An interesting E25 transmision with an exciting ending

And another surprise from E25!

The transmission began at 1214z on 9450 kHz, with the song "Inte Omri". Then at 1217z, the mechanical young lady, in a faster-than-usual pace, was calling "830 3 835". Then a message to 835 followed:

830 3 835

835 (repeated)

"Message" x3

1020 5555 x19 (an unusual message)

"Repeat"x3 (fast)

"End of message, end of transmission"

Note that the pace was a bit faster, the gaps between phrases/numbers were a bit irregular and the endings of the number "five" were more abrupt than usual.

At 1226z the message ended with the usual "EOM EOT" and then...the Windows XP shutdown sound followed! (And not Windows 98!) After this little surprise, the transmission ended.

Here is (nearly) the whole transmission (A part is missing from the beginning). The "rattling" sound is the digital station who usually interferes E25 when I use AM mode.

So E25 operators upgraded their OS? But yet, the quality of the transmission wasn't as good as expected!

The Buzzer sounds a bit different this evening

The Buzzer (S28) sounds a bit different today, having a higher pitch. This is a recording made today at 1909z, on 4625 kHz, with the receiver in AM mode.

Early E25a on 9450kHz

The YL appeared an hour earlier, at 1115z (it is expected to transmit at 1200z-1400z during winter time) on 9450 kHz, with the E25a message "317 3". A carrier was present since at least 1056z, and had a brief break at 1110z. The transmitter QRT after the end of the message, which ended without "End of message, end of transmission".

Recording.

New edition of rfax.pdf

I just noticed that NOAA has published a new edition of the rfax.pdf which is a guide/schedule for the HF-FAX stations of the world. The guide is dated 13 August 2010.

The Buzzer, with "The Swan's Lake" and with an OM counting live!

This is my first post after a long time. My excitement for what's going on motivated me to finally quit my long silence.

The Buzzer (S28) stopped transmitting two days ago. Since then, several people confirmed its absence. Yesterday I found (among with others) that the familiar buzzing sound was back again.

Moments ago (4625 USB, 1834z), I was lucky to hear a test transmission from S28! An OM counting in Russian, then the buzzing sound and "The Swan's Lake"!

Here is the recording! Enjoy!

The web page http://www.uvb-76.net/ has a live feed from 4625 kHz.

Pedro's buzz: Or what's common between V02a/SK01 and Radio Habana Cuba

It is a nice, sunny morning (with 31 sunspots... yeah!) with Radio Habana Cuba on 6140 kHz, the same frequency as E25. It appears that the few sunspots helped a little bit and RHC is a bit stronger than usual. RHC is the BC QRM I sometimes mention when talking about E25 on 6140 kHz at ~0800z, and it is usually stronger earlier in the mornings. Today I could hear a buzz, something like the 50 Hz (or 60 Hz? What does Pedro use in Cuba? LOL!) and its harmonics.

I thought: "Let's try a V02a frequency" and decided to tune to 5898 kHz. Success! There was the V02a YL calling! A similar buzz like RHC was heard.

A few moments later, the YL stopped and a SK01 transmission occurred! Another surprise! Then the YL was back! This is the SK01 transmission. Near the end of the recording I switched to 6140 kHz for comparison. The following spectrogram image compares the two "buzzes":

The left half is from a silent part of the Radio Habana Cuba transmission while the right part is from V02a. There are more harmonics apparent in the RHC part since its signal was stronger. But they seem to match, don't they? Or I'm seeing "patterns" here, like most of my fellow daydreamers (i.e. Numbers Stations fans)?

Back to daydreaming...

S06 on 9135 kHz this morning; parallel transmission heard in the background

A very strong (+10db) and clean signal this morning on 9135 kHz at 0810z, allowed me to hear the audio of a second, weaker, S06 transmission occurring in the background. Initially I thought that since S06 transmits on 7440 kHz (ID 418) at the same time, maybe it was the audio from that transmission. But after listening more carefully, the second YL calls "471"! This is a sample of what I heard. You can hear the second call (471) easier near the beginning of the message.

Is this common for S06? Who knows...