What's underneath BBC 5975kHz @ 0257UTC?
 

In article ,
dxAce wrote:
....
Now I gotta figure out why I hear number stations underneath several of
the Okochobee broadcasts!
(That's not an easy feat, they are almost local.)

Maybe Family Radio is taking in a bit of CIA money on the side. ;-)

Back about 15 years ago, there was some strange close-in QRM to some of
the stronger BBC signals in the 6 MHz band. In this case it was RTTY,
and even stranger the signal went away when I bitched about it on the
shortwave alt.*? group we used back then.

I always wondered if putting your spy communications close to a widely
received broadcast would be good cover. They couldn't take the spy out
and shoot them for just listening to the Beeb.

If it is the Beeb then it is probably the Morse signal "V" (...-) (V for
Victory) played on a Timpani. Still used as far as I know for some language
services but not heard all that often.

No, this was a seperate FSK signal. One interesting effect was when they
tuned it to straddle the carrier of the audio broadcast.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

What's underneath BBC 5975kHz @ 0257UTC?
 

Mark Zenier wrote:

In article ,
dxAce wrote:
...
Now I gotta figure out why I hear number stations underneath several of
the Okochobee broadcasts!
(That's not an easy feat, they are almost local.)

Maybe Family Radio is taking in a bit of CIA money on the side. ;-)

Back about 15 years ago, there was some strange close-in QRM to some of
the stronger BBC signals in the 6 MHz band. In this case it was RTTY,
and even stranger the signal went away when I bitched about it on the
shortwave alt.*? group we used back then.

I always wondered if putting your spy communications close to a widely
received broadcast would be good cover. They couldn't take the spy out
and shoot them for just listening to the Beeb.

If it is the Beeb then it is probably the Morse signal "V" (...-) (V for
Victory) played on a Timpani. Still used as far as I know for some language
services but not heard all that often.

No, this was a seperate FSK signal. One interesting effect was when they
tuned it to straddle the carrier of the audio broadcast.

Oh come on... I was referring to the original post which indicated hearing a
chime or something similar.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

What's underneath BBC 5975kHz @ 0257UTC?
 

dxAce wrote:
If it is the Beeb then it is probably the Morse signal "V" (...-) (V for
Victory) played on a Timpani.

That it could be. To my ears it sounded more like a Carribean-style
steel drum, but underneath another SW station I'm not going to rule out
a Timpani.

Tim.

What's underneath BBC 5975kHz @ 0257UTC?
 

Mark Zenier wrote:

In article ,
running dogg wrote:
Mark Zenier wrote:

In article .com,
wrote:
Tonight (3-Feb-2006) I heard chimes underneath the BBC on 5975 kHz,
like a different (weaker) station was on the same frequency. Didn't
recognize the theme but it sounded vaguely carribean (maybe steel drums
and not chimes, it was the same note repeated three times and then a
step up, repeat.) Any idea what it was?

Is there (on the net maybe) a catalog of the themes that SW
broadcasters use before their broadcasts?

Tong Tong Ting. Tong Tong Ting?

That's the VOA transmitter in Delano, California targeted at Central
America stepping on the tail of the Montsinery (French Guiana?)
transmitter targeted at the Caribean.

Up here in Seattle, it stomps the hell out of 5975 for the last 5-7
minutes of the 02:00 hour, when they warm the transmitter up and then
send the tones. Montsinery has been S9 and Delano us usually 10 dB
stronger. Right off the back of the beam, I guess.

And then at 04:00, 5975 shifts over to Radio Netherlands in Dutch
(from Bonaire, I think) in parallel with 6165.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)


Isn't that the VOA broadcast in Spanish to Central America on 5995? I
still think that the main point of the Delano bc is to wipe out the
Cubans on 6000 (which used to be an excellent freq for NAm listening)
thus forcing anybody who wants to listen to Havana to use 9820. But
wiping out a signal 20khz away is HUGE overkill.

They're both there at the same time. I think 5995 is stronger.
(BBC in Spanish?).

My bad, it's the BBC. Don't know why I wrote VOA. Apparently the signal
is in the background of BBC 5975, then oddly enough disappears for 20
khz, then reappears on 5995. It's the same signal, I checked, but it's
not audible on 5985. I wonder if it's a transmitter problem rather than
just splatter.

What's underneath BBC 5975kHz @ 0257UTC?
 

In article ,
running dogg wrote:
Mark Zenier wrote:

In article ,
running dogg wrote:
Mark Zenier wrote:

In article .com,
wrote:
Tonight (3-Feb-2006) I heard chimes underneath the BBC on 5975 kHz,
like a different (weaker) station was on the same frequency. Didn't
recognize the theme but it sounded vaguely carribean (maybe steel drums
and not chimes, it was the same note repeated three times and then a
step up, repeat.) Any idea what it was?

Is there (on the net maybe) a catalog of the themes that SW
broadcasters use before their broadcasts?

Tong Tong Ting. Tong Tong Ting?

That's the VOA transmitter in Delano, California targeted at Central
America stepping on the tail of the Montsinery (French Guiana?)
transmitter targeted at the Caribean.

Up here in Seattle, it stomps the hell out of 5975 for the last 5-7
minutes of the 02:00 hour, when they warm the transmitter up and then
send the tones. Montsinery has been S9 and Delano us usually 10 dB
stronger. Right off the back of the beam, I guess.

And then at 04:00, 5975 shifts over to Radio Netherlands in Dutch
(from Bonaire, I think) in parallel with 6165.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)


Isn't that the VOA broadcast in Spanish to Central America on 5995? I
still think that the main point of the Delano bc is to wipe out the
Cubans on 6000 (which used to be an excellent freq for NAm listening)
thus forcing anybody who wants to listen to Havana to use 9820. But
wiping out a signal 20khz away is HUGE overkill.

They're both there at the same time. I think 5995 is stronger.
(BBC in Spanish?).

My bad, it's the BBC. Don't know why I wrote VOA. Apparently the signal
is in the background of BBC 5975, then oddly enough disappears for 20
khz, then reappears on 5995. It's the same signal, I checked, but it's
not audible on 5985. I wonder if it's a transmitter problem rather than
just splatter.

I think it's just two transmitters at Delano, one will be doing the
BBC Spanish on 5995, and the other BBC English on 5975. They're warming
them up at the same time at the same site, so they're probably using
the same canned audio signal.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)