It has now been two weeks since I updated this site, for no other reason than the fact that I had to re-balance my life between UVB-76 and my family and kids! :)
Once again someone decided to pull a plug on Buzzer on September 23, 2010 at 15.48UTC after being in and out during September 21 and 22. This is how it sounded:
However, the frequency has been anything else but dead and digging myself through 15 days worth of archives I have made notes about 13 (!) different transmission types worth noting on 4.625MHz USB as received here. Here's a summary, not in a order of appearance but as I made the notes:
1. All over the mos distinctive transmission type has been the male and female voice transmissions carrying MDZhB signature:
It has been already disputed that UVB-76 may have changed to that callsign permanently, but please bear in mind two things (following is originating from discussions at http://www.radioscanner.ru/forum/topic12415-35.html):
- As far as communication dispatches seem to be built up, the transmission site (and the frequency associated) is a separate entity from the party what actually airs the "content". Therefore in any moment can someone decide that particular transmission site will now service another "content provider" and so will be. In that context, MDZhB is now simply using the same transmission unit as UVB-76.
- UVB-76 has not been very active with voice messages throughout its lifetime, so the fact that there has not been any lately is not really giving any information if its more or less in good health than always.
2. A around September 27, the background voice transmissions started to happen what are almost impossible to translate, but sound like a number callsign following by word "prijom" (Russian equivalent to "over"). They seem to be made rapidly with several callsigns, so it may be a commcheck of some sort. They sound little bit pitch-shifted on USB from their AM modulated counterparts, so they are slightly off from the 4.625MHz.
3. Something what sounds like a digital packet transmission has started to appear more frequently:
4. Lot of 50Hz noise is audible on the 4.625MHz. This is not a local problem at the UVB-76 Internet Repeater, as the same line noise is received by Russian amateurs.
5. There is a morse transmission happening regularly. I will not get into speculating what it is and where its coming from, but here's the sample:
6. Another type of morse sounds like "tapping". This is just a regular CW transmission which is very close to 4.625MHz, so it is not getting audible properly.
7. Heavy static is appering on the UVB-76 frequency and there have been some speculations that it is some sort of jamming attempt. It does not seem to be an interference, as it starts and stops abruptly.
8. With summer giving way to fall and no heatwave around, the shortwave propagation gets better and better. The 70m antenna I am having is picking up all sorts of signals and sometimes overloads the radio module entirely, so there are commercial stations audible what have nothing to do with UVB-76 and are not even close to the frequency. If this keeps happening, I have to build an attenuator what switches on for the nighttime and off for day.
9. A sine wave has appeared regularly on the broadcast what does not seem to be a separate carrier frequency but is actually transmitted on 4.625MHz. This is an example what makes one think so:
10. Random voice transmissons and commchecks
11. RTTY teletype transmissions
(Seemed ordinary enough, but could not find a sample when I started to look for one ..)
12. Some sort of interference what I can only describe as "BuRRer"
13. And besides all that, there are just strange sounds appearing, what are not interferences but seem to be actual transmissions of a sort. Two examples here:
Some of it may be artifacts of the other stations bleeding in etc., but some of them seem to originate from whatever transmits on 4.625.
It seems that if one wants to listen to the magics of shortwave radio, you will only need to tune in on a single frequency and it delivers! :)
And for a record, here is a chronological list of transmissions I have found from last two weeks of archives. As the individual track count is quite large, here are the links to the daily sets at SoundCloud:
The recordings under point 7 sound a lot like the radio signals from the planet Saturn: http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio/cassini/SKR1/
ReplyDeleteNot saying that's significant or anything; I just think it's cool.
Fantastic documentation, nice to see the current events in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laid!
And the "Sweep" recording sounds a little like the "Faders" signal which hops frequencies (not sure if it's still active): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOkwVwaAIc8
ReplyDeletehttp://www.brogers.dsl.pipex.com/page9.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePresumably some of that is just a continuation of the trolling efforts...
ReplyDeleteOff-topic, but: the forums appear to be down.
ReplyDeleteFemale Voice September 27 2010 12.59pmUTC
ReplyDeleteFull text message:
Russian: МДЖБ МДЖБ 73-757 *pause* МДЖБ МДЖБ 73-757 БРОНЗИТ 25-83 85-86
English: MDGB MDGB 73-757 *pause* MDGB MDGB 73-757 BRONZE 25-83 85-86
Russian civilian radio October 29, 2010 22.06pmUTC
ReplyDeleteI'm hearing bits of Russian-language civilian SW broadcasting; UVB-76 is either off or transmitting dead air. If it is broadcasting dead air, it would explain the nasty 60-cycle hum on the audio. Three hours before this note I heard French-language broadcasting.
Point 2 seems like they're communicating about a launch for a nuclear missile (you could hear something like a launch in the middle).
ReplyDeleteRUSSIAN if you prefer:
Пункт 2 кажется, что они общаетесь о запуске для ядерных ракет (вы слышали что-то вроде запуска в середине).
Used Translate for the Russian translation.
ReplyDelete19:00 UTC on 11/7/2010: Number station heard. No word on origin.
ReplyDeleteAgain, translated Russian:
19:00 UTC на 11/7/2010: Количество станции слышал. Ни слова о происхождении.
23.22 UTC: At that time you could hear the UVB-76 buzz in USB (not sure about AM though)
ReplyDeleteUSB has BuRRer-like static in USA.
ReplyDelete