Morse code on SW, or alien invasion?

[David G4EBT]

If it's at the weekend, and there are lots of Morse signals, you can be fairly sure it's a contest (otherwise known as 'QRM').

Apart from 'CQ' the syllable 'test' (short for contest), has a distinctive rhythm: 'dah dit di-di-dit dah' you'll hear lots of 'di-di-di-di-dit dah-dit dah-dit' ('5 N N'). Morse signal reports are based on readability (up to 5) strength (up to 5) and tone up to 9). '5 N N' means maximum readability, maximum and top marks for tone. It's nonsense as a true signal report - it just confirms that the other operator has heard you and you're in his contest log. (There will also be a number after 5NN to signify how far down the other operators log you are.

(The sample of Morse includes CQ Test and 5NN).

[KW2000A]

Bill,depending on the years(!) the buzzer could well have been the Soviet DUGA-3 over the horizon radar situated near Chernobyl. This was a confounded nuisance on the amateur bands since it totally disregarded the ITU band allocations. Lots of information on the internet.
Regards...Phil ( G3YWP)

[G3VKM_Roger]

There's a lot of the Morse heard on the ham bands these days that is machine generated (MGM), that is by computer. I suspect that a lot of the really high speed traffic (as in the recording) is also read by computer. Some "real" CW users seem very anti MGM!

73

Roger

[AC/HL]

Originally Posted by KW2000A

Bill,depending on the years(!)

Early 60s perhaps

[turretslug]

Originally Posted by AC/HL

One signal that always puzzled me sounded like a buzzer down a very long corridor, usually with a bit of fading, presumably some sort of machine generated signal?

Could that have been fax (facsimile) transmission? I recall that there was quite a lot of what sounded a bit like a coffee grinder in distress, sometimes with a hint of cyclic nature, spread around the non-broadcast/amateur allocations. I assumed that that was some sort of crude picture-scan transmission, though I never had it confirmed.

[SiriusHardware]

Why would aliens use morse code?

To answer in the spirit of the thread title, it might be rather cunning of them to communicate openly using a communications mode which sounds like human (not alien) activity but is nevertheless understood by hardly any of the human population. Almost everyone knows what morse is and can recognise it, but very few can actually read it.

This is roughly similar to the way the US used Native American speakers as radio operators, transmitting messages which could be heard by anyone and understood by almost no-one.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by AC/HL

I can remember listening to short wave on the Family's Ekco A28 as a youngster. Plenty of activity then, although my Morse is limited to SOS, which I never heard of course. One signal that always puzzled me sounded like a buzzer down a very long corridor, usually with a bit of fading, presumably some sort of machine generated signal?

Possibly UVB-76 ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76

[AC/HL]

Far too modern, facsimile or Mufax seems the most likely.

[ms660]

I remember this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXV4nTfGHuI

Lawrence.

[boxdoctor]

Originally posted by AC/HL
"One signal that always puzzled me sounded like a buzzer down a very long corridor, usually with a bit of fading, presumably some sort of machine generated signal?"

If you mean a sound like wind being blown across the end of a long drainpipe, I often heard that in the 50s/60s, but never was sure what it was. Possibly a faximile transmission of some kind. There were lots of them at the time. Often they would drone on for many minutes.
The system seemed to be quite abruptly dispensed with in about 1970. Tony.

[Ian - G4JQT]

There really is a signal called The Buzzer (aka UBV76) from Russia on 4625 kHz USB heard throughout the UK after dusk. There are plenty of YouTube videos demonstrating it.

There is also the Squeaky Wheel (4328/5473kHz) and The Pip (3756/3771 - night time; 5448/6913/6922/7056/7126 - daytime).

Lots of other weird stuff listed at https://priyom.org/

[AC/HL]

Originally Posted by boxdoctor

If you mean a sound like wind being blown across the end of a long drainpipe, I often heard that in the 50s/60s, but never was sure what it was.

Quite probably, it was a long time ago!