along, long time ago in a land called oz..........

[kmi8dy]

when i first started listening to short wave radio, in erneste i remember coming across a transmission called,NAWS, (notice to all allied war ships). it was a continuous endless loop, transmitting 24/7/36 in voice of the info being transmitted was bad weather, dangerous situations ie: pirates, weapons testing, threats of violence, ect, ect, ect. after each statement the recording would give lat and lon. i dont remember the frequencies or bands that i found them. ive been looking for the transmission for a couple years now but cant find.i thought i would put a call out there to some other old codgers like me that would/ could remember these broadcasts.

 

[bharvey2]

While I have no knowledge of the message that you mentioned, if you have an HF rig you could try monitoring 14.300 USB. They have maritime nets on that frequency and perhaps someone there may know if it still exists.

 

[kmi8dy]

bharvy2,
i forgot to mention that it was early 70's to late 80's, when i used to hear them. i think that they originated from nato but were broadcast in the clear so that commercial / private shipping could hear and be aware of any threats. i did hear several good warnings about somalia pirates and n korean weopens testings.

thanks for the info,

kmi8dy

 

[bharvey2]

That sounds like it would have been interesting listening. I've been "playing radio" for that long but have never heard what you describe. Although I have to admit to a number of long, dry spells. I'll bet it still exists in some form or another. Perhaps it's moved to a digital mode?

 

[ka3jjz]

NAWS did indeed move to digital - if you do a quick sweep of the UDXF logs, you will find them being broadcast in both 75 baud Baudot and Stanag4285

Stanag4285 is a mode covered by several packages (when it's unencrypted, of course). See the link for more

Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

You can find some additional information on this mode on the UDXF website, viz...

Transmission Modes

Mike

 

[bharvey2]

I've been lagging in getting my new HF radio connected to a computer. It looks like I have an incentive now to do it and go find some software for decoding the digital modes. *Sigh*, a radio nerd's work is never done.....

 

[ka3jjz]

Take a look at this, and also check out the links to digital decoding software in my sig - you'll get a pretty decent idea of what's out there...

DXing Digital Utilities - The RadioReference Wiki

Are all the digital modes covered? Heck no - there are more being discovered and still not cataloged and analyzed.

Mike