Tuesday, September 14, 2004

"Intruder Signal"

Interesting news about a mystery radio signal:
"'Intruder Signal' on 40 Meters Remains a Mystery for Now

NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 9, 2004--An unidentified signal that's been showing up on the 40-meter phone band on or about 7238 kHz has mystified amateurs in the western US and Canada, where it's been heard frequently for the past few weeks. Although it resembles a steady carrier, a closer inspection suggests that the intruding signal actually is a series of closely spaced signals. Don Moman, VE6JY, in Edmonton, Alberta, says he's been hearing the signal quite loud at his QTH.

"This signal looks a lot more interesting than it would sound--just a broad tone/hum/buzz, depending on where you tune," he said. One spectrogram from VE6JY showed perhaps a half-dozen or more discrete signals. "It's certainly loud enough out here, peaking broadly south-southwest from Edmonton," he said. Moman was using a 5-element Yagi and was hearing the signal at 10 dB over S9.
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A September 9 spectrogram of the 40-meter 'intruder' signal from VE6JY.
Very interesting. I've had a ham radio since I got my first license at age 11 (KA5YSW is my call sign), but haven't used it much in recent years. I'll have to buy some wire to make a new dipole antenna (my old antenna got blown away by the wind) so that I can hear this signal for myself.

4 Comments:

Blogger The Driver said...

Stuart - For those of us who aren't radio guys, you need to explain a little more - what makes this particularly noteworthy?

8:53 PM  
Blogger Stuart Buck said...

It just seems that they're picking up a radio signal that no one can explain.

10:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Stuart, is the supposition that this is military chatter that must remain anonymous?

11:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Possible signal sources:

1. A malfunctioning air conditioner motor in AZ is broadcasting through coincidentally perfectly cut house wiring.

2. Kids in Prescott playing with an old diathermy machine found in the city dump.

3. SooperSekrit Area 51 experiment has gone tragically wrong.

4. A ham's pet chimp got loose in the house over the weekend.

5. The Matrix is real!

6. Plan 9 From Outer Space is under way.

7. The Tinfoil Hat Monopoly is initiating a new advertising campaign.

8. It's a trailer for the new release of "War of the Worlds".

9. CBS is creating a diversion for Dan Rather.

10. The message is "All your base are belong to us!"

But it's probably much more mundane.

12:21 PM  

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