unusual traveling signals

[KL7OF]

Now that I have and SDR radio, I notice signals traveling thru the band(s) like someone spinning the dial while transmitting.  I'm sure there is a certain amount of that going on.  Some of the sigs travel slowly and methodically across an area of the band only to repeat and repeat.  There are some checkerboard looking signals and some blips that are repeating rectangle shapes.  A lot of this is on 10M, some I have noticed on other bands..Scientific testing?  Military?  Anybody know what these sigs are?

[K1JJ]

Hola Steve,

I think SOME of the traveling signals are hams testing their swr curves with the transmitter.  The old TX sweep trick is the poor man's MFJ-259B or NanoVNA.

Sunspots mean new antennas going up -  especially on 10-20M as you have noticed....  

BTW, I'm amazed at the rat's nest / spider web of digital signals on 20M between the 14.070 and 14.140 area.  Robots just talking back and forth satisfying themselves. Tune below 14.070 and there are few CW stations. What's this coming to... a Ham Matrix Movie?

T

[Pete, WA2CWA]

A lot of this is "Over the Horizon"-type wide band radar generated by several different countries  around the world. Some of the signals seen on various bands are also generated locally by video oscillators, modems, and routers, and other types of radiating equipment.

[KD6VXI]

When they tend to warble around a frequency and repeat every x amount of KC, that's usually a switching power supply.

When they sweep across a band, that's usually OTH radar....  But not always.

HF Underground does a good job of documentation.

There is a 7 area ham that puts up a LOT of signals for identification, but for the life of me I can't remember his call.  It's a 1x7.  That is helpful to see if it's local interference or something state or military.

Since the war started, there is a lot more signals out there as countries have ramped up militarily.....  At least that's what I see down here on the island.

Some of those radar signals are looking for the height of the waves in the ocean.....  Or at least that's what they say.  In all honesty those are usually looking for drug mules in semi submersible boats (what the media calls narxo subs.  RARELY do that have anything that can stay submerged).  I see a TON of those here...  We've got USAF and USCG around here very active.

It's pretty cool seeing different signals that are ordinary having lived on the left coast vs here.

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI

[N1NTE]

https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Ionosonde

- Rob

[K8DI]

BTW, I'm amazed at the rat's nest / spider web of digital signals on 20M between the 14.070 and 14.140 area.  Robots just talking back and forth satisfying themselves. Tune below 14.070 and there are few CW stations. What's this coming to... a Ham Matrix Movie?

There's some usefulness for AM'rs in those beeps...

I play around with FT8, it's a way to look at propagation using my actual antenna system.  Using the built-in support for PSKreporter, a website that shows who's heard your signal, a few minutes can tell me what distances on which bands are going to hear me calling.  Just answer a CQ (or throw one out) and look at the reports, you can see the circles at increasing distances of stations receiving you. If you make a couple calls and no one responds, switch to FT8 and three minutes later, you'll know if  the band is dead, or open for NVIS, or short, or long, DX.

Ed

[WA1QHQ]

Most of what I see that matches your description is ionosphere sounders that are used to determine the MUF of a band at any given time, often used by the military. I live a few miles from where the "Boston Buzzy" emanates from so I hear those sounders alot.

[K1JJ]

As a side note, I've been hearing a loud woodpecker type radar pulse to the NE in the middle and upper part of 40M after my local sunset. This 2019 quote from an ARRL article shows it to be Russian over-the-horizon radar:  "The South African Amateur Radio League (SARL) News reported this week that radio amateurs in Europe and South America have reported major interference from Russian OTH radar stations on several parts of 40 meters — with 12 kHz-wide signals. The radar transmissions have been heard on 7064, 7109, 7170, and 7190 kHz."

I've completed my three 40M antennas; a dipole at 50', a dipole at 100' and the 2x2x2 yagi stack at 190'.  The pulse is at least 12 KHz wide and about S9 on the low dipole. It is 20 over on the high dipole and amazingly 30-40 dB over on the stack fixed on Russia/Eu.   Russian / Eu hams never show such a big bias on the low angles as this radar does. This seems to indicate the OTH is probably using a classic low angle monster dipole array we see in pictures. Thus, OTH low angles.   IE, they are pumping out a lot of low angle and a low angle receiving antenna is needed to see it.   The low dipole hardly does the job.



I can hear them much more than +- 20KHz wide at times. Nasty clicking pulse sound. This activity seems to have gotten more intense since the war started in Ukraine.  

This also tells me my 40M  2X2x2 stack take off angle of 13 degrees is probably too low for the average ham in Eu; better suited for working the Middle East area ham.

T

[KD6VXI]

KiwiSDR is great for pinpointing these signals.

Use KIWI, then go to google maps on the satellite view to see what you found.

Granted, it takes some looking, but if you google the area and OTH or other such search terms it isn't hard to get a more pinpointed location due to locals geocaching.

Just another tool in the arsenal.

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI

[W1RKW]

it seems some of the big gun 11m ops like to "drift" their signal when keying. See Chan. 6.

[N1NTE]

That gets them noticed through all the on channel heterodynes. Pretty much a cap added to the PLL circuit does that.

[W1RKW]

what a coincidence, I captured those images from the N1NTE-4 KiwiSDR.

[Opcom]

If it's to get their transmission start noticed, OK, but it isn't very unusual. The audio from an old 3 phase motor starting up would be as short and a better identifier. This one's kind of quiet audio-wise but those folks are seldom short of audio gain. Just my 2 cents.

An alterative would be Quindar tones- 2525Hz for the start and 2475 for the end - proven by NASA. Not that the CB crowd cares about nuance.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Quindar_tones.ogg

[N1NTE]

what a coincidence, I captured those images from the N1NTE-4 KiwiSDR.

 

OT: been monitoring SSTV on 27700 lately, lots of DX from Europe on other freqs, too.

[KD6VXI]

Lol.

Boy, how things come around the corner and smack people.

I was the first person to set that 'VFO Windup' into motion close to 13 or so years ago.

It started as a guy whom ran strictly boat anchors (he's now SKk, but loved his Barker & Williamson)  making a statement that people could get their TX and rx audio clean, as clean as a Barker....  But you'll never get the VFO to wind up like them!

10 minutes later, what with a cap and resistor,  I modified a radio for one of his locals.  He didn't believe it at first, lol.

Now everybody has them that want them.  I always tried to use different R and C values to give the radios their own signature.   Today, it's a 10 uF cap.  

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI