258.650

[brandon]

Last 12 hours or so there have been a lot of activity.
Vehicle 1, Vehicle 2, Hotel 6, Group 1, Group 2, Echo, Olden Base.

 

[whitenoise]

Thanks for update Brandon. Will turn on the CONUS system.

 

[blantonl]

I caught a brief voice exchange in English, followed by pirates that went active. Now just hearing sporadic 5KHz wide data bursts.

 

[whitenoise]

Yes, me too. The Mil station actually unknowingly responded to pirates as "calling station, you are weak and unreadable...." hah

The data bursts are secure voice comms.

 

[cjrjr507]

258.650 Mhz !!! Comm's in the clear

Last 12 hours or so there have been a lot of activity.
Vehicle 1, Vehicle 2, Hotel 6, Group 1, Group 2, Echo, Olden Base.

Hi
I'm have been hearing them this afternoon; 1500 hrs MST and they are not radio tests so far. call signs olden bay or base, foxtrot and echo. One of them said they were in a canyon. They said they would be on again at 1600 hrs; zulu I assume or 1600 hrs their time, where ever they are at. They have been chatting off and on in the clear. I heard radio checks at first then other stuff. Cool!

 

[cjrjr507]

Echo's location ?

Hi
I heard echo give a military grid location of 110 ME 242261 then later he gave 11 TME 318365 where ever those locations are at. Hmmmm

 

[blantonl]

There has been some ANDVT on the channel in addition to the clear comms and 5 KHz PSK data. And, couple that with the pirates who are running NFM comms - its a busy transponder today!

 

[70cutlass442]

Not to bring this thread to a screeching halt, but How would one go about listening to this? what equipment is needed? and why is it so easy for pirates to use it! Thanks.

 

[blantonl]

You'll need a receiver that can tune FM on 250-265 MHz, and an outdoor antenna to just barely get a signal. To get full signals you'll need a directional SATCOM antenna (Yagi, batwing etc) pointed at the satellite and tuned to 260 MHz and a preamp tuned to 260 MHz.

 

[whitenoise]

Lindsay, I must have missed the ANDVT, although i heard plenty of KY57/58 VINSON. I will check the recording.

cjrjr507, those grids are standard MGRS and resolve nicely on google earth. The first one listed is incomplete. This appears to be an exercise given non-secure voice and the resolved locations - but it is exciting to hear some non-pirates for a change.

 

[cjrjr507]

Hi all military listeners
Yeah, I'm just using an BCT15 with an old RS mobile scanner antenna stuck on the corner of my house roof with the coax hooked to an 50 - 900 mhz 12 db video preamp. Not the best setup but the signals come in ok but understandable. Echo, foxtrot and olden base are still on it yet. Last time I heard them the signal was getting crappy and very scratchy. Oh and the antenna is pointed to the north at about 45 degrees, give or take.

 

[whitenoise]

cjrjr507, i am not sure if you have omni or directional antenna but you want to point south not north. 45 degrees elevation is fine. And yes, you are doing great with your setup, i didn't mean to imply otherwise.

 

[cjrjr507]

antenna

cjrjr507, i am not sure if you have omni or directional antenna but you want to point south not north. 45 degrees elevation is fine. And yes, you are doing great with your setup, i didn't mean to imply otherwise.

Hi whitenoise
I'm just using an old RS mobile scanner antenna (omni-directional) stuck on the roof. I checked the degree angle, it's 60, not 45, ha!. I know the antenna is supposed to be pointed south but have it out my north facing bedroom window for now. Whatever works. Oh, just heard them again around 2000 hrs and they said they would be back on around 2100 hrs MDT , +/- 10 minutes or so. I wonder if they are in the US in the MDT zone. Could be the way they are talking times. And they were in a deep canyon earlier today, Colorado or maybe Utah ?

 

[cjrjr507]

Mgrs

Lindsay, I must have missed the ANDVT, although i heard plenty of KY57/58 VINSON. I will check the recording.

cjrjr507, those grids are standard MGRS and resolve nicely on google earth. The first one listed is incomplete. This appears to be an exercise given non-secure voice and the resolved locations - but it is exciting to hear some non-pirates for a change.

Hi Whitenoise
Yeah, that's all I heard from them on the coordinates. hmmmm

 

[cjrjr507]

Oh, The input frequency for 258.6500 mhz is 299.6500 mhz, so if someone could listen to that frequency maybe we could find out where it's coming from. If they are close to where they are transmitting from, heh heh.

 

[brandon]

When I plug that grid into Google it shows Northern Nevada. Whether it's accurate or not I have no idea since I don't know anything about MGRS.

 

[cjrjr507]

Ooh, Group 2 was just on talking to Olden Base and they said they were in the blind and all victors are up. Then they went silent.

 

[whitenoise]

Brandon, yes, that is what i got with Google Earth, two locations, both in the Nevada mountains. One was in a canyon..... pretty neat. Google Earth has a MGRS converter built in. They notation matches the definition of MGRS system and with 6 digits is accurate to 100m.... if you hear 8 or 10 digits (numbers portion) then its either 10m or 1m accuracy.

 

[mancow]

How do you input those previously posted figures into Google Earth?

 

[whitenoise]

Mancow

I use this link: Convert Coordinates