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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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7th Jul 2020, 1:43 pm | #1 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Chatham, Kent, UK.
Posts: 965
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Numbers station on VHF.
Hi just heard a number station on vhf in fm modulation on 146.750mhz yaesu ft270rh / icom 706 radios . This had to be realy strong as rigs running on a 1/4 wave at 145 mhz on the ground , english female synth voice, strange Mick
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7th Jul 2020, 3:12 pm | #2 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
Posts: 2,150
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Re: Numbers station on VHF.
Not heard a number station for years now, didn't know they were still around.
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7th Jul 2020, 3:36 pm | #3 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,902
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Re: Numbers station on VHF.
Never heard of one on VHF.
There have been sporadic periods of Es living up to its name recently and other anomalous propagation modes. It might be from further afield than you'd guess. The whole purpose of numbers stations was that receivers covering shortwave broadcast bands would not be considered incriminating if spotted. Two metre radios are a lot thinner on the ground. Numbers stations pop up again when things in the world get turbulent. And nowadays people are starting to get paranoid that internet accessing of pages might be traceable. With all the hype and threats over who made what items of 5G infrastructure and what trapdoors might be coded into it, I'd rate the world paranoia level at government level, higher than it's been for a long time. So I'd not be too surprised to find a couple on HF, but VHF doesn't reliably do the amount of range needed to get from one bloc to another. I think there has to be a less cloak and dagger cause. Some sort of telemetry on a different band physically close enough to overload your receiver? Maybe some wag with a receiver on ATIS feeding it into an amateur radio transceiver. Makes a change from 'Squeakies' and 'Who's afraid of the DTI' in castrati pitch. David
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7th Jul 2020, 3:54 pm | #4 |
Octode
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Littlehampton, West Sussex, UK.
Posts: 1,465
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Re: Numbers station on VHF.
Retransmitting I would have thought is most likely along with the castrati voice over the repeaters that was so annoying in the 70s and 80s, not forgetting the Laughing policeman wireless society.
I’m assuming that with the lack of use of repeaters I hear about, the behaviour is better. Jim |
7th Jul 2020, 6:42 pm | #5 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 18,725
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Re: Numbers station on VHF.
I'd say it's just a pirate amusing his or her self with a recording.
A more sinister explanation than that is vanishngly unlikely. (IMHO).
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7th Jul 2020, 7:11 pm | #6 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 14,007
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Re: Numbers station on VHF.
Could it be some sort of odd intermodulation effect?
[I remember regularly hearing ITV-sound on a single-valve 1S5 regenerative receiver tuned to 208Metres during the daytime, while waiting for propagation to bring Radio Luxembourg out of the mush] |
11th Jul 2020, 7:07 am | #7 |
Hexode
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Ryde, Isle of Wight, UK.
Posts: 419
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Re: Numbers station on VHF.
Cant see the point of Number Stations on VHF, with the limited range, I tend to agree with Radio Wrangler, some wag retransmitting.
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11th Jul 2020, 10:48 am | #8 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Scratby, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 651
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Re: Numbers station on VHF.
Hi,
I take it that as a FT270RH was used, the frequency would be 145.750MHz. There are a number of Chinese satellites with the downlinks between 145.600and 145.800 MHz. I wonder if it was from one of these. Kind regards Dave |
11th Jul 2020, 11:39 am | #9 |
Nonode
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK.
Posts: 2,015
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Re: Numbers station on VHF.
OP said 1MHz higher 146.750MHz.
There used to be fixed links here for the Emergency Services. In London there was a lot of illegal use by embassies and such. The security staff would buy 2m rigs from the shops in Tottenham Court Road and just use them on some frequency where there was a gap. I have seen the numbers on the display but kept quiet about it! |