International space station:astronaut to earth (Radio stuff)

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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:31 pm

The pirate explanation is interesting, but it's been going for almost 48 hours now, according to that Finnish forum. It doesn't somehow add up, wouldn't it make more sense to just transmit an email address along with some music, if they wanted feedback? Why are they still transmitting well past the weekend?

The signal's pretty weak, so it might just be some geek with a little three-watt transmitter in his bedroom. We'll probably never know. It's more fun guessing anyway Smile

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:31 pm

I still guess "pirate"...

However, another guess :

Quote:

"Red Flag Song" station: 0600-varO700 on 3250,
6400 & MWs via txs of Radio Pyongyang.

, from http://www.schoechi.de/crw/crw041.html
Well, that one´s from 2000...

Quote:

6400 2100-1900 KRE PBS Pyongyang K

, however, still is the only BC entry " Valid March 30, 2008 - October 26, 2008" from http://www.eibi.de.vu/

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:38 pm

Quote:

It's more fun guessing anyway

To me, that's the fascination of it.

And of course, if you ask, it never happened.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:54 pm

Well, we're talking about a low-power shortwave signal heard on a government/military frequency since yesterday, repeating the same message over and over in German, and I can't help but think of that statement made by the British official in the Daily Telegraph regarding numbers stations:
"The signals are what you suppose them to be". Often the most obvious explanation is the correct one, and I'm going with this one:

Coded signal to or from a military or undercover unit somewhere. If it's TO the special operations group, it'd be to tell them to abort. If it was FROM them, it could be to report back either failure or success.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:38 pm

http://mt-shortwave.blogspot.com/search?q=6400
WMR mentioned repeatedly here. It´s located in Scotland.

Quote:

6400.05 Weekend Music Radio (Scotland), 0000-0010+, May 20, Acknowledged listeners’ reports. ID. Pop music. Fair to good but some occasional utility QRM.

I admit there was no pop music Cool

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:38 pm

I have a QSL package from WMR, from last year. They haven't broadcast for a few months now, and when they do, they really come in strong down here, especially at this time of day, so I don't think it was them. I still can't imagine why a pirate would transmit that.

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:45 pm

wow. i hear it myself now Shocked

sinpo 33333 in the middle of germany

chimes + the same sentence as yesterday!!

Again, IMHO, it´s a dutch radio pirate testing his equipment. at any rate, must be in Europe or Eastern Europe (or Asia, not too likely)

EDIT starting 19:59 UTC, VOR is all over it again for me Sad

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 8:28 pm

Yes, it's here again too. Stronger than yesterday, but overall HF conditions are slightly better.

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 12:08 pm

While there are a few shortwave types here: has anyone else tried the DRM broadcasts? A simple mod to your receiver, and you have glorious digital stereo via your PC and a freeware prog called Dream. It works great. You get a teletext-style news service too. The sample below has just been taken from Deutsche Welle on 13.810. I lost a little quality converting it to mp3 of course.

<a href="http://members.419eater.com/~psychedelia_smit/DreamOut.mp3" target="_blank" class="postlink">Deutsche Welle</a>

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:07 pm

No...maybe it is sad that it has not had the effect yet that people have hoped it would, on the other hand it means more expensive (and not yet existing!) receivers with many people who are living in poorer countries would even be less able to get.

So far, the DRM consortium has been broadcasting for almost no-one Sad

for most listeners it just means these stations are lost AND blocking a 10 kHz broad spectre with their hissing sound Sad

EDIT I would be interested if this thread developed into a SW discussing one with tips every other day or so but maybe you´d need to change the title then Wink

it started very differently.

On August 7th or 8th a new WW DX Report ought to be published, most likely the Kaffeekränzchen is mentioned there.

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:36 pm

Roycropper wrote:

I'm a G0, iMike is a ham too.

More like 'pork' these days!

Around 14 years since I've been active. Still got an FT747 under the bookshelf behind me now, an FT290 mk 1 (modified) somewhere upstairs, a tiny little multi band handheld up in the wardrobe & an ancient KW2000E valve set up in the loft.

Used to do a lot of SW listening - once had an old Marconi CR100. Nearly gave myself a hernia carrying it upstairs. Need to find somewhere to put up an aerial without attracting the wife's attention....

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:00 pm

For all those of you who cannot listen to the strange broadcast of "Achtung, achtung, wir rufen Kaffeekranzchen! Der Kuchen ist angebrannt!" on 6400 kHz, I uploaded a sample here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnW_kFIJg0I

If you would like to share your shortwave logs, please sign up here:

http://www.60m.am

Best regards

Tim

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:18 pm

Thanks mate Very Happy

you have the same receiver as I have.

How did you find us? Very Happy

Welcome here.

You might want to remove your amateur radio call sign from your post though...this is a scambaiting forum which means basically we are dealing with online criminals so it´s a good idea to leave as little personal trails as possible. Again, welcome!

To summarize the linked forum post, the Kaffeekränzchen mystery still is a mysery and likely a fake (i.e. a pirate and not one of the guys who usually operate number stations)

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:37 pm

Hi FrumpyBB,

I found this forum searching google for "wir rufen kaffeekränzchen".

The Lextronix E5 is a nice piece of electronics, works excellent only using the built-in antenna. I found the station by incident, I do not think that it is on the air for more than a couple of days.

In my opinion, this is a fake:

- It is using the typical pirate band frequencies
- The message does not really contain a message, it is the same every time, so the adressee can make nothing out of it, with the exception that he actually receives it - or not.
- this is "too funny" to be an authentic piece of work of german intelligence agency Wink

But it is really well-made and nice too listen to it.

Good n8

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:47 pm

Great

wow. I didn´t know that Google was that quick!

You might want to read around a while, scambaiting is great fun and challenging and it annoys the crap out off criminals when done properly, i.e. safely, with fake identities and the "proper" email services.

In one sentence, it is fighting against advance fee fraud.

However, sparing my "lecture" for the moment since it was obviously not the great Chad Safari, or one of the famous Shiver scambaits, that led you here in the first place.

This "General Forum" is the only forum on here dealing with non-scambaiting related activities and we have been puzzling a while as you can see Laughing

so any update will also be appreciated.

Hope to hear from you again. Next time you get an email babbling about, say, Saddam´s millions, a fake lottery winning, a request of acting as the next-of-kin of some African dictator´s wife, a charity scam or any kind of fake bank or escrow websites, or ebay scams, think of us, we try to occupy the advance fee fraudsters a little, less than they deserve though, but it makes a change!

EDIT http://bermuda-dx.blogspot.com/2008/08/log-sonntag-03082008.html says :

Quote:

Merkwürdiges passiert momentan auf 6400 kHz. Dort spielt eine Station schöne Rock- und Britpop-Musik. Darüber wird ständig folgende Ansage in Deutsch gelegt,vermute dass es sich hierbei um Jamming handelt: "Achtung, Achtung! Wir rufen Kaffeekränzchen, der Kuchen ist angebrannt".

which roughly translates to

"Strange things are happening on 6400 kHz at the moment. A station is transmitting nice rock and britpop music. On top of this there is continously being put the following announcement in German, presumably being some kind of jamming :..."

This would also support my WMR theory, at least the pirate theory.

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 8:44 pm

iMike wrote:

Used to do a lot of SW listening - once had an old Marconi CR100.

Me too. I also had an old GEC BR something or other, and a couple Heathkit receivers before getting the ticket. I confess, I spent a little time on 11m between 1979 and 81, but didn't everybody? I'd been hearing the 11 metre DX for years, and suddenly you could buy a rig and work 'em cheaply. In those days I didn't have the inclination for the RAE, I was in my teens and too busy misspending my youth.

IMO, a lot of people left the hobby when they lowered the requirements. As measures were being taken to attract more newcomers, the old hands were leaving in droves. Sad, because there aren't any elmers these days. 2 metres round here is now more like CB (if you can find anyone using it). Tech talk just doesn't happen at all.

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:25 pm

I had a G5RV wire antenna spread from the roof over the back garden.

One morning I got up at dawn, and managed to speak to a guy in Australia, he described where he used to live in the UK. It was my Grandparent's house, where I have lived. Hairs literally stood up on the back of my neck. It turned out to be my Granny's brother, Uncle George.

The only time I ever got through to Australia, and it's a relative. Shocked

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:52 pm

When I was in high school I ran a wire from the wooded area across the street from my house,over my roof,to the top of my yard.I forget the exact lengths now,butI recall feeding it about 35 feet off one end.Being 16,I decided to see if I could load it on any of the ham bands.Surprising me alittle,it loaded quite well on 40 meters.Man was that one hot antenna--I had just reinvented the Windom.In those days,if you wanted a ticket in most of the eastern block nations,you had to document you had spent so many hours listening.I was suddenly getting swl cards out of eastern europe on 40 meters.That was one hell of an antenna.
I bought a reasonably new Yeasu rig last year nad it has a general coverage receiver in it.It's OK for casual listening,but for anything else I would still have to get out my Collins R390A.The damn thing weighs almost 80lb,and has over 30 tubes in it.I was talking to a retired NSA worker a couple years ago,and according to him some of the old timers there still use the R390.Might be old tech,but damn hard to beat.

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 12:29 am

^^ Yep, valves/tubes for me too. The best rig I ever owned was my first, a Swan 260 'Cygnet' that I bought cheap as a non-runner from the local radio club, and repaired. Nothing I've owned since came close to it on 80 and 40. Thermionic front-end, impossible to overload. Beautiful audio both ways. Easy to fix, lots of room for fat fingers to poke around inside. I'm in the process of building a little PL509 linear for the winter season on 10, which ought to be good. Restricted space means I'm stuck on 10 for now, but I don't have a problem with that. It's a great band.

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:05 am

When 10 is hot,it's hard to beat.At the peak of the sunspot cycle in the late 80s,I bought the Radio Shack HTX100 mobile rig.Spent all my money on it,so wound up with a gutter mount CB antenna.Thing couldn't have been much more than 1 foot,with a loading coil in the middle.I'm not going to say I set the world on fire,but I recall working JA's sitting in front of the shop I was working in at the time,from the east coast of the US.I was working a guy in Alaska and cut the power back to 5 watts,and he still had good copy.Tried working mobile CW too,but rethought that one real fast.As I recall,I added a few to my DXCC total mobile to and from work,all with that silly little gutter mount.I have no idea what the ERP was,but it couldn't have been much.
I think this thread is going to cost me some antenna buidling time very soon.Glad I'm a believer in wire and tuners Laughing

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:41 am

In the late 80s, I had a single element delta loop, firing east/west, and that really did the business. 10 watts into that, and I worked everything I heard. Actually it was a nest of loops, 20/15/10, all on the same coaxial feeder. The lower end of the 20m one was no more than a couple metres above ground level. If you're into wire antennas, loops are worth a look and an hour's work. Until a few weeks back, I had a magnetic loop, made from coax, up in the loft. Again, amazing little antenna.

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 2:35 pm

in the late 70's early 80's like everyone else in the US. I was into CB's started off with a cobra 29 moble, had one or to midland's, then I got my first base station. I think it was a president Dwight D had a ground plain on the roof,
added a small 100 watt linear. and started shooting skip on sideband.
kinda liked that so dad and I put up a 70 foot tower with a PDL2 beam on it. hey wow. we could get all around the country now.. up graded the rig to a converted Yasue FT101e.
I loved it, I could get everything. time now to upgrade the ANT. so 2nd tower goes up 120 feet (with a blinky red light) and a moonraker 6 ant. and a 3 stage 3000 watt linear. never got the use the linear at max power, stage 2 dimmed the house light too much. stage 1 was about 300 watts and that was more than I needed.
Use to get a guy in AUS. all the time. running on the high side of around channel 65. I had a wall full of QSL cards.
I had my 2 meter lic. but only used it for making phone calls.

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:01 pm

3 kw? My God, that's a lot of power. I must've heard you at some time back then.

The tea-party transmission phrase on 6.4 mhz has changed. Condiitions are rough, and I can't quite copy it. I'll keep trying to get a coherent recording.

<a href="http://members.419eater.com/~psychedelia_smit/newcakeburned.mp3" target="_blank" class="postlink">New message</a>

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:45 pm

I can´t understand the words. However, the mystery seems solved a bit :
http://pjk-frlogs.blogspot.com/ says

Quote:

Thursday, August 7, 2008
Thursday 7/8
The mysterious station is again on 6400, now with a new message. Achtung! Achtung! wir rufen krokodil " gebis schleifen ( sorry for misspelling, im not good at German language ).

The last word sounds like "Pflanzen" (plants) to me, that´s all I can make out.

The above source gives it an ID as "Deutscher Freiheitssender"; sounds like he broadcasts a line from an ex-GDR (German Democratic Republic) "clandestine" from their Communist Party. It MUST be a gag transmission, strange humour, however.

Quote:

6400: UNID at 1920 UTC Deutscher Freiheitssender 904, SINPO 33333, s9 signal

This may be the explanation. The German WP for "Deutscher Freiheitssender" says :

Quote:

Ein weiteres „Gimmick“ des DFS 904 waren außerdem abendliche „Geheim-Mitteilungen“, die sich angeblich an Kommunisten in Westdeutschland richteten. (Beispiele: „Nachricht an Kalenderblatt: 'Es ist nicht alle Tage Sonntag.'“ , „Meerschweinchen: 'Heute droht der Adler.'“).

which means :
"Another gimmick of DFS 904 were "secret messages" every evening, which allegedly were meant for communists in West Germany. (Examples : "Message to calendar leaf : Not every day is a Sunday.", "Guinea pig: Today the eagle is threatening.")."

Some strange manifestation of weird cold war affinity, broadcasting an old clandestine station´s messages. The real clandestine had broadcast from the late 1950ies until 1971.

Here are some mp3 links which I´m sure this strange guy took, too:
http://homepage.bluewin.ch/radiomann/audio/audio.htm
Scroll down to the middle until "Deutscher Freiheitssender 904".

Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:54 am

Wow, good find. Beispiel 8 is the 'teaparty' one, and Beispiel 4 is the new one. Well, the motive for sending it might well be humourous, political, or speculative feedback on the web, as you said before. It's probably an unattended transmitter powered by a car battery, up on a hill, in the middle of nowhere.

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