18 October 2015

UVB-76 on a new frequency?

This afternoon, when scanning (as usual) for Middle East activity which take action in the 5-12 MHz, I received a very familiar sound on 6.998 kHz.
That's right, it's "The Buzzer", or "UVB-76" or "MDZhB".
A quick check on Utility DX Forum confirmed that the sound belongs to The Buzzer and, most important, I am not the only one who received it!
As the tensions in the Middle East escalates, maybe it is useful to monitor the frequency as it is associated with a military network in the former USSR, now CIS/Russia.
I recommend to use a very sharp 2 kHz filter because the frequency is just near the 40m Amateur radio band so it is probable to hear some CW from above.

This is the "Original" UVB-76":


The "New" UVB-76:
 

05 September 2015

Strange Frequency Hopping

I reached my second location, outside the noise of the city.
Here, my SDR works beautifull and revealed me a whole new world of signals!
I saw a strange frequency hopping signal. On both, vertical and horizontal antennas the signal is strong suggesting it came from CIS because the signals from West Europe are stronger on the horizontal antenna than the vertical at this hour.

So, here are the pictures:


Does anyone have ideea about what is this?

19 July 2015

D1DNR-Pirate radio from pirate country

Today I catch on 20m band a strange callsign: D1DNR.
Searching a little on the internet I found that the operator is from so-called Donetsk Republic.
This is a teritory controlled by separatist armed groups. Basically, it's a region under control of a terrorist group (as defined by the administration of Ukraine).
Donetsk is recognised only by South Osetia, another terrorist/separatist region.
As a authorised ham operator, I remember that I cannot make QSO (radio contacts) with non-authorised stations!
And D1DNR falls into this category as the Donetsk "administration" is not recognised by ITU and IARU! Period!
For me, the callsign D1DNR is just another way for "Mother Russia" to seek legitimacy for it's terrorist activities using the radioamateurs.
So, every QSO with D1DNR and other "Donetsk Republic" stations is clearly a helping hand to separatists.
If you listen to the QSO's, you will find that many russian stations are happy to talk with this pirate station from the pirate Donetsk!

A little extras from Wikipedia about Donetsk Republic:

The entity was declared on 7 April 2014 by a group of armed and masked militants led by Russian Col. Igor Girkin[18] who at the time occupied the Regional Administration and the City Hall buildings in Donetsk.[19][20][21][22][23] Occupation of government buildings then spread to other cities in the region.

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