The signal on 8417.5 kHz in this video is actually Guangzhou maritime radio from China, and not Tianjin. I relied on the Eibi schedules for my ID, but the Morse Code ID in the 8417.5 kHz signal, according to a viewer, is Guangzhou and not Tianjin. Therefore my reference to Tianjin in the video itself is not correct, this is definitely Guangzhou, some 2000 km south of Tianjin. But it's still a new catch for me 😀
Very nice catches there André! I haven't heard that US emergency messages in a long time. Before I got my first SSB radio, I used to listen to it on 15.034 MHz during that 10 minute period where the Trenton Military volmet was off the air. Now I rarely hear them and thought they went inactive.
Thanks Liam. I think for these US emergency action messages one needs to park on a frequency for several hours and just wait, they appear to be quite random. I have caught them before, on another frequency. This is only my second time.
Thanks Andre I usually listen to the U.S. Air Force broadcast on 11175KHZ even have heard “Sky King” a few times…fortunately…just a drill. 73! Have a great day!
It really pays to check the EiBi schedules for these sort of non-civilian radio transmissions. I've scanned the 15 MHz band frequently but not for every hour and may have encountered Morse code signals that aren't part of the ham bands. Since I was searching for broadcast bands, I had often overlooked these cryptic signals instead of verifying them. Time to bring out my dusty Malachite SDR from the closet - that's the best SSB signal hunter I have, besides the ATS-25 Amp. 📻☺
Indeed, there certainly are so many interesting radio transmissions that we don't always bother to check. I find it really enjoyable when I come upon strange noises or voices outside the regular broadcast bands to check what they might be. It is a lot of fun!
@@swlistening That's a fair statement, bru. I really have to be in the right mood to go signal hunting. It requires patience to turn that frequency knob 1 kHz at a time, hoping to receive the right transmissions at the right time. Sometimes, daily life gets in the way. My cats ask for food or attention at the most ridiculous times of the day and they also like to have at least one radio playing something in the background so they would fall asleep. 😑🐈 Fortunately for my cats, they aren't picky enough as to what foreign language they'd like to hear on shortwave. 😎 I like to imagine myself being stationed on a light house with a few desktop shortwave receivers in front of me. 😀
@@StratmanII Very true, these utility signals call for an entirely different frame of mind compared to broadcast DXing 😀 You need lots of patience. But it's the kind of thing you can do while feeding your cats, just leave the radio parked on a frequency and do your chores until you hear something. I actually do that at times with utility signals. I'll find a frequency and then just do other things, like replying to emails, or doing some work. And then sometimes something comes through. That's actually how I heard Seychelles Radio last week. How wonderful it would be to DX in a lighthouse!
@@swlistening _"How wonderful it would be to DX in a lighthouse!"_ Andre, my most recent visit to a real lighthouse was back in 1985. My dad was invited to go on a daytime cruise on a barge from Port Klang to Pulau Angsa (Swan Island), a small rocky island off the coast of the Strait of Malacca. The precarious part of the trip was transferring into a smaller boat as the barge was too large to approach that small island and I remember the water was choppy due to the wind. 🤢 I wished I had brought a camera with me, but in 1985 I wasn't much into photography although I had my camera and lenses. The Sultan of Selangor had a special retreat built for his royal family on the other side of the island, but His Highness rarely used it. I remember our entourage was welcomed to a simple tea and biscuit refreshments at the lighthouse. We weren't invited to go up the lighthouse structure, but I envied the simple life the lighthouse keeper had. He had several HF and maritime band transceivers in his dining room and had a great view of the sea. 😎 If I had a chance to revisit this lighthouse, I'll bring along my Malachite SDR V3, Tecsun PL-368 and the Qodosen DX-286! 😀 In the meantime, I'll just set aside some night time hours for DX signal hunting when my cats are fed and asleep! 🐈☺
@@StratmanII This sounds like such a wonderful experience! I have only visited a lighthouse once, the one at Cape Agulhas, the most southern point in South Africa. The lighthouse there is open to tourists and you can actually climb all the way to the top. It was quite a spectacular view from the top, over the southern Atlantic Ocean, knowing that the next land is Antarctica. Back then I did not DX, but if I ever go back there again I will be sure to take my Qodosen or PL-680 with me to the top!
Wow. You caught General Jack D Ripper at Burpleson Air Force Base issuing orders for Wing Attack Plan "R" via the CRM-114 Discriminator to the 843rd Bomb Wing!
Hi André, I confirm it is XSQ you heard, but you already know that 😜 however, I love the sound out of your Tecsun PL-680, it literally sounds like recorded in 1930s 😂 And since you say 15017 was better for you for that EAM, ut means something is 1kHz off in your radio, either the fine-tune encoder wasn't close to the middle of its range or the radio itself is 1kHz off... Perhaps that's why you thought you got XSV, maybe it is listed at 8418.5 or 8419, while you were really hearing XSV on 8417.5 🤔 Anyway, I used to hear a lot more of such channel markers of other coast radio stations. These days it's only those three Chinese stations (also XSG Shanghai), and TAH Istanbul Radio. TAH used to have 2 markers on each band (4, 8, 12 & 16 MHz), but now they're like having 2 or 3 in total 🙄 still better than WLO, which closed down I believe near 2020, and in the past I used to get IAR from Rome too, sounding so similar to TAH, I wasn't really noticing any difference 😂 sadly they closed in 2010 or 2011 😢
Hi Arnie, thanks for your comment! Perhaps my radio is 1 kHz off, apparently this is an issue on some of the PL-680 radios. But, to be honest, most of the time the frequencies are spot-on, so these two might just have sounded better when tuned slightly off-frequency... I haven't heard any of these Chinese coastal radio channel markers, so this one from Guangzhou is a first for me. But the EiBi listing was a bit confusing, a viewer (also in Poland) pointed out that it was not Tianjin, as listed by EiBi, but Guangzhou. What is the frequency for Istanbul Radio? I will try to catch that one. And I'll try for the other two Chinese ones also.
@@swlistening I'm sitting right next to my laptop w/ SDR running, plugged to my large loop (well, one of two I had last winter), so I decided to make a bit of a bandscan for these maritime markers: I'll give all frequencies as center frequencies for the signal, tune down any amount to get whatever pitch you like in USB :) 8416.5 UDK Murmansk Radio SITOR-B/NAVTEX, very strong peaking S9+35dB 8419.5 v.weak carrier ?? 8421.0 XSQ Guangzhou Radio almost peaking S9 8424.0 SVO Olympia Radio, dash & DE SVO in CW, S9+10 8425.5 XSG Shanghai Radio, only S7 8431.0 TAH Istanbul Radio, S9 8436.0 unknown FSK/RTTY, traffic a bit intermittent, peaking S8 Murmansk is just too strong at the moment to catch XSQ on 8417.5! EDIT: after 2000z, a FAX signal has appeared on 8442.1 kHz USB, S9+10dB signal. must be another Murmansk, listed as RBW41. Also: 4212.0 XSQ mixing w/ some weak tone 4215.0 XSG S9 in noise 4232.0 a spur of an FT8 signal :O 4560.0 there is another TAH, a bit out-of-band, S9+5 And on another band: 12610.0 ruZZian Navy CIS-36-50, S9+25dB 12613.0 XSQ S9 but sounds really healthy, low noise :) 12637.5 XSG S9 12648.5 XSQ S9+5dB 12654.0 TAH S5 only, skip zone 🤷♂ Finally 16 MHz, surprisingly not empty: 16880.0 XSQ S6 w/ QSB Hope this helps :)
Being slightly off-frequency especially in SSB is a common issue on PL-660/680. My 660 does it too. There is a recalibration procedure (easy to find here on RUclips) but I've never managed to effectively correct the small shift. Maybe it's just me.
@@F4LDT-Alain Thanks Alain. This is true, I have seen quite a few people refer to this issue. I am not 100% sure if mine is actually off-frequency in SSB mode. Most of the time it seems to be spot-on, with a few exceptions, like in this video. I will keep testing it though and see if I do need to try the recalibration.
Hello Andre. Very interesting receptions. I heard some digital signals prior to the cw. Have you ever decoded any digital modes or images/charts? Thank you! Randy-Illinois
Hi Craig, it is indeed... I think the link to the earlier video will not work anymore, I deleted it and uploaded this one. Pity it wasn't Kaliningrad, but I guess Tianjin is also a nice catch.
The signal on 8417.5 kHz in this video is actually Guangzhou maritime radio from China, and not Tianjin. I relied on the Eibi schedules for my ID, but the Morse Code ID in the 8417.5 kHz signal, according to a viewer, is Guangzhou and not Tianjin. Therefore my reference to Tianjin in the video itself is not correct, this is definitely Guangzhou, some 2000 km south of Tianjin. But it's still a new catch for me 😀
Very nice catches there André! I haven't heard that US emergency messages in a long time. Before I got my first SSB radio, I used to listen to it on 15.034 MHz during that 10 minute period where the Trenton Military volmet was off the air. Now I rarely hear them and thought they went inactive.
Thanks Liam. I think for these US emergency action messages one needs to park on a frequency for several hours and just wait, they appear to be quite random. I have caught them before, on another frequency. This is only my second time.
@@swlistening I guess I was really lucky or they just had a lot of messages.
Thanks Andre I usually listen to the U.S. Air Force broadcast on 11175KHZ even have heard “Sky King” a few times…fortunately…just a drill.
73! Have a great day!
I will monitor that one also, maybe I can hear the "Sky King" drill!
It really pays to check the EiBi schedules for these sort of non-civilian radio transmissions. I've scanned the 15 MHz band frequently but not for every hour and may have encountered Morse code signals that aren't part of the ham bands. Since I was searching for broadcast bands, I had often overlooked these cryptic signals instead of verifying them.
Time to bring out my dusty Malachite SDR from the closet - that's the best SSB signal hunter I have, besides the ATS-25 Amp. 📻☺
Indeed, there certainly are so many interesting radio transmissions that we don't always bother to check. I find it really enjoyable when I come upon strange noises or voices outside the regular broadcast bands to check what they might be. It is a lot of fun!
@@swlistening That's a fair statement, bru. I really have to be in the right mood to go signal hunting. It requires patience to turn that frequency knob 1 kHz at a time, hoping to receive the right transmissions at the right time.
Sometimes, daily life gets in the way. My cats ask for food or attention at the most ridiculous times of the day and they also like to have at least one radio playing something in the background so they would fall asleep. 😑🐈
Fortunately for my cats, they aren't picky enough as to what foreign language they'd like to hear on shortwave. 😎
I like to imagine myself being stationed on a light house with a few desktop shortwave receivers in front of me. 😀
@@StratmanII Very true, these utility signals call for an entirely different frame of mind compared to broadcast DXing 😀 You need lots of patience. But it's the kind of thing you can do while feeding your cats, just leave the radio parked on a frequency and do your chores until you hear something. I actually do that at times with utility signals. I'll find a frequency and then just do other things, like replying to emails, or doing some work. And then sometimes something comes through. That's actually how I heard Seychelles Radio last week.
How wonderful it would be to DX in a lighthouse!
@@swlistening _"How wonderful it would be to DX in a lighthouse!"_
Andre, my most recent visit to a real lighthouse was back in 1985. My dad was invited to go on a daytime cruise on a barge from Port Klang to Pulau Angsa (Swan Island), a small rocky island off the coast of the Strait of Malacca. The precarious part of the trip was transferring into a smaller boat as the barge was too large to approach that small island and I remember the water was choppy due to the wind. 🤢
I wished I had brought a camera with me, but in 1985 I wasn't much into photography although I had my camera and lenses. The Sultan of Selangor had a special retreat built for his royal family on the other side of the island, but His Highness rarely used it. I remember our entourage was welcomed to a simple tea and biscuit refreshments at the lighthouse. We weren't invited to go up the lighthouse structure, but I envied the simple life the lighthouse keeper had. He had several HF and maritime band transceivers in his dining room and had a great view of the sea. 😎
If I had a chance to revisit this lighthouse, I'll bring along my Malachite SDR V3, Tecsun PL-368 and the Qodosen DX-286! 😀
In the meantime, I'll just set aside some night time hours for DX signal hunting when my cats are fed and asleep! 🐈☺
@@StratmanII This sounds like such a wonderful experience! I have only visited a lighthouse once, the one at Cape Agulhas, the most southern point in South Africa. The lighthouse there is open to tourists and you can actually climb all the way to the top. It was quite a spectacular view from the top, over the southern Atlantic Ocean, knowing that the next land is Antarctica. Back then I did not DX, but if I ever go back there again I will be sure to take my Qodosen or PL-680 with me to the top!
Wow. You caught General Jack D Ripper at Burpleson Air Force Base issuing orders for Wing Attack Plan "R" via the CRM-114 Discriminator to the 843rd Bomb Wing!
Thanks for decoding the message :-)
Hi André, I confirm it is XSQ you heard, but you already know that 😜 however, I love the sound out of your Tecsun PL-680, it literally sounds like recorded in 1930s 😂
And since you say 15017 was better for you for that EAM, ut means something is 1kHz off in your radio, either the fine-tune encoder wasn't close to the middle of its range or the radio itself is 1kHz off... Perhaps that's why you thought you got XSV, maybe it is listed at 8418.5 or 8419, while you were really hearing XSV on 8417.5 🤔
Anyway, I used to hear a lot more of such channel markers of other coast radio stations. These days it's only those three Chinese stations (also XSG Shanghai), and TAH Istanbul Radio. TAH used to have 2 markers on each band (4, 8, 12 & 16 MHz), but now they're like having 2 or 3 in total 🙄 still better than WLO, which closed down I believe near 2020, and in the past I used to get IAR from Rome too, sounding so similar to TAH, I wasn't really noticing any difference 😂 sadly they closed in 2010 or 2011 😢
Hi Arnie, thanks for your comment! Perhaps my radio is 1 kHz off, apparently this is an issue on some of the PL-680 radios. But, to be honest, most of the time the frequencies are spot-on, so these two might just have sounded better when tuned slightly off-frequency... I haven't heard any of these Chinese coastal radio channel markers, so this one from Guangzhou is a first for me. But the EiBi listing was a bit confusing, a viewer (also in Poland) pointed out that it was not Tianjin, as listed by EiBi, but Guangzhou.
What is the frequency for Istanbul Radio? I will try to catch that one. And I'll try for the other two Chinese ones also.
@@swlistening I'm sitting right next to my laptop w/ SDR running, plugged to my large loop (well, one of two I had last winter), so I decided to make a bit of a bandscan for these maritime markers:
I'll give all frequencies as center frequencies for the signal, tune down any amount to get whatever pitch you like in USB :)
8416.5 UDK Murmansk Radio SITOR-B/NAVTEX, very strong peaking S9+35dB
8419.5 v.weak carrier ??
8421.0 XSQ Guangzhou Radio almost peaking S9
8424.0 SVO Olympia Radio, dash & DE SVO in CW, S9+10
8425.5 XSG Shanghai Radio, only S7
8431.0 TAH Istanbul Radio, S9
8436.0 unknown FSK/RTTY, traffic a bit intermittent, peaking S8
Murmansk is just too strong at the moment to catch XSQ on 8417.5!
EDIT: after 2000z, a FAX signal has appeared on 8442.1 kHz USB, S9+10dB signal. must be another Murmansk, listed as RBW41.
Also:
4212.0 XSQ mixing w/ some weak tone
4215.0 XSG S9 in noise
4232.0 a spur of an FT8 signal :O
4560.0 there is another TAH, a bit out-of-band, S9+5
And on another band:
12610.0 ruZZian Navy CIS-36-50, S9+25dB
12613.0 XSQ S9 but sounds really healthy, low noise :)
12637.5 XSG S9
12648.5 XSQ S9+5dB
12654.0 TAH S5 only, skip zone 🤷♂
Finally 16 MHz, surprisingly not empty:
16880.0 XSQ S6 w/ QSB
Hope this helps :)
@@ArnieDXer Thank you so much Arnie, I've noted them all down and will monitor over the coming days. Will let you know how it goes!
Being slightly off-frequency especially in SSB is a common issue on PL-660/680. My 660 does it too. There is a recalibration procedure (easy to find here on RUclips) but I've never managed to effectively correct the small shift. Maybe it's just me.
@@F4LDT-Alain Thanks Alain. This is true, I have seen quite a few people refer to this issue. I am not 100% sure if mine is actually off-frequency in SSB mode. Most of the time it seems to be spot-on, with a few exceptions, like in this video. I will keep testing it though and see if I do need to try the recalibration.
Hello Andre. Very interesting receptions. I heard some digital signals prior to the cw. Have you ever decoded any digital modes or images/charts? Thank you! Randy-Illinois
Hi Randy, thanks! I haven't decoded any of these digital modes or charts yet, but it is something I would like to try.
i passed the earlier video on to s2 underground,i dunno, the world is a bit unhinged
Hi Craig, it is indeed... I think the link to the earlier video will not work anymore, I deleted it and uploaded this one. Pity it wasn't Kaliningrad, but I guess Tianjin is also a nice catch.
@@swlistening he is a very smart lad he will figure it out i am sure,almost like the movie on the beach
It's XSQ not XSV.
EiBi lists it as XSV?
@@swlistening You can just hear it. Last letter is --.- which is Q.
@@swlistening Yes it was XSV on this frequency but now as you hear it's XSQ.
@@oz_dxThanks. Then EiBi is incorrect.