Who is it...

[majoco]

I think it may be fishing boats having a secret message session. Caught them a couple of afternoons ago but not on a receiver that I can record. Got them this afternoon on the G33. I only posted a sample....

https://soundcloud.com/majoco21/rec-8935mhz-15-04-06-050302

....but they went on for about ten minutes - most of them said "Goodnight" or similar at the end of their piece.
8935kHz LSB 0500z/1700local about S3 to 5 in the local noise - a series of two-letter groups repeated - there didn't appear to be a 'control' station so they must be in a pre-arranged order. LSB suggests to me that they are using ham rigs. 0500z is about 1000local on the West Coast of the US from California up to Vancouver and beyond. Must be only low power as Andrews was booming in on 8992kHz.

Anybody any ideas....?

 

[SCPD]

http://forums.radioreference.com/utility-listening/215916-8935khz-lsb.html

 

[majoco]

Thanks, Nick, I should have Googled!

 

[greedo24]

If indeed they are fishermen, I would venture a guess that they are passing coordinates to each other for hot fishing areas. This assumes that they are all members of the same conglomerate. Individual owner/operators would never share info with each other. That's my guess.

Greedo

 

[marcotor]

Coming from a family full of commercial fisherman, I can say at least on the West Coast, individual owner/operators share information with each other all the time on where the fish are. Some might hold a little back, but for the most part they are pretty tight knit and look out for each other.

 

[brandon]

It's definitely an organized operation. I have been hearing the 8935 guys for years now with same format.

They also used to run a voice scrambler several years back. Here is a recording of it: solarix.net · 8935 Scrambled Message?