Multiple Beeping signals at 179 and 158khz

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CloudWilliam

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St. Thomas, Ontario
I've been hearing a steady beeping at 179khz. I have an HF rig at my bedside I use mostly for overnight AM broadcast listening. Lately since this new 630 meter band is getting active I'll give it a spin through the longwave band and also check out WWV and the lowfer band and whatever else I hear there.

Within the last week or so I've noticed slow beeping at or about 179khz. The pulse was slow like less than one pulse per second with a short duration pulse but long enough to sound as a pure beep. As opposed to a clicking sound that a shorter duration pulse would make. I've checked there several nights and it's always there at bedtime, 10:30 or so eastern time.

This morning when I woke up around 7 eastern I checked longwave and the slow beep was still there.
So I went straight to my ham shack to see if it's there on other radios and antennas. Sure enough the beep was still there PLUS I heard a second beep just starting up. I quickly went back to the bedside radio and it was hearing both beeps as well.

Soon the original beep stopped, leaving the new beep alone, and it's still here two hours later.

The new beep is within a few hertz of the original but the pulse rate is much faster. I've timed it and the fast beep is exactly 120 beeps per minute. Both beeps are of a completely pure musical quality CW tone, free of chirps or key clicks and they have none of the characteristics of the kind of filthy dirty noisy drifty tones, beeps and RTTY sounding crap you get from either local generated hash or distant spurious signals. So I'm fairly certain I'm hearing a legit on the air signal.

Now I've checked and I'm hearing it the same on three different radios and two antennas. So it's not an image or any other kind of ghost signal if I can hear it on three radios of dissimilar design. I hear it about the same on my 40 meter delta that is 150 feet from the house, 250 feet from the road as I do on my 80 meter loop that is right in back of the house. Normally any local spurs I get here you either can't hear or they are much weaker on the antenna that is further away from the house/powerlines/subdivision.

Now three hours later I've found a similar signal at 158 khz. This one is 82 beeps per minute. Now I don't know what to think. Either I am hearing some kind of spur I've never noticed before OR there is something new on longwave.

There's an ever so slight very slow flutter to these signals, sort of an occasional flat or sharp tone that would only be noticeable to the trained ear and while listening close to zero beat. Sounds like a propagational thing like the sort of "Pseudo Doppler" you can get from multi pathing. Like I'm hearing it ground wave but it's far enough out there is an occasional bit of sky-wave arriving out of tune. This is so subtle and only once in a while it may not be really there. It's like listening to any steady beat for long periods, you tend to imagine rhythms and tone changes that really aren't there.

I'm going to see if there's any way I can rig up something portable to see if I can hear it up the road a ways to rule out a local spur. I've got handhelds and portables here that cover longwave but nothing with a SSB setting or a BFO. This signal is weak enough I don't think I'm going to hear it without a big wire antenna and a SSB receiver. It is plain CW, there is no AM component, you can't hear it on AM other than the quieting effect, if it is strong enough that is.

Anyhow, is anyone else hearing these signals? At this point I think there's about an equal chance between other people are going to hear this stuff and it's something legit. Or maybe something that only I can hear in my local area but still legit. Or somebody is going to body slam my whole discovery here with the real dope on how it's some kind of a new spur coming from another piece of crap appliance hitting the market.

It is weak and just above the noise floor so unless somebody is closer to the source they just aren't going to hear it without a receiver/antenna combination that is capable on hearing the noise floor on longwave.

Gary
VA3HP
 
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WA8ZTZ

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Feb 23, 2014
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perhaps a LOWFER beacon???...
T-storms here right now but will give it a listen later.
 

CloudWilliam

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Joined
Dec 27, 2008
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Location
St. Thomas, Ontario
A lower would be an obvious possibility especially on account of the weak signals and being on the lowfer
band.

Any lowfers I've heard are running some sort of CW, slow CW, AM CW or digital mode beacon of some sort. I've never heard just a steady beeping on the lowfer band like this with no attempt to ID. Although I'm not an expert on lowfers.

This morning I listened for three hours steady and there was no ID or anything. Plus there's two different frequencies this is on and there was the first beeper seeming to be relived by the second beeper.

I just checked. Both beepers are there now at 4:28 eastern. Plus now I'm hearing something sending groups of three dits at 176khz. With this three dit sender sometimes one of the dits is off key from the rest.

I think these must be some kinda new spur I'm hearing. Either that or there is something new the lowfers or somebody else is playing with something new on longwave. If someone was secretly or surreptitiously testing out comm circuits on longwave this would be the way to do it.
 

WA8ZTZ

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Feb 23, 2014
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Storms have moved off to the east but a ton of static crashes on LW now. Don't hear any beeping on the freqs you mention but do hear what sounds like a continuous carrier on 179... hard to tell with all the static.
 

CloudWilliam

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Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
6
Location
St. Thomas, Ontario
BTW, my frequencies here are the zero beat frequencies so you'll need to tune either higher or lower depending whether you are listening on upper or lower sideband.

I just checked and I'm getting the beeper at 179 and the three dit groups sender at 176. I'm not hearing the 158khz beeper right now.
 
D

DaveNF2G

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Are these signals just "beeping" or are they Morse code?
 
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