Mysterious signals from West Africa on 28 MHz

could it be?

 

K4XJ, over the horizon radar has made a very strong comeback over the last decade. IARU-R1 QRM monitors frequently pick up OTH radars on 10m, most likely Soviet-style equipment used by former Soviet Empire countries and places affiliated with but not officially part of the USSR. Iran in particular makes heavy use of old Soviet radio equipment-in the mid-2000s I noticed them using a bubble jammer to jam BBC Farsi, and they also seem to use Soviet Woodpecker OTH radars. It's possible that the Putin govt makes use of woodpecker OTH radars located in the former Soviet Republics. Putin isn't making the mistake that Brezhnev did with Duga-3 where most of Europe was hearing the woodpecker on landline telephones (among other places it shouldn't have been) because the Duga installation was far too powerful. Few hams use 10m nowadays and the Putin govt has realized that OTH radar can be as effective without the megablast signal that Duga-3 had, so they limit the current radars to 10m and the only ones who care are the IARU. A 60m Russian OTH is very likely-another area where nobody notices or cares.

 

Well that may be, but this is the first time I have heard them since the 1990's

 

Monitoring 27.385 LSB and 27.165 AM are two of the many great tools when looking for a 10m opening in your region. And vy good on 29 MHz AM.. During openings I call cq right near 29.02 MHz. 73, Eric

 

"...most hams..." might not be using that part of the band.. But us 10m die-hard fans are. 73, Eric (n6spp/b, 28.2179 MHz,cm96dm)

 

Go easy on 60m.. As an active 60m operator since week one (about 17 yrs now).. I care

 

A Used Ham Shackapotty

 

If more folks would do something similar then we might have more activity on 10. About 12 years ago a friend had given me an old CB antenna.."CLR II" I think. At first I though about scavenging it for parts when it dawned on me this would make a great 10 m antenna and it does, LOL! It's pretty much flat between 28.300 and 28.500 and still low swr from there up into 29.000 portion of the band. I could use this antenna for a lot of things.

 

Hi Jason KE0TNL- Shoot me an email.. I have a short "cw characters/tips" pdf for you, if you'd like. 73,Eric

 

I HAVEN'T HEARD ANY ACTIVITY ON 10 METERS IN SO LONG, I THOUGHT IT WAS A NONE AMATEUR BAND ALREADY...

 

That's odd lol I've been using it all weekend and made many voice contacts on there, including the route 66 special event call W6H. I'm hearing activity on there right now on 28.400.

 

YES , Don't be a SCOPE HEAD! Quit watching your rigs scope and call CQ once in a while. Everybody watches their scope waiting for a signal. You could extend your scope to see the beacon part of the 10m band or just go there (28.180(??) to 28.300 Listen for a beacon. If you hear one from PA, you know the band is open to PA. Hear one from TX, it's open to TX!. Of course you need to know cw or have a piece of software that will decode CW for you. Most beacons are running anything from 1/2 watt to 10 watts. If you hear one chances are you will be heard running 100 watts. A few weeks ago I searched the beacons to see what was there and found one in Canada. near Maine. I swung my Quagi around and pointed it at Maine. Walla! Had five qso's that nite, all from Maine. The next night I heard a Manitoba Canada beacon and had several QSO's to some Midwestern states and Manitoba. Beacons really help. If you hear one, send em a QSL or email to the op with your QTH, signal report, date, and time you heard their beacon. Beacon ops like to hear who's getting their signal too!

Back to the signal from Africa........... Funny to hear this, I just worked an op from Gabon. We were on 80 meters using FT8. His call started with TR8. I will be listening on 28.2506 for the "dots" to see what I can hear!

Don't forget to check out Ten-Ten International ! Lot's of 10 meter info there.
73
de 10-10 35510
Jim