Broadcasters, Jammers Wreak Havoc on Amateur Radio Frequencies

[Steve - K4HX]

I haven't been on 40 meters at night in a long time. It's interesting to hear that this jamming is still going on. It was very prominent around 2010/11 or so but seemed to die down for a while. Back then, it could get so loud some nights as to make that part of the band nearly unusable for most DX contacts, even on the east coast of the USA.

The splattering Radio Iran on 7205 seems to be a long time constant fixture, loud most nights. If nothing else, it serves as a propagation indicator. I used it to check the F/B ratio on my 2-element delta-loop array.


From the ARRL Newsletter:

Broadcasters, Jammers Wreak Havoc on Amateur Radio Frequencies

10/25/2016

The battle continues between Radio Eritrea (Voice of the Broad Masses) and Radio Ethiopia, which is said to be jamming the Eritrean broadcaster with broadband white noise. The problem for radio amateurs is that the battle is taking place in the 40 meter phone band — 7.145 and 7.175 MHz — with the jamming signal reported by the IARU Region 1 Monitoring System (IARUMS) to be 20 kHz wide on each channel. The on-air conflict has been going on for years; Ethiopia constructed new transmitting sites in 2008 and is said to use two or three of them for jamming purposes. The interfering signals can be heard in North America after dark. According to IARUMS Region 1 Coordinator Wolf Hadel, DK2OM, Radio Eritrea is airing separate programs on each frequency. He said in the IARUMS September newsletter that telecommunications regulators in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have been informed, so they could file official complaints.

Other AM broadcast intruders on 40 meters include Radio Hargeisa in Somaliland on 7.120 MHz, which, Hadel said, is even audible in Australia and Japan. He further reports that the Voice of Iran’s signal on 7.205 MHz is splattering up to 5 kHz on either side of its channel, while Radio France International, which operates on the same frequency, is splattering down to 7.185 MHz.

Other odds and ends on 40 meters include the so-called “V beacon” on 7.091.5 MHz. The looped CW signal, which sends the letter “V” over and over, is audible every day. Hadel said the signal originates in Kazakhstan.

Hadel has reported HF radar signals from Russia on 40 and 20 meters, with “long-lasting transmissions, often with many spurious emissions.”

A Russian Air Force frequency-shift keyed signal identifying in CW as “REA4,” has been active on 7.117 MHz, while a Russian Navy FSK signal “Sevastopol” has been observed on 14.180. Hadel said Germany’s telecommunications regulator has filed an official complaint. Other Russian military signals have been heard on 7.016 MHz.

Chinese broadband OTH radars on 14 MHz generated some “Woodpecker” complaints, “but this was not the Russian ‘Woodpecker,’” Hadel clarified. Mario Taeubel, DG0JBJ, observed 11 OTH radars on 40 meters, 40 on 20 meters, 13 on 15 meters and 2 on 10 meters during September.

Hadel reports that signals from Spanish and Portuguese, UK, and Irish fishing operations, Indonesian and Philippine pirates, and OTH radar signals are sprinkled throughout 80, 40, 20, and 15 meters, while signals from oceangoing sensor buoys are heard widely on various discrete frequencies on 10 meters.

--  http://www.arrl.org/news/broadcasters-jammers-wreak-havoc-on-amateur-radio-frequencies

[Opcom]

gimme a CIA ID and a license to jam them back - but they are so far away it's an annoyance that would have to be shut off at the source. Maybe a revolutionary group will find a way to steal the tubes with handles or other critical/costly parts out of 'em..

[KD0HUX]

gimme a CIA ID and a license to jam them back - but they are so far away it's an annoyance that would have to be shut off at the source. Maybe a revolutionary group will find a way to steal the tubes with handles or other critical/costly parts out of 'em..

[flintstone mop]

What a mess! A very good band that makes DX a little easier for us hams. Antennas are not as cumbersome to build and it doesn't take much to get a wire antenna 1/2 wave above ground or build a vertical.

[WA2SQQ]

This might be a bit off topic, but it is pirate related. We have three active pirates operating Spanish stations on FM. The one, operating on 95.1 prevents me from listening to one of my favorite stations All are located in Passaic NJ. Two of the three have received official notices from the FCC (NAL’s) but they just ignore them. How can you get the FCC to take action? They know the people operating them and the exact locations. Last month I heard what appeared to be intermod on the local airport’s approach frequency. It was coming from one of the stations.

[KB2WIG]

The following may be of interest....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

Its not about the Microsoft Borg.

klc

[flintstone mop]

This might be a bit off topic, but it is pirate related. We have three active pirates operating Spanish stations on FM. The one, operating on 95.1 prevents me from listening to one of my favorite stations All are located in Passaic NJ. Two of the three have received official notices from the FCC (NAL’s) but they just ignore them. How can you get the FCC to take action? They know the people operating them and the exact locations. Last month I heard what appeared to be intermod on the local airport’s approach frequency. It was coming from one of the stations.

FCC is gutless in getting the FMers off the air. They continue to operate or change locations

[Opcom]

This might be a bit off topic, but it is pirate related. We have three active pirates operating Spanish stations on FM. The one, operating on 95.1 prevents me from listening to one of my favorite stations All are located in Passaic NJ. Two of the three have received official notices from the FCC (NAL’s) but they just ignore them. How can you get the FCC to take action? They know the people operating them and the exact locations. Last month I heard what appeared to be intermod on the local airport’s approach frequency. It was coming from one of the stations.

complain to the stations that are being interfered with that you can't hear them well because of it. They are influentional enough to -maybe- get action from the FCC. or just hunt the stations down.

[wb6kwt]

Laura Smith, from the FCC enforcement division, was at Pacificon and gave a presentation concerning this issue. I have the presentation in digital format and would post it if I could find a site. I'm unsure if I could upload to youtube because it's 55 minutes long.

Bob

[W3RSW]

Well as Opcom mentioned before. Why don't a few flanged bottles come up missing, coax stubbed, and antennae re-terminated?  Bad neighborhoods with car loss hazards?

[KD6VXI]

Well as Opcom mentioned before. Why don't a few flanged bottles come up missing, coax stubbed, and antennae re-terminated?  Bad neighborhoods with car loss hazards?

I would assume so, Rick.  They are talking African stations.

Gas alone would be a killer lol.

--Shane
KD6VXI

[W3RSW]

 
Yeah, there's that.
But One flanger equals lots of gas, ransomed back.
Just have to teach value.

[W1ITT]

Short wave jamming has a great and wonderful tradition.  A few years ago I spent over a year in Romania upgrading their medium wave (AM broadcast) station network.  I was doing antenna work and a fellow from Harris was installing solid state transmitters.  The new transmitters were much less forgiving of SWR than the old vacuum tube rigs, and I had to rebuild matching networks from "whatever" impedance to 50 ohm j-0.  At one site that had been overlooked in the planning and procurement process I had to wing it on the base matching network.  I calculated that I needed about 18 microhenries in addition to other components already present and went looking about to find an inductor that would work.  In the back room of the station there was an old much cannibalized transmitter with a nice rugged roller inductor that looked just about right.  While we were removing it, I asked what this rig was originally used for.  The locals were a bit sheepish about answering, but finally admitted that it was a frequency agile jammer, built to jam Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America transmissions.  The modulation was just a nasty broadband buzz, plate modulated.  Every decent sized city had one at the edge of town with a staff of operators to chase "us" around the band.  For the most part they were pretty successful.  Some of the guys who operated jammers in the Iron Curtain days were among the fellows I worked with, pretty good fellows just the same.

[wb6kwt]

Here is the link to the FCC presentation concerning the issue being discussed. I tape this at the 2016 Pacificon event. She was wearing my wireless microphone and the audio was great until they turned up the room PA.

https://youtu.be/66yQZM4t7ME

Bob -wb6kwt

[WA2SQQ]

I just watched the video - thanks for sharing!

Laura mentioned the "individual" in New York who was prosecuted and is spending time in jail.
"Danny" was a career criminal who jammed both the amateur frequencies as well as the NYPD. He was very well known to the hams in the NY / NJ metro area. He was caught red handed and arrested on a street corner in NYC while jamming the NYPD. He had drugs in his possession and was charged with an intention to sell.

He spent a few days in jail and as far as I know, he's out on the street. They allegedly took his radios, but the Chinese HT's are very cheap.
I think her success was a bit premature.