New Year's Eve gift from E10

Happy 2008 to everybody! I wish health and prosperity to you, your families and your friends!

A couple of hours before 2008, E10 gave as a little gift! In the numbers scene, where things should run with mathematical accuracy, there is always a weak link: the human factor. And humans do mistakes. People like myself who enjoys the "numbers game" wishes for such mistakes hoping to reveal something about the true identity of the numbers stations. I am an amateur of course; my friends who are more experienced can learn a lot more from these mistakes.

I did a short scan to my E10 memories of my RX just for fun, hours before the New Year. At ~1809z I stumbled on 4270 kHz, PCD's place and noticed a kind of "pops" and audio breaks. The YL had real trouble this time. On the other hand, things were fine on 5170 kHz. This is what happened on 4270.

My friends were anxious for delaying them by listening to my RX when usually people are making preparations for the New Year's Eve party (but I was the driver for the party anyway hihi!). I was lucky enough to listen the next 2 scheduled slots of PCD. And yes, the same problem occurred at 1830z, on 4270 kHz and also on 3150 kHz. Both freqs had breaks (not at the same time) during the TX.

And another nice gift later: This time one of the usual mixes, specifically ULX2 and PCD. That happened on 3150 kHz at 1900z. Here's the clip!

But unfortunately I was unlucky at Simon Mason's Appeal2007. Congrats to Phil from Wales! A clever move on his side to choose his own 5f ID. Very Clever!

Cheers!!!

Long E10 message

A large message sent today by E10 YHF on 7918 kHz at 1130z. It was an 147-group long message starting with IBEIA. Listen it here (it's a bit processed to remove some of the noise). Who knows what this message is; maybe a long, last-moment shopping list for New Year's Eve :-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Double transmissions... twice!

At 1000z a message for 570 (a relatively rare call) was sent from two transmitters (?) in AM and USB mode nearly at the same time! Listen what happened, as recorded in USB mode. Three persons were involved! The OM with the deep voice, then the OM in USB and his companion who read the message.

At 1029z the same thing happened for Agent 995. Here's the clip, recorded in AM mode this time.

On both cases the OM with the deeper voice started earlier, in AM mode and with the annoying 1000 Hz "test" tone.

Is this the beginning of a new Solar Cycle?

Sun's activity is low, but there are signs of a new cycle starting, as solar physicists say. The source of the excitement is a modest knot of magnetism that popped over the sun's eastern limb on 11th December. Read more here. We're in the bottom of the solar activity for a long time now... so just cross your fingers and hope the scientists are correct!

E25 over Polish Radio

E25 appeared over Polish Radio with a massive S9+10 while PR alone was only S5-S7. Here's a clip of the transmission, recorded at 1347z using the Icom using USB mode to avoid QRM. Note the slight echo. The message was:

g14
4121 4041 9811 5592 8876 1949 8148 7233 0693 0321
1043 9173 6024 9811

They QRT at 1354z.

I wonder: Should I QSL Polish Radio asking about the "strange man" disturbing their English Program? Or more precisely their Listener's Letters program? Yes they do have one, every Sunday!

Let's try... videoblogging!

Hello guys,

I know a lot of time passed since my last Numbers-related post, so I have a small surprise for you!

This is my new radio, an Icom IC-R75:


And of course is tuned on my favorite station... And it's morning, and you can see the signal strength meter...

So now you can see E25 hihihi!

New edition of rfax is available

A new edition of rfax.pdf, the well-known radiofacsimile schedule issued by NOAA can be downloaded from here. Happy hunting!