A ghostly radio station that no one claims to run

Post by jlgaddis » Fri, Aug 11, 2017, 5:09 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #13

squarefoot wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Night hours are best for shortwave reception. You could also need an external antenna depending on how far you are listening from. Another problem, probably the biggest one today, which affects reception on these frequencies (and generally on the HF bands) is the radio noise generated by many bad designed switching power supplies and appliances. Switching regulators (power supplies, converters, chargers etc.) for eff…

Thanks for the information. The shortwave frequencies still feel very underutilized. When I scan the FM (88 - 108 MHz) and AM (540-1600 kHz) radio frequencies, I pick up a lot of stuff. The shortwave band is relatively vast and feels very sparse. Considering how valuable spectrum is these days, it's hard to believe that we couldn't find a better use for it. Is it because it is so prone to noise that it's less valuabl…

Post by jpalomaki » Fri, Aug 11, 2017, 5:48 PM UTC

westbywest wrote: post #21

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #10

Any speculation that it's as mundane as a test tone for a specific radio device? Is your radio working, is it calibrated properly...

As mentioned in the below comment, the author buried the probable lede: most of the time transmission is a placeholder to discourage others from using the band. During exceptional circumstances (as defined by the station's operator), it will transmit coded messages to global/regional operatives. E.g., to coordinate espionage when conventional communications are offline.

Post by besselheim » Fri, Aug 11, 2017, 6:08 PM UTC

wichert wrote: post #5

For the lazy who were hoping to find an audio clip in the article: you can find some here: http://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/The_Buzzer_(ZhUOZ_MDZhB_UZB76)

Post by vvanders » Fri, Aug 11, 2017, 6:17 PM UTC

TheRealEdAbbey wrote: post #32

jlgaddis wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wavelength at these frequencies is very long, meaning antennas must be very large. In addition, the bandwidth is very small -- you can't exactly encode data on these frequencies for any practical purpose (some digital modes are popular on ham radio bands; e.g. PSK31, RTTY, etc.)

Yep, PSK31 has a baud rate of 31.25 - that's literally 31 bits per second. There's no practical use for that in modern commercial or consumer applications. In amateur bands, symbol rate below 28 MHz is limited to 300 baud.

Post by sillysaurus3 » Fri, Aug 11, 2017, 6:31 PM UTC

jankotek wrote: post #36

> the Buzzer operates at a relatively low frequency known as “shortwave”. This means that – compared to local radio, mobile phone and television signals – fewer waves pass through a single point every second. It also means they can travel a lot further. Nice explanation.