20M JT65 possible pirate

Over the past couple days I have seen several rare DX stations (primarily Africa) pop up for one or two QSO's then disappear. I suspect a pirate at work. If anyone reading this has any knowledge of operations from the following callsigns, please let me know.

TY3APD-Benin
SO1RZV-Western Sahara
9Q5XJB-Democratic Republic of Congo
8U6JQL-India
5S1VZR-Madagascar

I'm guessing it's a licensed operator because a kid or unlicensed operator would generally not have the knowledge of rare DX countries. In addition, none of the calls used have matches in QRZ.

73,
de N4AY

 

More strange activity today:
C81HQY
TU2BAN
6V8DLG
All between 2000 and 2300utc

 

WORK FIRST.... WORRY LATER!!!!

 

I saw some strange calls on JT65 last night, but didn't work anyone. I just don't have the patience for JT-65. U need to spend 4 or 5 minutes for a QSO, while on CW or SSB it would be only a few SECONDS!

 

Yes, 14.076. Watch pskreporter for the station to pop up. Saw 5L8MQN showing the same pattern...

 

Add 7Q1WMN to the list at 02:20utc.... and TJ2YHA at 0230utc. None of the pirate station transmissions have an actual grid square--he is using the generic grid for the country in all cases.

 

More today:
9H4ZXH heard by M0PZT @ 1648
D53KLG heard by OE1ACM @ 1734
EL8MHT heard by HB9ARI @2143
HP5FFQ heard by G1GIL @ 2215
6N3MZA heard by K7FET @ 2233

All 14.076 JT65

 

we got em all, maybe a issue with rig, XMITS so long and goes out. probably can't afford repairs.

 

Looks to me like **POSSIBLE** bad decodes. JT65-HF, if you're using that program, was known to throw out bad/erroneous decodes from time to time, especially on very weak or corrupted/distorted/spurious signals. They almost always "looked" valid, because that's what the JT65 logic is looking for. I believe it was something to do with the deep decoder and KVASD, but can't recall for certain.

73 de Dave
K3DCW

 

Pulease...!!! JT65 is a deceptively fast mode sure it takes 4 or 5 min to complete a qso but you can bang JT65 QSO's out one right after another... all day long..

For example Last month I made over 700 band unique JT65 qso's FROM 6 LAND and over 300 SSB QSO.. So far over 400 of the JT65 QSO's have confirmed Via EQSL.cc, while only a few dozen of the SSB contacts have confirmed.. This has put me 4 states away from 5 band WAS JT65 and only a few countries away from 4 band JT65 DXCC on 10,15,20 and 40

While a JT65 qso might take 4 min to complete unlike SSB you don't have to deal with hoards of Lids all trying to bust some huge pileup, most of whom are blatantly ignoring the DX code of Honor.

SO on phone unless you have a 70 foot tower and stacked mono banders with a gallon and a half at your disposal it just might require a few attempts and quite possibly a lot of time to get around that lid fest. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it cant be done because even with my humble station I still manage to bust the occasional pile up on the first or second call, of course that's probably more the exception rather then the rule.

But it sure takes a lot longer then busting a JT65 pile up where the playing field has been leveled and the complexity of setting up and operating the mode weeds out the vast majority of lids.

I guess that means I'm just the opposite of you because I just don't have the patients for phone on HF anymore, to many lids trying to sound like Rush Limbaugh.

 

JT65 is a weak signal mode and as the band opens up false decodes due to multiplexing of overlapping strong signals or harmonics from multiple stations running excessive power levels is starting to become more frequent ..

Unfortunately we are starting to see lids filter down from phone to JT65 who don't bother reading the documentation necessary to learn how to properly setup their stations. As a result we are starting see a lot of stations running excessive audio drive as well as excessive power levels. These improperly setup QRM machines can cause false decodes among other problems such as AGC pumping and harmonics which cause QRM to other qso's, Fortunately it's really easy to determine if you're dealing with a false decode or not.

Earlier today I decoded TR4ZVF at -21 whose apparent df was between two extremely strong and distorted signals. I already knew it was a false decode but to make sure I checked it.

The best method I've found to check for false decodes is to run them through http://hamspots.net/history/ and http://jt65.w6cqz.org/freceptions.html . As I suspected I was the only station on the planet who decoded TR4ZVF. Obviously it was a false decode..

On the other hand if these RB sites had shown TR4ZVF decoded by a bunch of stations that would have indicated it was a legitimate decode but not necessary a legitimate call sign. For that I run them through EQSL.cc. If they are registered as AG with EQSL.cc then they are legitimate. If they're not regestered with EQSL.cc or If they show up at QRZ.com and want 5 dollars cash for a QSL card I don't waste my time working them.

 

Dave I don't believe the popular program JT65-HF ever used the deep decoder. If I remember correctly only WSJT used it and mainly for moon bounce. Furthermore and correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe you have to manually turn on the deep decoder option in WSJT.

 

The selectable "deep decode" function was never included with either Multipsk or JT65-HF. When JT65x was first being used on HF, (prior to Multipsk support or the existence of JT65-HF), Joe Taylor strongly suggested that the "deep decode" not be used on HF; it was meant only for EME. It would not elicit corrupted decodes as the deep decode function within WSJT used a look-up of expected "real" calls. The worse would be a phantom (non-existent) decode of an actual call sign from the historical file of active calls.

False (garbage) decodes appear in all three software packages that support JT65x protocols. They are usually not frequent, are corrupted and a function of timing, noise, intermingled tones and/or distortion.

73,

Bill N9DSJ