ridgescan
Member
Transmissions from "Gulf Foxtrot" and "Sierra" regarding "Star Wars Mission" at 0536UTC on 5775.40kHz USB. Anyone know what this is? "Lima" and India" also heard at 0556.
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Thanks for the reply Martin-these were definitely American voices in response to what I think I follow what you have there; I was tuning down off the SW broadcast band in AM when I stumbled upon the garbled voices and switched to USB to zero down. There were no "stepdown hets" (don't know how else to call it) I would get with an AM carrier at all. These guys were doing image transmissions on computers to each other for about a half hour, then they did a "roll call" at the end then went off. It "felt" to me to be possibly some 3-letter guys more than military but I am just guessing based upon the MIL I have heard before.Hmmm - Ridgy, is that the 'carrier' frequency, or the centre of the USB - miltary sometimes use the USB "channel" frequency, not the suppressed carrier frequency. I say this because the Russkis have a station at Riga (Ukraine?) on 5774kHz which would give somewhere around 5775.40 for the 'channel'. It was quite a strong signal back when I lived in the UK and I see it's still listed under 5774kHz.
See....
NSNL 144 - Military stations
Since you and I are sort of in the same "earshot" of stuff I guess that would qualify Airboss's having pegged this as a Pacific operation. Strong here too at s7-s9.Coming in loud and clear in Reno at 06:00 UTC.
Seems to me they go at it for up to an hour Martin. You should get them pretty good from there.I'll have a listen tomorrow - frequency may be a bit low though for me - how long does their transmission go on for?
Mike, damn good call! You do know your stuff.This is undoubtedly a military exercise...and the 1 and 2 name callsigns would suggest USN, I think...Mike
Much thanks for that very generous "rest of the story" you gave to all of us and the gracious invite to your site Airboss! I have a lot to learn about what I am hearing when I twirl the dials and your site will be a huge help.You have found a US Navy Composite Warfare Command HF net. These are usually associated with Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) and Amphibious Readiness Groups (ARG). Most of the participants that are steaming with the carrier or head gator freighter (aka players) will use single letter identifiers. The net control station will always use a two letter identifier. The first letter will identify the group itself. For instance, in recent times GF has been associated with the USS George H.W. Bush CSG. The second letter will identify the type of net. In this case the F is usually associated with the CSG/ARG Force Track Coordinator (Link-11/Link-16) net. Usually on HF the most common nets are the Letter-F (Force Track Coordinator (Link-11/Link-16), Letter-C (Helicopter Element Coordinator (HEC)), and Letter-H (Air Warfare Commander (AWC). There are many of these nets and most occupy the UHF Milair and even milsat radio spectrum. The HF nets can normally be found using the HF aero off route frequencies and in conventional fixed/mobile portions of the HF spectrum. Yours is a bit unusual in frequency choice because it is in the SWBC portion of the HF spectrum. That sort of freq choice has normally in the past been associated with a CSG/ARG that were deployed outside US coastal waters. The USS Bush is deployed to the 6th Fleet AOR (eastern Atlantic) right now in an exercise around the UK. They have used the GF identifier when they were doing their pre-deployment work ups here off the east coast. But 5775.4 kHz would be a big stretch to your location on the west coast. So we are probably dealing with a west coast deployment USS Nimitz is in the 5th Fleet AOR (Persian Gulf), USS Eisenhower in off east coast doing carrier quals, USS Carl Vinson is off west coast doing carrier quals, USS Roosevelt is at sea off SoCal doing pre-deployment work ups (COMPTUEX/JTFEX), USS Reagan is in the 7th Fleet AOR (South China Sea), For the ARG's USS America is underway on its maiden voyage, USS Bataan is in the 5th Fleet AOR Persian Gulf and the USS Bonhomme Richard is in the 7th Fleet. Based on all that my best guess is either the Roosevelt, Vinson or the Ike, with a nod to the later. So now you know the rest of the story. If you want to keep up with what we are hearing then checkout our Milcom MP blog at Milcom Monitoring Post or follow us on twitter @MilcomMP. 73 and good hunting
Larry Van Horn
Milcom columnist
The Spectrum Monitor
I can hear those dead keys with tone too way out in the mud. Not sure if you will be able to copy what I am because it's out here in the Pacific. But keep an ear on it.305z Hearing quite a few dead keys and occasional tune up. QTH Philadelphia Pa area.
Pretty good from where you are.They were at if for about 30 minutes about an hour ago. It was too rough to copy but I could tell they were there. (I'm near KC).