Category Archives: Utility

Even More On Those Numbers Stations

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There is a continuing fascination among radio listeners about “numbers stations”. The “War Is Boring” blog carries an article on two in particular, “The Buzzer” and “Yosemite Sam”, who join the pantheon of mysterious broadcasters alongside “The Lincolnshire Poacher” and “Cherry Ripe”.

 

Radio Oddities Roundup

Remember those numbers and phonetics stations with their coded broadcasts, like the famous Lincolnshire Poacher from Akrotiri RAF base in Cyprus, etc? This You Tube clip will bring back some memories.

And there is more info on Wikipedia.

HAARP Shuts Down

“HAARP” the Alaskan-based High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project in Alaska has closed. The program was quite controversial, pumping huge amounts of RF energy into the ether and there was wild speculation that it was a form of weapon masquerading as scientific research.

When the project first commenced back in 1997, they offered QSL cards for the first transmissions.

English: HAARP antenna arrayEnglish: HAARP antenna array (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

Navtex DX

David Headland of Maheno (near Oamaru) has been dabbling in receiving Navtex signals. So, what are are they?

Navtex stations exist to provide shipping with weather and navigational information. They operate on 490kHz and 518kHz. Its a digital mode transmission and you’ll need some software. David recommends a program called “YAND” – Yet Another Navtex Decoder.

You’ll also need a receiver capable of picking up 490 & 518kHz and a cable from your receiver’s Line Out or headphone jack plugged into your PC’s sound card.