Hundred twenty-second edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter

(Date: October 2007)

Utility roundup

Pirate beacons

News about US based stations:

The VA beacon frequency has changed from 4096 to 4193.6 kHz.
CO at 14000 kHz is off the air for a while. CO 8189.7 is back on the air 24/7
Another Colorado based pirate beacon, callsign "PA", can be heard on 4001 kHz. Power 100Mw, antenna end fed wire up 30 feet . It will be on from sun down to sun up.
Another new beacon "K" was reported on 29-10 on 7382.3 kHz. Power: 100MW
Halloween beacon "BOOO" could be heard on 3449.6 kHz
A brand new dasher beacon on 10247.5 kHz with 50-90mw into a dipole sitting on top of the earth.

Thanks for the info, Bill.

Unid Morse stations

Two unid morse stations were active on 6998.5 kHz on 1-10 / 1420 UTC, 4-10 / 1500 UTC and 28-10 / 1700 UTC. Transmissions may be quite long; badly keyed; no operational procedures ever heard. A second station acknowledges on 6998.5 and then both go silent after sk. These stations are sporadically busy since 2005. Looking at the messages, I think that they are from Eastern Europe.

Ideas anyone?

Samples:

= nesti = nepod = do = aa = nemed = gotow = prikaz = pska
= chchch .... = ZSL sk
= dd = gbunt = kurs = chuh = skor =
......... = ZNL? k sk

Several words are Russian, but they may be the same in other Slavic languages:

nesti = carry
gotow = ready
prizkaz = order
kurs = course