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...

XC "The Crackle" along with E10 ART

It is the first time I've heard of XC, the so-called "Crackle" on HF. The Crackle is more of a "noise" station than a "numbers" station since its content is unknown...

It is now (0746z) up on 6987 kHz. The E10 station ART on 6986 kHz is causing QRM :-) but this does not trouble me; actually it is a "double pleasure"!

This is a sound sample from 6986 kHz (the E10 ART frequency)

And this is a sample from 6987 kHz, from a bit later, after E10 QRT.

You may also try 5135 kHz, during night.

Frequency plot

Spectrogram

V13 "New Star Broadcasting station" barely audible!

The so-called "New Star Broadcasting station" (ENIGMA: V13) is barely audible right now (1300z) on 11430 kHz. The ICOM R75 is set to USB and the preamp is engaged. This is a sample from the beginning of the transmission, where you can hear the musical intro. The quality isn't so good but still the V13 theme and the YL characteristic rhythm is apparent.

Additional info can be found at:
http://www.cvni.net/radio/nsnl/nsnl038/nsnl38v13.html

A better sound sample can be found at:
http://www.enigma2000.org.uk/

And of course you can take a look at the past E2K Newsletters :-)

The station QRT at about 1330z. If you like, you may try again at 1400z on the same frequency, 11430 kHz. Good luck!

New edition of rfax.pdf HF-FAX guide ... Updated!

Here is the latest (10 September 2009) version of rfax.pdf guide, which is updated. There are less stations listed now, which means that some are no longer transmitting... This is a bit sad...

BTW right now the South Africa ZSJ station has a fair image quality on 18236.10 kHz, USB mode...