Article: 1882 of rec.radio.info Xref: news.cs.tut.fi rec.radio.shortwave:21966 rec.radio.info:1882 Newsgroups: rec.radio.shortwave,rec.radio.info Path: news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!sunic!pipex!uunet!usc!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.unomaha.edu!news From: ae411@yfn.ysu.edu (Richard Baker) Subject: Speedx World of Utilities Electronic Edition, June 93 Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.radio.shortwave Sender: news@news.unomaha.edu (UNO Network News Server) Organization: St. Elizabeth Hospital, Youngstown, OH Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 06:27:39 GMT Approved: rec-radio-request@ve6mgs.ampr.ab.ca Lines: 378 ================================================================= ===== SPEEDX's World of Utilities Electronic Edition ==== ===== Specializing in Utility Signals ==== ========== Vol. 2, No. 3 June, 1993 ========== ================================================================= Chuck Yarbough, Editor ================================================================= ===== SPEEDX's World of Utilities Electronic Edition ==== ===== Specializing in Utility Signals ==== ========== Vol. 2, No. 2 June, 1993 ========== ================================================================= Chuck Yarbrough, Editor Note: This Electronic Edition is from the March, 1993 SPEEDX member bulletin "Shortwave Radio Today". Since this edition has come out, I'm sorry to report that Chuck has stepped down as editor of Utility World. To take his place, there are now two utility column's: UTILITIES: Edited by Mike Wolfson. Logging's, frequencies, and schedule information. Contributions in these area's can be sent to Mike at: Mike Wolfson 1842 Mifflin Ave. Ashland, Ohio 44805 UTILITY NOTES: Edited by Rick "RD" Baker. News and information about the world of utilities, and utility stations. Contributions in these area's can be sent to myself at: Richard "RD" Baker 1352 Cavalcade Dr. Austintown, Ohio, 44515-3844 Internet: ae411@yfn.ysu.edu I have volunteered to continue the Electronic Edition, and will also be editing it. I will continue with Chuck's column for the past issues -RD Please feel free to re-post this file to other boards, as long as the file remains unchanged. Permission is granted to use this information so log as SPEEDX, and World of Utilities Electronic Edition is cited as the original source. COPYRIGHT 1993, SPEEDX. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Publishers note: The Utility World column arrivied late and is therefore appearing as a supplement. My apologies to everyone whose loggings would have appeared on page 5, but it was either this or nothing. ej Well, here we are once again, delving into the wonderful world of utility Dx'ing! We have a lot of news this month, particularly involving voice traffic. Looks like my request for SSB news in last months column was answered! Bravo! Keep it coming. Now on to the news... DX'ING BOSNIA Geoff Halligey of Wales, UK, reports that he has been listening to the United Nations Forces in Bosnia. he listens to USB voice military transmissions using alpha-numeric callsigns on 5310.0 and 6721.5 Khz., with mostly coded messages, but in English. Geoff also reports that he has been monitoring the following: ARQ-M2 (all military) 5397.7, 7451.7, 7642.7, 10960.7, 10168.3, 11003.0, 11416.7, 16165.2 SITOR-A (UN in Sarajevo, beleived) 5752.5 ICRC (various locations) 6996.0 USN, Italian Air Force 13220.0 Geoff also reports, much along the same lines as our lead article last month about the reduction of CW services on HF, that the Portishead (UK) Radio, "GKC" series of stations has shut down. These well know stations used to send CW (morese code) to ships at sea. GKC used to occupy the following frequencies: 4215.5, 8516.0, 13019.8, 16954.4, and 22657.8 UTILITY NEWS Goteborg (Sweden) Radio has also closed all of it's CW, although Geoff adds that there are still CW news broadcasts in Swedish at 0048, 0548, and 1848, transmitting on one frequency per band. SAG and SAB are the transmitting stations. the Goteborg RTTY and USB transmissions remain as they were before the changes. Thanks Geoff. In another piece of news, the former nation of Czechoslovakia, which as of Jan.1, 1993 formally divided into the respective republics of Dlovakia and the Czechia (aka the Czech Republic) have split the OKA-OMZ callsign allocation blocks down the middle. Czechia now uses callsigns OMA-OLZ, and Slovakia uses the callsigns OMA-OMZ. Just though you'd like to know! Richard Baker, the Sysop of the SWL Sig on the Youngstown Free Net (and also a new Speedx member-welcome Rick), send us some hot new USCG/USN SSB frequencies involved in the U.S. Operations off of Haiti. There seem to be main freqs to monitor, 5403.0 (USN), 6236 (USCG) and 6636 (USN/USCG). I listened in on the later two frequencies and was able to hear quite a bit of traffic. We will have more on the Haitian Op's (codename "Operation Able Manner") later in this months column. Thanks Rick. Rick also reports the demise of another U.S. Coast Guard CommSta. I'll let Rick take it from here. "In a recent QSL letter I received from [U.S.] Coast Guard Communications Station Miami, "NMA", they advised that the entire command was destroyed by Hurrican Andrew. Rather than rebuild, it has been decided to close the station by mid-summer 1993, and the the antenna's by remote". "CommSta Miami is presently working out of a couple emergency comms trailers, one Coast Guard, one Navy, using a 35 foot whip antenna. So, if you don't have NMA in your logs, now is the time to log them, before another station is lost to history". For QSL'ing, it's best to send a PFC (Prepared Form Card) as they had run out of their of QSL's and most likely will not replave them. Best bet to hear them is on 5696.0 Khz USB local [eastern U.S,] night hours. Their address is: Radioman in Charge USCG Communications Station Miami 16001 S.W. 117th Ave. Miami, Fl, 33177-1699 While on the subject, Rick runs the SWL Sig on the Youngstown Free Net. If anyone would like to check out the Sig, contact Rick at xx159@yfn.ysu.edu, or for internet try yfn.ysu.edu. Rick is especially a fan of the U.S. Navy comms. CAPE RADIO By Richard Baker In view of the up coming launch of STS-55, I thought a recent letter I received would be on interest. I sent a letter and PFC card to KSC (Kennedy Space Center), for lack of a better address for "Cape Radio". I recently received a letter from a Ronnie Brautigam, who is a communications controller for the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, i.e., Cape Radio. Mr.Brautigam really works for a company called CSR, or Computer Sciences Tayteon. CSR operates and maintains all the HF radio's for the Eastern Test Range, which is the official designation for the facility at Cape Canaveral AFS. He states the facility is actually located across the Banana River from KSC. They are not affiliated with NASA in any way. However they do support all shuttle launches and un-manned launch vehicles. ETR provides range safety, telemetry, radar, command destruct, communications and optical tracking for all launches from the Cape. Mr.Brautigam continues that the transmission I heard was with a launch danger area support ship (USS Vicksburg). The job of these ship's is to ensure that no planes or ship's are in the area where if a rocket would have be destroyed, debris may fall. He describes the amount of HF radio at their disposal as "staggering". They have 8 HF transmitters that have an output of 45 kw, 6 transmitters with 30 kw capability, and 8 transmitters of 10 kw capability. During Operation Desert Storm, Cape Radio played a key role in support of ground troops and cargo aircraft. During this time for a period of about 2 months, Cape Radio provided radio phone patches to home for the deployed troops. He states that the quality of the HF was quite good. Even though there was a 2500 mile distance, and maximum output of the troops ground transmitters were 100 watts, due to the receivers in use at ETR, they were able to get "very good" reception from Saudi Arabia. Now for the bad news. Mr. Brautigam stated that they will not fill out, or provide data for, or otherwise QSL. He stated that has been their policy since Cape Radio has been in existence, and that "thousands" of QSL requests every year. They simply do not have time to answer each one. So, what they do is this: every couple months they pull at random a letter from the latest batch that has come in, and then personally answer it. This time I was the lucky winner! (contest void where prohibited by law, NJ residents add 5% sales tax) The letter concludes that all of their frequencies are classified and they are unable to confirm as in a PFC/QSL format any transmission. But they can say in a letter it was really them. Mr.Brautigam suggests those with a opportunity, to witness a launch of the space shuttle, as "they really are spectacular". I'm quite glad I was the lucky winner for last month, and that Mr. Brautigam took the time to write a rather extensive letter explaining a lot of mystery to me. I was aware "Cape Radio" was an Air Force installation, but it sure doesn't exist in too many military address guides (at least the five I checked, and the United States Postal Service). Call sign listed in several reference books for Cape Radio is "AFE71". So, if you had intended on trying to QSL Cape Radio, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Eastern Test Range, you have to ask yourself: "Do I feel lucky today?" (Clint Eastwood said it better...) Thanks for that most interesting article Rick. The majority of UTE listeners, at least in the SE U.S. have at one time or another TRIED to hear Cape Radio. It's good to be able to 'put a face' to a rather anonymous radio signal. HAITIAN OP'S By Richard Baker Operation Able Manner, the Coast Guard/Navy operation which began in January, to encircle Haiti, is still going strong. The operation, which includes 21 U.S. Coast Guard cutters, 5 Navy ships, and over a dozen aircraft, can be monitored on the following frequencies found so far: FREQ MODE USER/USE USAGE 5399.5 USB Navy Tactical Nightly 5400.0 USB same Random 5403.0 USB same Random 6236.0 USB USCG, Primary Nightly 6686.0 USB Navy/CG Nightly 8972.0 USB Navy, Safety of Flight -Atlantic Random Related Comms (freqs contributed by Rick Baker, Wally Blume, and Ron Synowicki) "On the 8972 frequency I have heard several aircraft op's reports to search area's related to Able Manner". "But by far the nmost active is 6686 Khz, with shore stations (most likely Guantanamo and Purto Rico) on almost all the time. Standard Navy tactical callsign's are used (letter/number/letter) and change daily. A lot of "targets" being run down, with half-hour checks for each unit. Have also heard CG cutters here, but un-like 6236, tactical callsign's are used". "On 6236 Khz, you hear Coast Guard aircraft calling in "targets" to the cutters. Plain ID's for both aircraft and cutters, with aircraft maintaining stadard half-hour flight op checks with the designated cutter". "Both 5400 and 5403 Khz have been logged by others, but may be alternates to 6686, as it seems to be the same type of traffic, although I have not yet heard these freqs yet". "On 6236, Coast Guard has gone several times to a secondary frequency of "12Y", due to a FAX signal interfering with comms. As of yet, "12Y' has not been found". "Just as I was making this article, a new frequency of 5399.5 Khz was found. It has been active for several nights now. USN may be moving the 5 meg frequency around every few days." Thanks again, Rick, for that great bit of info. As I sit here editing this months column, I have 6686.0 Khz (U.S. Navy) on in the background. It is VERY active, with a transmission made every minute or so. Check it out! New Product: WATKINS-JOHNSON 8711 HF RECEIVER Many of you have seen the advert for the new WJ-8711 Digital HF Receiver in last months Monitoring Times magazine. Well I was curious enough about this machine that I called Watkins-Johnson and talked to them for awhile. The W-J folks were most coopertive and, while not sending me a demo unit (nuts!), they did talk to me and fax me the spec sheets on the radio. Here is what I can tell you about the receiver. First of all, this is a SERIOUS radio made for the COM/MIL market. Carrying a base price of US$4795.00, I doubt many of us will go out and buy one, but it's nice to see what five grand will do these days! It turns out that for your 5K you get quite a radio. The WJ-8711 is a fully synthesized, general-purpose HF receiver for surveillance and monitoring. Its usable range is 5 Khz to 30 Mhz with TRUE 1 Hz tuning resolution. I mean, YOU ACTUALLY SEE THE FREQUENCY DISPLAY CHANGE IN 1HZ INCREMENTS! No other radio I know of does this. The 8711 is the sucessor to the well-know and respected WJ-8717, first sold in 1978 and is still in production today (at 1 1993 cost of US$11,000!!). All filtering is done through Digital Signal Processing, which provide very steep filter shirts and exceptional stability. The filters are not user defineable (i.e. tuneable) as they are in some of the dedicated filter units, but can be changed at the WJ factory. Included HF band-widths included in the unit are 300Hz, 1khz, 6.0Khz, and 16.0Khz. The WJ-8711 comes with AM, FM, CW, USB, LSB, and ISB modes standard and 100 memories with three different methods of scanning those memories. The true mark of the receiver's greatness is its high dynamic range. At +30dBm the WJ=8711 will do a much better job of ferreting out those weak DX stations (both UTE and Bcast signals), as well as not overloading in the presence of stronger signals. Obviously I'm not Electronics Engineer, but if some of the other popular popular consumer radios were tested the same way, the WJ-8711's dynamic range would more than double even the best consumer radios. This means less noise, more sensitivity, and consequently more DX catches for you! The 8711 can be operated from its front panel, or via computer through its RS-232 port, which comes standard on the radio. Of course, since the radio was designed under US Government contract, it fully conforms to MIL-STD testing standards. This means they test it for operating temperature ranges, humidity range, altitude, shock (i.e. it survived 8 drops onto a hard wooden surface WHILE OPERATING), and it will operate in excess of 14,000 hours between failure (MTBF). The power supply for the 8711 is auto-sensing, in other words it automatically switches to any voltage between 97 and 253 VAC. The radio consumes a maximum of 35 watts with options, is 5.25 x 19.0 x 16.0 inches, is fully rack mountable, and weighs less than 12 pounds. So, if you buy the thing, what options might you want? There are only two: an internal speaker and a suboctave preselector (US$720.00) which helps the 'front end' of the radio blockout strong nearby RF sources (i.e. a nearby transmitter). So if you get your tax refund back and you have a few thousand to burn on a radio, you might want to consider the Watkins-Johnson WJ-8711. After all, it is comptetively priced with the 'not-so-brilliant' ICOM R-9000! If you would like to learn more about this fine receiver, contact Watkins- Jognson Co., CET Divsion, 700 Quince Orchard Rd., Gaithersburg, MD 20878- 1794. USA, Phone (301)948-7550. Talk to Mike Cox at extension 7334. So enough of the wordy stuff, lets look at what you folks have been listening to this month! Onto the loggings! MARCH UTILITY LOGGINGS FREQ MODE UTC CALLSIGN Station/Remarks/Contributor 2582.0 USB 1113 VCO 2582/2206 Sydney CG Radio wkg u/i ves ELBI7 for R/T tfc. (Baker, OH) 2598.0 USB 0704 VOJ CCG, Stephenville Radio, w/wx (Baker, OH) 2598.0 USB 0811 VOO CCG, Comfort Cove Radio, w/wx (Baker, OH) 2598.0 USB 0821 VCP CCG, St.Lawrence Radio, w/wx (Baker, OH) 2670.0 USB 0015 NMY42 USCG, Moriches NY Grp w/alert for "floating flashlights" (Baker, OH) 2670.0 USB 0203 NMC USCG CAMSPAC San Francisco w/offshore wx f/cast (Baker, OH) 2670.0 USB 0339 NMR1 USCG, San Juan, w/report of 3 missing ves (Baker, OH) 2670.0 USB 0500 NMF CommSta Boston w/"Port Operations", Port Smith, NH, re their reception of distress signal (Baker, OH) 2670.0 USB 1051 NMF CommSta Boston w/wx, MIB (Marine Info Broadcast), GPS info, b/cast daily 0440, 1040, 1640, & 2240. (Baker, OH) 2670.0 USB 1105 NMK USCG Cape May Grp (NJ) w/wx, MIB's (Baker, OH) 2670.0 USB 2355 N/A USCGC Grand Isle w/Grp Woods Hole re FRTT (Fleet Radio Tele-Type) freq. (Baker, OH) 2694.0 USB 0808 U/I Unk OM/YL SS w/what sounded like tfc list, also CW heard, then R/T tfc in SS. Possible CLT3 in Cuba? (Baker, OH) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPEEDX members had this information over two months ago! SPEEDX publishes a monthly DX bulletin of around 43 pages, Shortwave Radio Today (ISSN 0882-8091). Some of the column's include: THE DXperience: Focusing on notes,news,and views of what's happening in the exciting world of Shortwave radio. Edited by Dan Brame WHAT'S ON: A program listing, and some freqs for SW Radio edited by Daniel Sampson. SHORTWAVE TO GO!: A DX column with much DX news copied from the various DX shows, and compiled by Dale Vanderpoel via the SHORTWAVE PARADISE BBS in Fort Lauderdale,Florida USA. (Now featuring Sked Row) WESTERN HEMISPHERE: SWBC logging's column edited by Don Thornton EUROPE: SWBC logging's column edited by Bob Colyard THE COMMONWEALTH: SWBC logging's column edited by Bruce Robinson AFRICA: SWBC logging's column edited by Paul Wakefield ASIA/OCEANIA: SWBC logging's column edited by William Westenhaver QSL REPORT: a QSL reporting column edited by Michael Fanderys UTILITIES: Utlilty DX loggings, frequency lists and schedules, edited by Mike Wolfson UTILITY NOTES: News and information on the world of utilities, edited by Rick Baker SPEEDX AWARDS: A wide variety of awards are available for members DX'ing accomplishments, Harold Woering, Awards Chairman If you would like to learn more about the SPEEDX radio club, (the Society to Preserve the Engrossing Enjoyment of DX'ing), a non-profit volunteer hobby organization founded in 1971, please write to Bob Thunberg Business Manager, SPEEDX, P.O. Box 196, DuBois, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 15801-0196. Club dues are as follows: USA and Mexico $23.00 Canada (AO Airmail) 25.00 Central/South America, Caribbean (airmail) 29.00 Europe (AO Airmail) 33.00 Africa/CIS/Asia/Oceania (AO Airmail) 37.00 Outside North America (Surface Mail) 23.00 All prices are in US funds. Tell Bob you heard about us from the Electronic Edition! -- Rick Baker (ae411@yfn.ysu.edu) Live and direct from downtown Austintown, Ohio aka (xx159@yfn.ysu.edu) Youngstown Free Net SWL Sig Sysop