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The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 06 Dec 2018, 22:02
by pete_uk
Anyone interesting in things below 160m band, from AM broadcast DX to communications?
I'm always interested in hearing shipping stuff such as NAVTEX but have never heard anything.
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 06 Dec 2018, 22:17
by ch25
Plenty of traffic there.
I suggest to use
http://www.klingenfuss.org/super.htm best source of data IMO.
Chris
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 07 Dec 2018, 00:42
by Tigersaw
You have the NDB's - around 300k - 430k good slow morse practice
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 07 Dec 2018, 15:10
by Andy
There's lots of stuff but you need to reduce your local noise to hear some of it. A loop antenna helps enormously. Navtex is fairly easy to receive and you can download a free decoder from't'internet. Below 150kHz there's all manner of time and frequency standards and even encrypted submarine comms going all the way down to a few kHz. Once or twice a year, the SAQ 17.2 kHz TX comes on from Sweden. This is an ancient 'alternator' transmitter, just a big RF-generating mechanical AC generator putting about 80 kW up the huge vertical antenna. A shot of Grimeton as it appears on my SDR fed from a homebrew loop antenna and an audio snip of it as received on the same set up: The bigger peaks around 20-22 kHz are sub comms stations.
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 07 Dec 2018, 20:47
by Farty
Yes, that band interest me. I'll listen to anything down there, but late night American MW stations are my speciality.
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 08 Dec 2018, 00:21
by Tigersaw
Farty wrote: ↑07 Dec 2018, 20:47
Yes, that band interest me. I'll listen to anything down there, but late night American MW stations are my speciality.
interesting - give me a time and freq for an easy one
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 08 Dec 2018, 12:15
by Farty
WBBR in New York, 1130khz, 2300-0200hrs. US stations are on a 10khz channel spacing.
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 08 Dec 2018, 12:42
by Tigersaw
Farty wrote: ↑08 Dec 2018, 12:15
WBBR in New York, 1130khz, 2300-0200hrs. US stations are on a 10khz channel spacing.
Thanks, will try with the loop tonight
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 15 Dec 2018, 19:26
by pete_uk
Andy wrote: ↑07 Dec 2018, 15:10
The bigger peaks around 20-22 kHz are sub comms stations.
Wow! You're actually receiving submarine comms? What kind of mode are they?
I thought you had to put an antenna into the ocean for that!
(That last bit was a joke!)
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 15 Dec 2018, 20:20
by Farty
Some sort of well encrypted digital mode one would hope.
Re: The strange world below Short Wave
Posted: 01 Jan 2019, 08:46
by Andy
pete_uk wrote: ↑15 Dec 2018, 19:26
Andy wrote: ↑07 Dec 2018, 15:10
The bigger peaks around 20-22 kHz are sub comms stations.
Wow! You're actually receiving submarine comms? What kind of mode are they?
I thought you had to put an antenna into the ocean for that!
(That last bit was a joke!)
Receiving, yes. Decoding no! I've tried a number of decoders with gibberish results so it's either some weird mode or (more likely) it's encrypted.