gudmundur ) writes:

I used to love to drive the woodpecker crazy. It was easy to chase it
out of the ham bands.

The Woodpecker changed frequency all the time anyway, whether anyone tried
to interfere with it or not. It was part of their operational plan. And
the pulses carried a PSK coded pattern to make it easier to recover the
returned echoes, sorting them out of the interference. I doubt very much
that anyone could really interfere with them when they operated.

.... Martin VE3OAT

I kind of chuckled at the thought of a handful of gnat-like hams chasing
out the 800 pound gorilla Woodpecker. It's reminiscent of the guy doing
the little dance. When asked why, he said, "to chase away the lions".
"But," came the response, "there aren't any lions within thousands of
miles." "See, it works, doesn't it?" said the dancing man.

As Martin points out, the Woodpecker would sit at one frequency for a
while, then jump to another -- I heard it many times. But I hadn't
realized there were people out there congratulating themselves for
chasing it off when it did make one of its frequency jumps.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Martin Potter wrote:

gudmundur ) writes:


I used to love to drive the woodpecker crazy. It was easy to chase it
out of the ham bands.


The Woodpecker changed frequency all the time anyway, whether anyone tried
to interfere with it or not. It was part of their operational plan. And
the pulses carried a PSK coded pattern to make it easier to recover the
returned echoes, sorting them out of the interference. I doubt very much
that anyone could really interfere with them when they operated.

... Martin VE3OAT

In article , says...

I kind of chuckled at the thought of a handful of gnat-like hams chasing
out the 800 pound gorilla Woodpecker. It's reminiscent of the guy doing
the little dance. When asked why, he said, "to chase away the lions".
"But," came the response, "there aren't any lions within thousands of
miles." "See, it works, doesn't it?" said the dancing man.

As Martin points out, the Woodpecker would sit at one frequency for a
while, then jump to another -- I heard it many times. But I hadn't
realized there were people out there congratulating themselves for
chasing it off when it did make one of its frequency jumps.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL


And any of these times that you listened, had you ever heard anyone
intentionally messing with it?? Yes, it would sit a while then move
to some other frequency. But it would sit much shorter if you screwed
with it. Geez, there were even articles written on exactly the keying
rate to chase it away. A kw and a beam on 40, and a keying rate of
just about 10hz would chase it out almost instantly, and if it came
back in short order, a second chase usually drove it off for the rest
of the evening.






Martin Potter wrote:

gudmundur ) writes:


I used to love to drive the woodpecker crazy. It was easy to chase it
out of the ham bands.


The Woodpecker changed frequency all the time anyway, whether anyone tried
to interfere with it or not. It was part of their operational plan. And
the pulses carried a PSK coded pattern to make it easier to recover the
returned echoes, sorting them out of the interference. I doubt very much
that anyone could really interfere with them when they operated.

... Martin VE3OAT

gudmundur wrote:
In article , says...

I kind of chuckled at the thought of a handful of gnat-like hams chasing
out the 800 pound gorilla Woodpecker. It's reminiscent of the guy doing
the little dance. When asked why, he said, "to chase away the lions".
"But," came the response, "there aren't any lions within thousands of
miles." "See, it works, doesn't it?" said the dancing man.

As Martin points out, the Woodpecker would sit at one frequency for a
while, then jump to another -- I heard it many times. But I hadn't
realized there were people out there congratulating themselves for
chasing it off when it did make one of its frequency jumps.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

And any of these times that you listened, had you ever heard anyone
intentionally messing with it?? Yes, it would sit a while then move
to some other frequency. But it would sit much shorter if you screwed
with it. Geez, there were even articles written on exactly the keying
rate to chase it away. A kw and a beam on 40, and a keying rate of
just about 10hz would chase it out almost instantly, and if it came
back in short order, a second chase usually drove it off for the rest
of the evening.

Martin Potter wrote:


gudmundur ) writes:

I used to love to drive the woodpecker crazy. It was easy to chase it
out of the ham bands.

The Woodpecker changed frequency all the time anyway, whether anyone tried
to interfere with it or not. It was part of their operational plan. And
the pulses carried a PSK coded pattern to make it easier to recover the
returned echoes, sorting them out of the interference. I doubt very much
that anyone could really interfere with them when they operated.

... Martin VE3OAT

Personally, I don't place any stock in someone being able to chase away
the woodpecker. In the early 80s I operated from Reifenberg Germany as
DA2EU. I mostly worked 15 Meters CW. When the woodpecker came on line it
was like someone stuck a hot poker through your head phones. You felt
like a cartoon character, with the headphones bouncing away from your
head. The signal was so strong it completely swamped the receiver and
it was being swept over the entire band. They may have been sweeping
further, but that's all I was able to determine.

But each time it only lasted 3 or 4 minutes. When it went away the whole
band was quiet, and then slowly came back to life. I doubt that anyone
was able to do much to stop or deter it.

--
Martin - K7MEM
http://www.k7mem.150m.com

In article , says...

As Martin points out, the Woodpecker would sit at one frequency for a
while, then jump to another -- I heard it many times. But I hadn't
realized there were people out there congratulating themselves for
chasing it off when it did make one of its frequency jumps.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Truly, the human brain is the most sensitive correlator ever devised!

-- jm

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