[CQ-Contest] 20 Meter Intruder?

Thu Jan 31 15:03:43 EST 2019

The underlying purpose of such an OTA network -- if that is what this is --
would be to replace the fiber optic network described by Michael Lewis in
"Flash Boys."  Which is an interesting read in its own right, no matter the
purpose of this signal.  Of course, anyone with even the most rudimentary
knowledge of spectrum use would never park just above 14.000 !

73, Dave K3ZJ

On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 2:33 PM K9MA <k9ma at sdellington.us> wrote:

> -------- Forwarded Message --------
> Subject:        Re: [SMC] Weird sigs lower edge of 20m
> Date:   Thu, 31 Jan 2019 10:47:29 -0600
> From:   Zack Widup <w9sz.zack at gmail.com>
> To:     Papadad <k7joe at yahoo.com>, SMC <smc at w9smc.com>
>
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>
> On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 9:54 AM Papadad via SMC <smc at w9smc.com
> <mailto:smc at w9smc.com>> wrote:
> Just a note from the ARRL published item back in June 2018 - See details
> on modulation types permitted with the experimental license:
>
>
>     Experiments Look to Leverage Low-Latency HF to Shave Microseconds
>     off Trade Times
>
> 06/20/2018
>
> Experimental operations now under way on HF appear aimed at leveraging
> low-latency HF propagation to shave microseconds from futures market
> trades and gain a competitive edge in a field where millionths of a
> second can mean winning or losing. /Bloomberg/ on June 18 *reported
> <
> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-18/hft-traders-dust-off-19th-century-tool-in-search-of-market-edge>*on
>
> a secretive antenna facility near Maple Park, in Kane County, Illinois,
> and speculated that futures traders might be looking to take advantage
> of lower-latency HF propagation over state-of-the-art microwave links
> and undersea cables, where even the slightest path delay could
> compromise a transaction. The facility is not far from a major futures
> data center. As the Bloomberg article explained, “Rapidly sending data
> from there to other important market centers can help the speediest
> traders profit from price differences for related assets. Those
> money-making opportunities often last only tiny fractions of a second.”
>
> Radio amateur Bob Van Valzah, KE9YQ, said in a May *blog post*
> <
> https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/shortwave-trading-part-i-the-west-chicago-tower-mystery/>
>
> that he recently stumbled onto the first evidence of HF radio futures
> trading at a site in West Chicago, Illinois. There, he spotted HF
> log-period dipole arrays on a pole, and a microwave dish he determined
> was aimed at a Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) data center. Additional
> research led him to the antenna facility in Maple Park, Illinois, which
> also sported a microwave dish that appeared aimed in the direction of
> the CME data center. Two approximately 170-foot towers on the site
> support a directional wire array for HF. Van Valzah is a performance
> engineer on leave from the high-frequency — no pun intended — trading
> field.
>
> /Bloomberg/ said the company behind the Kane County project is New Line
> Networks, LLC, a joint venture of Chicago-based Jump Trading, LLC, and
> New York-based Virtu Financial, Inc. While no FCC Part 5 Experimental
> license appears to have been assigned to New Line Networks, WH2XVO is
> assigned to partner Virtu Financial, which assumed the license from
> Services Development Company LLC.
>
> Sites listed on the license are Aurora and Chicago, Illinois, in
> addition to Homer, Alaska, and Secaucus, New Jersey — home to several
> financial firms and right across the Hudson River from many more in New
> York City. Part 5 Experimental license WI2XAJ has been assigned to
> Toggle Communications, which is using the West Chicago site and appears
> to be experimenting with a similar system from other sites. Other
> entities may also be conducting similar experiments.
>
> The Experimental licensed systems use a variety of frequency
> shift-keying modes, including FSK, AFSK, QPSK, and 8-PSK, on frequencies
> ranging from about 6 MHz to 24 MHz and power levels from 20 kW ERP to
> nearly 50 kW ERP, depending on the Experimental license in question. Van
> Valzah pointed out in his blog post that, while HF is low bandwidth,
> unreliable, and expensive, “you can’t beat it for latency.”
>
> Speculation is that the systems are taking advantage of software-defined
> radio (SDR) techniques and technology. Transmitter equipment information
> on the Experimental license application for WH2XVO was redacted from the
> public filing.
>
> ARRL reached out to the point of contact listed on the WH2XVO
> application but has not heard back. /-- Thanks to /Southgate Amateur
> Radio Ne/ws //for some information/
>
>
>
>
> On Wednesday, January 30, 2019, 6:00:11 PM EST, Papadad <k7joe at yahoo.com
> <mailto:k7joe at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
>
> Given the magnitude of the activity and proliferation of such, i would
> suspect there are more than one modulation 'type" that is driving more
> experiments (frequency, mode of modulation) for this use-case.
>
>
>
> On Wednesday, January 30, 2019, 5:46:03 PM EST, K9MA
> <k9ma at sdellington.us <mailto:k9ma at sdellington.us>> wrote:
>
>
> "They are short duration relatively narrow banded signals that sound
> like "time ticks" every 1 second, and hop around usually zero-beat on 5
> khz dial spacing's as observed on USB mode with a 1 khz offset ie 14294,
> 304, 309, 319, 324, etc etc."
>
> That's not what this one is, at all.
>
> 73,
> Scott K9MA
>
> On 1/30/2019 16:38, Papadad via SMC wrote:
>
> A few articles on the high frequency trading by wall street et al: Some
> good posts on QRZ: (one good one by John, W0PV) although some of these
> signals appear to be time ticks versus what was heard today. But worth
> some more query...
>
> https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/ham-radio-mentioned-prominently-in-high-frequency-trading-story.617581/
> FCC Part 5 Experimental licenses have been granted to many for HF use
> potentially for this application. Most of those have frequency
> allocations that avoid Part 97 Amateur Radio allocations. Searchable on
> the FCC ELS web site -
> https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/reports/GenericSearch.cfm At least one of
> the possible candidates not mentioned in this news article, M-WAVE
> NETWORKS LLC, has been granted a FCC Part 5 Experimental license, call
> sign WJ2XGD, that INCLUDES the entire amateur 20 meter band with 4.7 kW
> ERP. FCC Part 5 licenses granted so far WAIVE any station ID
> requirements. So determining the source of the Ham band intrusive
> signal(s) is difficult. Hopefully Hams in the Chicago area continue to
> monitor for these and if possible go mobile and RDF them for ID. The
> Part 5 licenses also include the boilerplate in Special Conditions (2)
> Licensee should be aware that other stations may be licensed on these
> frequencies and if any interference occurs, the licensee of this
> authorization will be subject to immediate shut down." Declaring these
> as QRM is of course a judgement call. But if these signals can be ID'ed,
> IMO perhaps the FCC and the experimenters should at least be notified of
> the potentially problematic situation of using the Ham bands. Of the
> three call signs, only WJ2XGD, M-WAVE, has official FCC GRANTED
> permission to use a Ham Band, 14-14.99 Mhz. And this article is quite
> good as well:
>
> https://sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/shortwave-trading-part-i-the-west-chicago-tower-mystery/comment-page-1/
> Log the times you're hearing the signals. I suspect that they will match
> various market-open trading windows across US and other market
> locations. Joe K7JOE
> +----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> On 1/30/2019 20:36, Bob Shohet, KQ2M wrote:
> > Hi Scott,
> > What makes you think that it is related to stock trading?  Can you
> > provide some examples of what the data says?
> > 73
> > Bob  KQ2M
> > *From:* K9MA <mailto:k9ma at sdellington.us>
> > *Sent:* Wednesday, January 30, 2019 3:40 PM
> > *To:* CQ Contest <mailto:cq-contest at contesting.com>
> > *Subject:* [CQ-Contest] 20 Meter Intruder?
> > Folks in the midwest US have noticed this very strong signal from 14.000
> > to 14.0035. Some kind of data, some thing related to stock trading. The
> > bearing is 90 degrees from EN53gb. It would be interesting to get some
> > bearings on it from further east. It's definitely not local, as QSB is
> > present. Judging from signal strength and time of day 20Z), I'd guess
> > east coast of the US.
> >
> > The bigger question is what is this doing in the 20 meter band? If it
> > was authorized by the FCC, have we lost our exclusive right to that band?
> >
> > It's fading out here at 2040Z.
> >
> >
> > 73,
> >
> > Scott K9MA
> >
> > --
> > Scott  K9MA
> >
> > k9ma at sdellington.us
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > CQ-Contest at contesting.com
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>
>
> --
> Scott  K9MA
>
> k9ma at sdellington.us
>
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