copy, but very strong station (English) on 11625 kHz.
11625 kHz: At a subsequent date, identified Voice of Turkey, Ankara.
Radio Thailand.
9680 kHz: 18h00: Positive id. Fairly strong with some fading.
Voice of America.
7560 kHz: 23h45. Fairly weak with considerable fading.
Times, when recorded - such as 07h30 - are local 'clock' times.
Al. / Nov. 11th. //
Al,
Shouldn't those frequencies be an integer multiple of 9?
They don't appear to be.
Alan