oddities

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252.150 November Alpha 12345

September 22, 2023 in satcom | No comments

The past few days I have logged an accented station testing voice and DTMF tones on 252.150 and 251.850 MHz. Here is a brief recording. The operator sounds like he is identifying as “November Alpha 12345” along with some Brazilian stations mixed in – unknown if related.

Same individual was also noted using voice inversion on 251.850 MHz. Here is a recording of the voice inversion, along with the recovered audio.

Here is the scrambled traffic noted on 251.850 MHz.

Recovered audio from the transmission above. Definitely sounds like the same guy as 252.150 MHz.

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Pirates Rebroadcasting Ham Radio Comms

April 26, 2023 in satcom | 2 comments

I recently heard some ham traffic being relayed by pirates on UHF SATCOM (263.675) – Someone was rebroadcasting: “CQ CQ CQ Parks on the Air KE8WLW in K-6803” which sounded like it was coming from HF SSB. A quick Google Search found that Parks on the Air (POTA) is a program that encourages amateur radio operators to get outdoors and operate from state and national parks. The park identifier “K-6803” is Vestaburg State Game Land according to the POTA website. Obviously these hams probably don’t realize pirates are rebroadcasting their traffic across US military satellites. As to why they would retransmit ham radio comms is a total mystery to me and quite strange. In addition, there was a lot of the other usual shenanigans, whistling and inappropriate noises being transmitted on the frequency. Here is a recording of the intercept. Caution: Use headphones if in public setting otherwise you might get strange looks from those around you. The ham stuff starts around the 1:55 marker.

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Spanish Speakers on UHF Satcom Voice

April 20, 2023 in satcom | No comments

I have logged more Spanish speaking stations over the past few days on UHF SATCOM. Just like the traffic on 258.650 from a couple weeks ago, I really don’t get the vibe that these are typical pirates. Today the stations were testing in both Spanish and English. Here are recordings of the recently logged traffic.

265.550: Stations w/ test counts, “hola hola hola holas” and asking “me copia?” – it sounds as if they were giving each other signal reports.

267.050: Person whispering into the radio. This was logged in the middle of the night. I cannot make out what they were saying except maybe “tienes tienes cuatro” (you have 4?) between the encoded traffic.

261.775: Test counts and radio checks in both Spanish and English.

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261.575 Repeating Messages

January 14, 2021 in satcom | 2 comments

From the archives: 261.575 CONUS satcom with an unknown male voice repeating, “Things did not improve to the house…I suppose you added the time…Take him to the hospital wing” and “Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it…A smarter hat than me…It happened very suddenly”. Same voice also reciting “ABCDEFGHIMN” phonetically and counting “1234567890” over and over. This activity went on for a good period of time.

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268.350 Oddity

July 19, 2016 in satcom | No comments

Strange happenings on 268.350. Distorted sounding voice. Russian?

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256.950 Russian Pirates?

September 11, 2015 in satcom | 1 comment

Lately I have been hearing Russian traffic on 256.950 and a few other freqs.

Occasional test counts and lots of “priyoms” and some broken English. 

This time I thought it sounded like a Chinese station on 256.950?

Continuing to hear activity just about every day now. Here is some broken sounding English from the station.

I also heard the same guy on 263.625.

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Music on Pacific Satcom

June 8, 2015 in satcom | No comments

Open microphones with music playing was heard over the Pacific satcom.

253.650 was active with Chinese or east Asian sounding karaoke music.

257.050 open carrier and music playing in background.

262.275 Occasional music. Have logged Russian pirates here in the past.

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258.450 Unknown Music

March 27, 2015 in satcom | 1 comment

Music being transmitted via the Pacific Ocean satellite on 258.450.  

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251.275 Odd Spanish Message

September 30, 2014 in satcom | No comments

Received a strange message in Spanish on 251.275 MHz coming from an unknown satellite in the CONUS slot.

I was told by henrygb on RadioReference.com forums that the message says:

Hi, I’m Julio Domingo , I want to share good news for Argentina, I want to report that the Chamber of Deputies of the nation which I reside approved local law sovereign payments sent by President Cristina Fernandez of Kitchner.

I guess we’ll mark this one in the oddball column of the log.

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262.125 Dirka Dirka Mohammed Jihad

December 12, 2013 in satcom | 3 comments

LOL! Some guy just let out a “Dirka Dirka” to the Brazilian satcom pirates on 262.125 MHz.

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