[CQ-Contest] The Old WoodPecker

[Zack Widup]

Yeah, the Mossad have many transmissions a day in their spy numbers system.
I listen to some of them at least once a week.

The British "Cherry Ripe" station which is supposedly transmitting from Guam
is still going. Maybe needed traffic dimished so the Lincolnshire Poacher
was deactivated for now.

Some spy numbers stations do make it into the ham bands but at obscure
times. I know several have been heard in the 75 meter phone band but they
are usually not hearable in the USA, mostly in Europe. There's been one
heard on 14002 also but I forget which one it was. But if I recall
correctly, the ones in the ham bands are Slavic in origin.

Not much we can do about these here; they are not transmissions from the USA
or by the US government, and it's not likely the countries behind them are
going to stop them. They're only once a week for 15 minutes or so anyway.
These "woodpeckers" cause far more QRM!

I always liked to hear the beacon clusters. They give me a propagation index
for 40 meters. There are many others in the 11 and 13 MHz range outside the
ham bands that serve as propagation indicators for me.

Is the "V" beacon on 7002 still active? I haven't heard that one in years.

73, Zack W9SZ


On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 10:45 PM, VR2BrettGraham <vr2bg at harts.org.hk> wrote:

> W9SZ responded:
>
> >Fascinating, Brett.
> >
> >Supposedly ZC4 was also the souirce of the shortwave spy numbers
> >transmissions from the station known as "the Lincolnshire Poacher." It
> >disappeared about a year ago and hasn't been heard since.
>
> Yes, Her Majesty gets up to all sorts of stuff in ZC4.  I think the
> 4Xs are still doing something similar.  Thankfully, that sort of stuff
> isn't in the ham bands (though we do have the Russian single-letter
> beacons around 7038-7039 kc).
>
> >When I was in grad school, the research station where I spent a lot of
> time
> >had a vertical incidence ionosonde. It swept from 3 to 30 MHz but was
> >programmed to skip the ham bands and WWV frequencies. But it was never on
> >one frequency very long, anyway. It swept that whole range in about 30
> >seconds.
> >Where was the original Russian Woodpecker of the 1970's located?
>
> UB5 & UA0C.
>
> 73, ex-VR2BG/p.
>
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