Friends: In coordination with the QRZ support team, this post reveals dual short video sample complements demonstrate the 25kHz & 100kHz HF RADAR sweeps use FMCW or ILFM (Interpulse Linear Frequency Modulation) modulation and are part of the CODAR (Coastal Ocean Dynamics Applications Radar) project by Don Barrick of the CODAR Ocean Sensor Company. They are used to obtain ocean wave and surface current monitoring using Bragg scatter. The SeaSonde sensors seen here are long range / mid range sensors (100 to 220kM / 20 to 60kM) operating from 4.3 to 5.4MHz / 11.5 to 14MHz and operate under 80w PEP per license. The Coastal Observing Research and Development Center has mapping and data related to these sensors if you are interested in seeing the coastal sensor data off the coasts. I was able to edit in one of the site CW ID’s, I bring this up only because it is a most impressive square wave 25kHz CW site IDer, you can use that or the site mentioned above to ID what you maybe hearing if you choose. I found the company to be very willing to help out, I had several email exchanged with Dr. Don Barrick prior to making these videos. Signatures will be posted in normal intervals as not to upset the variety balance of postings on the QRZ home page, most videos are posted on my youtube channel prior to QRZ for the above mentioned reason. Received using Apache Labs Anan 8000DLE Software Defined Radio nearly 1000 miles away! I also want to thank my friends in amateur radio K3DCW & N1SZ for their signature ID assistance as well; it has lead to a much better/complete presentation on nearly 10 videos! Enjoy, Tyler KA0KA
Post Edit note on the 100kC sweep video. In two segments you see a second signature approach, thanks to K3DCW and N1SZ for explaining that those are a different RADAR called the Navy AN/TPS-71. Most people believed those to be some form of CODAR they are not. That info was not known when the film was made therefore I wanted to give credit to both Dave and Jim for their help on that.
Nice videos Tyler. And congrats on making contact with the CODAR folks. I would encourage you to study up on radar terminology. You are jumbling and misusing terms which is confusing me and I'm experienced with radar. Example: Signature and signal are not interchangeable. A signal is what you see on your waterfall. Signature are the characteristics that define the signal, e.g Freq, Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF) or Pulse Repetition Rate (PRR), Pulse Width (PW), Bandwith, Modulation type, Modulation frequency, etc. These are terms you should become familiar width. Keep up the listening! SWL'ing remains a fascinating experience. bill
Thank you very much Bill, again one more thing I learn by posting these kind of topics, without doing so you are left to your own devices and most likely will encounter errors. You know more about these topics then I do, I have no background in this. I do try to do as much research as reasonably possible once I am told what a signal is, I think narrating that into the video makes a better presentation for sure. My videos get better moving on from these, as my technique improves and having Dave and Jim or even your self willing to help cross check my work makes all the difference! So I am greatfull to all 'your' expertise that will service our hobby better!!!
The days of every country having its own shortwave broadcast stations are ending. DSP (digital signal processing) techniques have enabled technologies which make use of that valuable HF spectrum, not for communication... but for Radar. 1.8 MHz to 30 MHz is now dominated by the powerful pulsating wide bandwidth signals of HF Radar. These high frequency radars consist primarily of military OTH (over the horizon) anti-stealth radar, ocean-vessel-sensing radar, and some oceanographic coastal sea wave radar. The number of countries and entities using HF radar continues to grow. Much of the spectrum that has been internationally allocated to Fixed, Land Mobile, Maritime, or Broadcast is now time-shared by HF radars (shared, as in taking it when they want it). The coast ocean wave (CODAR) radars are relatively low power, generally less than 100 Watts, with bandwidths of 30 kHz or less, and low-gain antennas. Some of the OTH radars are quite polite, they send very short somewhat-narrowband transmissions, and they hop around delicately to different frequencies where they sense gaps in between broadcasters or communication signals. But, some OTH radars are megawatts utilizing very strong pulse, frequency hopping, spread, or sweep emissions with 6 to 120 kHz bandwidths or more. These behemoths render whole swathes of spectrum unusable over a large area of the planet. We also see the military HF radars starting to appear more regularly in the international Amateur Radio Service bands, especially in the Shared, Secondary, or Co-Primary allocations: 1.9 MHz, 3.9 MHz, 7 MHz, 5.3 MHz, 10.1 MHz, 14.3 MHz, etc. Radars are making the HF spectrum increasingly hostile to analog communications modes. When a radar appears on a frequency, stations old technologies are rendered useless. Some of the more robust digital communication techniques can still work through HF Radar interference, but to a limited extent. A new age of HF is upon us. Here is a composite spectrum waterfall image from a few days ago, consisting of snips from 3 simultaneous online kiwiSDR receivers: Germany, California, Japan. It shows HF Radar covering the entire 60 metre band worldwide during evening and night hours. Details: The vertical waterfall speed is 1 pixel per second (total 5 minutes) The "haystacks" in the spectrum, and the sawtooth and horizontal line artifacts in the waterfall, are HF Radar signals. The continuous or interrupted vertical traces are mostly digital and SSB communications. In the Germany waterfall, you can see the FT8 botnet conglomerate signal at 5357~5360kHz, in the middle of the yellow ham 60 metre ITU band. The California waterfall has yellow markings for the USA/Canada 5 MHz channels (5330.5/5346.5/5371.5/5403.5kHz) and the ham 60 metre ITU band (5351.5~5366.5kHz). Note: It should be noted that the Amateur Radio Service is a Secondary allocation in 60 metres, and "must accept any interference" from Primary allocated services.
11 CODAR signals in the 4 MHz frequency range, shown in this spectrum image, received a few minutes ago here in California. The CODAR signals show as sawtooth diagonal lines on this waterfall display. Current HF coastal wave radar frequency list on the Coastal Observing Research and Development Center website "HFRadar Network (HFRNet) is being developed to manage and distribute in near-realtime ocean surface currents measured by a distributed network of shore-based HF radar systems. HFRNet provides reliable data telemetry, archiving, and integrated processing for a growing list of near real-time products in a scaleable manner for a growing user community supported by the Integrated Ocean Observing System." Participating Organizations: 29 Number of Physical Sites: 181 Integrated Ocean Observing System In cooperation with Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). HF ocean wave radars: BY FREQUENCY MHz - STATION ID Long Range: 4.350 - FARO 4.350 - MABO 4.451 - MBNP 4.451 - SSDE 4.451 - RLVR 4.451 - PINS 4.451 - ANWR 4.454 - MVCO 4.454 - NANT 4.476 - DCLR 4.488 - NAUS 4.513 - HEMP 4.513 - AMAG 4.513 - MRCH 4.513 - PYFC 4.537 - CORE 4.537 - DUCK 4.537 - LISL 4.543 - HBSP 4.550 - BIGC 4.550 - PILR 4.550 - RAGG 4.551 - SIMP 4.575 - BLCK 4.575 - HATY 4.575 - ASSA 4.575 - CEDR 4.580 - OBSP 4.600 - HOOK 4.620 - PSLR 4.647 - SDSL 4.750 - PBRW 4.750 - SGRV 4.778 - LOVE 4.778 - WILD 4.778 - BRIG 4.785 - PAFS 4.785 - TRIN 4.785 - SHEL 4.785 - BMLR 4.785 - BRAG 4.785 - WIN1 4.785 - CBL1 4.785 - LOO1 4.785 - YHL1 4.785 - PSG1 4.785 - MAN1 4.800 - WAIN 4.800 - AGL1 4.812 - CLMH 4.820 - CSTM 4.820 - GRNI 4.820 - SCOV 4.820 - GMNB 4.900 - NAPL 4.900 - RDSR 4.900 - VENI 5.235 - SDSC Screen capture of the CODAR website showing an HF oceanic wave radar site in California: A screen capture of the coastal wave radar map: CALIFORNIA-OREGON. Medium Range MHz: 8.225 - ERE 8.275 - BSQ 8.375 - CSW 8.375 - GTN 8.392 - CAT 8.395 - JEK 11.100 - SAU 12.145 - GCYN 12.147 - WSH1 12.150 - FBK1 12.157 - BML1 12.157 - SLID 12.157 - STV2 12.190 - MONT 12.190 - COMM 12.200 - RFG1 12.233 - WLD2 12.247 - SEA1 12.639 - VEN 12.653 - FDS 12.700 - VIR 12.700 - STF 13.428 - SDUT 13.439 - SCI1 13.440 - COP1 13.440 - SNI1 13.440 - NIC1 13.443 - YHS2 13.450 - MGS1 13.450 - HAUL 13.450 - HILL 13.450 - BRAD 13.450 - BRNT 13.450 - BRMR 13.450 - RATH 13.450 - WOOD 13.450 - PTC1 13.450 - FURA 13.450 - SPRK 13.450 - CDDO 13.450 - SEAB 13.450 - PREY 13.467 - PPNS 13.500 - ARG1 13.500 - DCSR 13.500 - LUIS 13.500 - ESTR 13.500 - KAP 13.500 - SCRZ 13.500 - PTWN 13.500 - SSD1 13.500 - LPWR 13.525 - FORT 13.533 - GCVE 13.555 - PTM1 16.046 - KAL 16.050 - NKL 16.050 - CDN 16.200 - KOK 16.200 - KKH 16.275 - KNA Short Range MHz: 24.100 - PBON 24.400 - SDCI 24.400 - VRID 24.400 - VCOL 24.400 - OLDB 24.500 - NPGS 24.500 - VIL 24.700 - SCDH 24.799 - SDPL 24.800 - SILD 24.800 - CMPT 25.100 - SCNB 25.100 - SCCI 25.250 - HLPN 25.300 - GCAP 25.400 - SCPF 25.400 - SCDB 25.400 - VGPT 25.400 - VIEW 25.400 - PORT 25.400 - MLML 25.400 - VION 25.400 - SISL 25.400 - SDDP 25.400 - SDWW 25.400 - SQUB 25.400 - VDIG 25.450 - NWTP 25.600 - MNTK 25.600 - BISL 25.600 - SDSE 25.600 - PCYC 25.600 - MISQ 25.600 - SUNS 25.600 - METS 25.800 - SDBP 25.800 - SDCP 25.800 - CAPE 25.900 - SCTB 26.190 - STLI 26.310 - VATK 26.310 - PPK 26.330 - CON 27.270 - QTA 27.300 - KAK V. Short Range MHz: 40.750 - RTC1 40.750 - SAUS 40.750 - CRIS 40.750 - ANGL 43.685 - EXPL
Bonnie always great to read what you post here & this posting is very interesting ! I still take time out from working Satellites & DXing to tune the SW bands & it is always a surprise when I hear something new & strange ! you never no whats out there until you tune around ! thanks for the CW IDs . As always please keep up the great work you do 73 to you Bonnie keep the INFO coming ! Phil KI6PMD..
Just think, at the time that these samples are being recorded we are in a Solar Minimum, I do not see anything above 18MHz at the moment from OTHR. I can not wait to see what happens in say, 5 years when things start to open up. I think making an effort to talk about these signals/videos publicly will aid in knowing just what it is we all maybe hearing, or seeing! It has been really educational for me personally.
This is quite amazing. I have seen signals like these quite frequently, and assumed they were some kind of local interference (switching supply, or something similar). Finding out that they are actually HF radar signals is really concerning, as past history (like the Russian "woodpecker") shows that governments have no problem running roughshod over amateur radio operation. Also, I expect that there is really nothing we can do about it.
Thank you for starting this thread. I've seen these signals just above 75 meters since I got my first RTL-SDR dongle, and wondered what they were. Regards, Ken
Here is a good example of an HF Radar that was transmitting on several frequencies in the 20 meter ham band today at about 2330 UTC. It transmitted at about 50 second intervals, with a few seconds duration of signal. 10 kHz bandwidth. 14282 kHz 14305 kHz 14201 kHz And other frequencies. It transmitted several times on each frequency, then moved to the next. It is probably not a scientific CODAR or Seasonde oceanic research radar The appearance on the waterfall is affected by the scan rate and total bandwidth of the waterfall receiver. It usually appears sawtooth-like when viewed at the widest span of the spectrum.
Bonnie: It sounds like you are very interested like I am on these signals, I think below may describe your findings, both are very frequency agile, the JORN 'sample' is mono-stable but typically bounces around just like the AN/TPS-71 does. In the videos, there are specific notes on what you can look for to ID each. Mainly, AN/TPS-71 ops in 8 and 16kHz 'most' of the time, but I have seen it at 50/100kHz with short bursts. JORN at times has about a 10kHz FMCW sweep. There are several other programs as well, with the help of N1SZ and K3DCW I was able to put and ID to and will be posting to youtube, I could re-post these on QRZ in a few weeks as well as only a few people scroll though the comment sections and may have questions like you and me. Enjoy-
