(MAY BE RE-PRINTED FREELY IN NEWSLETTERS AND BBS's..with credit given to the author and the Billerica Amateur Radio Society )(IF PRINTED IN NEWSLETTER PLEASE SEND COPY TO KS1A- 89 CALLBOOK ADDRESS) [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ [ [ [ ACTION BETWEEN [ [ [ [ THE [ [ [ [ HAM BANDS [ [ [ [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ Vol. 1 No. 10 Short wave excitement only begins on the ham bands! Ever tune your receiver outside those amateur boundaries and wonder what really goes on there? Every month we try and whet your appetite. TRY TUNING ACROSS 6 MHZ whenever your bored. I just heard a dramatic rescue at sea on 6.565 usb, from off the coast of Nova Scotia. I stumbled right onto the Canadian authorities plucking a guy out of a lonely two-man raft...40 miles out to sea! Incredible. Then up the dial a bit on 6.835 another mysterious "Numbers Station". The woman's voice mechanically generated in phone- company-recording fashion, "Four-Eight-Eight" (pause) "Zero- Two", "Eight-Eight-Nine" (pause) "One-Five"! All across 6 MHZ, listen for these transmissions in upper-sideband. LOOK FOR the mysterious US Dept. of State station "KKN50" on 6.925 with their repeating CW ID. If you don't hear the ID at first, wait. The pauses between the KKN50 CW IDs are long, sometimes lasting up to a minute. No one can really tell me what this station is used for! It just keeps on ID'ing. It's also on 12.0225 and other places. My favorite East Coast air-traffic control freq is 6.577 usb. It's on 6 MHZ where there's lots of modulation types that you've never heard before: bursts, one or two at a time that sound like PACKET. And, the haunting data transmissions that sound just like someone playing a "piccolo" or electric flute. I've also heard it here in Boston on 2.707 at 0634 utc. (This is actually intelligent data!) Then there's the odd sweeping sounds that slowly change pitch over ten or so seconds, SITOR between 6.470 and 6.500, the myriads of encrypted RTTY and CW stations carrying some kind of traffic all make up the fascinating 6.200 to 6.999 window! EVER HEAR THE SATELLITES? Leave your rig sitting on 29.357 for a while and you'll hear the Russian sat's RS10 or RS11 when they go by. Listen for telemetry and ID's in CW. You'll know it's a bird you're hearing because the CW signal will keep sliding down in frequency. You keep it tuned in by just adjusting your VFO as the satellite moves across the sky. For more info on the birds contact AMSAT at (301) 589-6062. If the Goodyear blimp is in the neighborhood look for it on 151.625. RTTY fans: Look for the NEWS in English on these freq's: 18.125 RND70 (USSR) TASS news at 1430 utc 425/50R 20.560 LIBYA news in English at 1630 utc 425/50R 8.819.9 CAI7E EASTER ISLAND(?) in English at 0827 425/50R MYSTERY OF THE MONTH: On 19.357 I have twice heard "EXPERIMENTAL STATION GX7" in usb with the announcement, "This is EXPERIMENTAL STATION GX7" and nothing else! Announcer does not have a British accent. It sounds American. Any ideas? Exposure: HAM RADIO was featured in the storyline this past month on NBC's "Saved By the Bell"....Does your local TV station know who you are? Call the station and tell the NEWS DIRECTOR that you're an Amateur Radio Operator and give him your phone number and address. Tell him that the next time an emergency comes up, like a hurricane, they can come over and tape the goings on for the broadcast. THIS IS OUTSTANDING PR FOR ALL OF US! The point of your call is to establish a relationship now and make it easy for him to reach you. Give him your contact telephone number so that he can depend upon you the next time something big hits. REMEMBER, WHEN THEY ARRIVE THE NEWS CREW MAY TAPE YOU. AND YOU CAN ASK THE HAMS IN THE STRICKEN AREA TO DESCRIBE THE SCENE...BUT DON'T LET THE REPORTER TRANSMIT WITH YOUR RIG! The FCC is quite clear about this. Even so, we all heard some Florida reporter in the shack of a ham coming out over TWENTY meters: "This is Dick Whizbang, Channel 6 NEWS! Can you describe the situation?" ON A SEPARATE NOTE: It's too bad all that name calling and filibustering was going on the 14.313 net during HUGO. You can just imagine some poor ham getting a news crew into the shack only to hear those goings on. AND SPEAKING OF NEWS...another famous one has joined our ranks. As none other than WALTER CRONKITE was just about to take his novice test as we went to press. I'M HAVING A BALL WORKING THOSE THOUSAND MILE 2-METER CW CONTACTS DURING AURORA THIS EVENING. NEXT MONTH IT'S DXING A BAND YOU PROBABLY NEVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT! Thanks to Lou Josephs for his input here. 73! Jim Mulvey, KS1A @ K1UGM.MA BARS, ARRL PIA EMA (508) 988-0947 voice mail 24hrs (508) 988-0843 FAX 24hrs 71777,1000 compuserve