International space station:astronaut to earth (Radio stuff)

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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:15 pm

As I recall, the 'Lincolnshire poacher' is based in Cyprus, and is almost certainly MI6, although nobody in officialdom admits to it. Well, they couldn't really, it's technically an illegal station. They all are. Preventing the 'other side' knowing what it is doesn't enter into it, because 'they' would know all about it anyway. Provided the encryption hasn't been broken, it's no big thing. Smile

It's been said that every agent has his or her own unique code pad, so capturing one agent and/or pad wouldn't reveal the content of messages to the other agents.

What about that damn "woodpecker" in the 80s? Over-the-horizon Soviet radar allegedly, a machine-gun sound that crushed everything on the shortwave bands at intervals throughout the day. Nobody was running that, either.

Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:29 pm

True. And they even broadcast in the BC and amateur radio bands.
This is an "informative" website about them: http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page30.html
Scroll down a bit.
Here a mighty lot recorded examples : http://www.izumix.org.uk/c/spynumbers/
Some older examples from the ending Cold War era : http://home.freeuk.com/spook007/

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 9:25 am

from the Spook007 site:

Quote:

**Some of these types of samples were heard in the hit film Vanilla Sky and TV Series LOST **

Oh god, don't tell Blackwood, he'll be in here like a flash. I remember it now, it was Hurley's numbers of doom being read by a numbers station.

I'd forgotten this spooky little number: SWEDISH RHAPSODY
Sounds like a ghost ice cream van and a talking doll.

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 9:58 am

What? I heard Lost. Something about Lost. What about Lost?

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 10:20 am

The "Rhapsody" is the one I heard on my grandad's radio as a kid. The german numbers station with the child's voice was also very regular, it'd be transmitting for hours, every evening.

I'm going to tell one of my lads that all future messages to him will consist of five-digit groups. I'll send him a pad.

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 10:48 am

^^Tell him you can broadcast it even by radio Very Happy

using one of the current number stations or the Poacher itself Wink

, like

Quote:

My MTCN will be put over to you via WU special shortwave service aimed to African customers with no steady internet connection, note down the 150th to 160th number, from 5 PM UTC on 11.545 kHz

Not sure about the time but the frequency is one of the three correct ones.

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 4:18 pm

I'd almost forgotten about that damned Russian Woodpecker,OTH radar.God knows what kind of power it was running,but I can assure you it was quite loud on this side of the Atlantic also.
On a somewhat different note,I remember for a time in the early 80s Castro really cranked up the power on a few of his transmitters in the AM band.You could listen to Radio Taiano(?) quite clearly in english over top of some high powered domestic stations.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 3:40 pm

Yep, it was a real pain. There were even design ideas in the radio publications for woodpecker blankers.

Well, CRI (China Radio International) has replaced Radio Moscow these days as most prolific shortwave broadcaster. It's everywhere. They even hire airtime from the old Radio Luxemburg megawatt AM transmitter on 1440, english transmissions every evening. What they don't officially do is jam stations like the Voice of Free Tibet, VOA, BBC World service, yet there are extremely strong stations at various places on the dial usually occupied by these broadcasters playing nothing but "Dragon" music, with no announcements. The game continues as it always did.

Hams and listeners with scanners in the South of England: Three good overhead ISS passes tomorrow at approx. 10 am, 11:30 am, and 1pm local time.

Frequency info here:
http://www.zarya.info/Frequencies/FrequenciesISS.php

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:16 pm

As people are fascinated by the spooky stuff, weird signal alert: this has been repeating over and over on 6400khz for the last two hours, and it's still going now. Quite weak in SW England, just above the noise floor. Sounds like some WW2 shit. Confused

LINK

Converted to link - RC

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:24 pm

^^ Translation?

It's got the feel of the other Numbers Stations on those websites.

Thanks for sharing. Wink

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:35 pm

I only get the Voice of Russia there in Spanish (6400 KHz, 20:35 UTC)

Right about the Chinese Firedrake and, general, the CHN domination on SW, as Radio Moscow has been Smile

My, the past winter was the first one I have been lazy on the SW bands, baiting is to blame Sad

"Achtung, wir rufen Kaffeekränzchen, der Kuchen ist angebrannt!" ("Attention, calling tea party, the cake is scorched.")

Could be a gag transmission because 6400 kHz is a major pirate radio frequency.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:37 pm

All I can make out is "in Angebrandt" which may be a place name in Germany, and something about "attention, attention, the cake is burnt" but my German isn't up to much. German speakers, help!

@frumpy: 6400khz is a gov/aviation/military frequency, so that must be an image of VOR you're receiving.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:39 pm

Edited^^

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:41 pm

Pirates do use 6400khz at weekends, but a message like that repeated over and over on a military frequency could mean plenty of interesting stuff.

So we have: "Attention, attention, tea party, the cake is burned". I guess we'll never know what's been called off due to something getting messed up.

I can't imagine hobby pirates transmitting something like this for three hours now. If you're going to risk getting your door sledgehammered in by your friendly local Radio licencing dept, you'd play some kicking music and get some listeners.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:43 pm

It might say 'Come to Carpet World this weekend' for all I know, but I doubt it. Razz

Edit: A translation suddenly appeared above by edit while I was typing

Makes me want to start listening again, but the HF set's in the attic, and I already spend too much time on the interweb thingy.

It's like fishing, baiting or life in general, you might find nothing exciting out there, or if you are patient, suddenly find something really worth the plodding through all the mundane stuff.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:44 pm

Quoting myself from edited post above :

Quote:

"Achtung, wir rufen Kaffeekränzchen, der Kuchen ist angebrannt!" ("Attention, calling tea party, the cake is scorched.")

"Burned" might be better than "scorched" - damn online dictionaries!

"Angebrannt" is the past participle of "anbrennen", i.e. burn, and not a place name.

Reminds me of D-day war movies Shocked

6400 has also been used by VoKorea; but does this make sense? Going to look up the clandestine sites now, and the WorldWide DX News...

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:52 pm

Thanks frumpy Thumbs up

At least I had the part about the cake right.

The only other posting I can find anywhere on the web about this transmission was made yesterday on a Finnish shortwave forum.
http://www.skannerilehti.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/skalehti/sauna/YaBB.pl?board=skanrad&action=display&num=1217762931&start=7

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:53 pm

Yw

posts like these make me hungry for more Very Happy

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:05 pm

Quote:

"Attention, calling tea party, the cake is scorched."

That doesn't sound like good news, whatever context it's in.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:07 pm

^^ Yep.
Sounds like thier bait has gone tits up and their lad's not going on safari.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:13 pm

^^ Bwahhaaa! Depends. It'd be good news if it was the lad's birthday.

@frumpy: BTW: If the Voice of Russia was broadcasting on 5.945khz in Spanish and its signal was pretty strong (quite likely this time of day), a broadcast-type receiver with a standard intermediate frequency of 455khz might receive the image on 6400khz (5945+455=6400). That's what my money's on with your VOR reception there.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:14 pm

I still think it´s a pirate...Weekend Music Radio and many others have been using 6400 kHz repeatedly, maybe it´s a weird kind of soundcheck, the operators wanting to be discussed on the net Smile

EDIT Might be true Sad

. I have the Sony ICF-SW 7600GR here atm (and I love it) Very Happy

.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:18 pm

I've been listening again, The cake is Kapikrenchen or something before it gets angebrantd.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:21 pm

Kaffeekränzchen, I´d translate it to tea party. Cake is Kuchen. Very Happy

Just looking through some German-speaking blogs but I can´t find anything about that thing.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:24 pm

Ah, right, that was the teaparty bit.

If the next message tells them the tea is cold, they are really stuffed.

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