HowTo Band step sizes ??? (HF Bands)

[Saint]

Could someone tell me the step sizes I should use in the HF Bands I am trying to do a scan in the 8Khz band and I don't know what steps sizes to use in the HF BANDS. Does anyone have a list of step sizes to use across the hf bands I could use. Thanks for any information.
Steve

 

[Teotwaki]

Could someone tell me the step sizes I should use in the HF Bands I am trying to do a scan in the 8Khz band and I don't know what steps sizes to use in the HF BANDS. Does anyone have a list of step sizes to use across the hf bands I could use. Thanks for any information.
Steve

I believe you have a typo as "8KHz" won't be a valid HF frequency/band.

Which of your radios are you using? If it is one of the SDRs with a waterfall/spectrum display you'll find more by tuning across manually.

Jim

 

[Saint]

I believe you have a typo as "8KHz" won't be a valid HF frequency/band.

Which of your radios are you using? If it is one of the SDRs with a waterfall/spectrum display you'll find more by tuning across manually.

Jim

Dose anyone have a step size for 80,60,40,30,20,17 bands, thank you.
Steve

 

[majoco]

Those are the HF ham bands - they don't have allocated frequencies - they will just pick a frequency that's not in use - you sometimes hear someone call "Is this frequency in use?" before calling CQ. HF Broadcast bands are always in 5kHz steps apart from some clandestine stations.

 

[Dirk_SDR]

Steve,
there is no unique step size in the HF bands. The band width of single transmitters depends on the kind of service or use

 

[Saint]

OK thanks for the information I have been doing scans in several bands and the scanner works pretty good, I was doing a scan in this AIR band and have the step size at 1000 kZ and the scan locks onto the frequency but I have to lock out the frequencies on both sides of the real frequency so it does not stop on those frequencies.

 

[majoco]

Oh, I see - you were scanning the 8MHz HF aircraft band. In fact there aren't many frequencies and many are double or even tripled over a certain area and for each area or sub-area there will probably be only two frequencies in use, one they call 'primary' and the other 'secondary' - entirely dependent upon propagation conditions. Here's a complete list of all the MWARA frequencies and others...

Civilian Aero/Military HF Frequency List - Update 9 January 2023

This frequency list has been compiled by Larry Van Horn N5FPW (President Teak Publishing Company) based on actual over-the-air moni...

monitor-post.blogspot.com

If you scan across all the frequencies in the 8MHz bandyou may miss something interesting - I find that if you just scan the frequencies for say the NAT A and B you should soon find something, bear in mind that there's quite a bit of activity at night so the lower frequencies will be in use, sometime as low as the 3MHz band. Passengers don't like to waste time looking out the window at nothing but sea so they prefer to travel at night and arrive first thing in the morning!
...and there's this big chart to put on your wall - it's a bit old but most of the frequencies are still valid.

 

[Saint]

Oh, I see - you were scanning the 8MHz HF aircraft band. In fact there aren't many frequencies and many are double or even tripled over a certain area and for each area or sub-area there will probably be only two frequencies in use, one they call 'primary' and the other 'secondary' - entirely dependent upon propagation conditions. Here's a list of frequencies which I have laid out suit a receiver control programme I use, you can see that some of the frequencies are only 3kHz apart. If you scan across all the frequencies you may miss something interesting - I find that if you just scan the frequencies for say the NAT A and B you should soon find something, bear in mind that there's quite a bit of activity at night so the lower frequencies will be in use, sometime as low as the 3MHz band. Passengers don't like to waste time looking out the window at nothing but sea so they prefer to travel at night and arrive first thing in the morning!

Thank you
Steve

 

[bearcatrp]

I do 5 khz band step when starting on the bottom and scanning up. Don't have a waterfall display. When I come across something garbled, I reduce the step to try and find it. Part of the fun zeroing in on a frequency. The waterfall display makes it easier to find active signals.

 

[Saint]

I do 5 khz band step when starting on the bottom and scanning up. Don't have a waterfall display. When I come across something garbled, I reduce the step to try and find it. Part of the fun zeroing in on a frequency. The waterfall display makes it easier to find active signals.

Yes I have the step at 1000-hz and notice it stops on the frequency, but it also stops on the frequency to the left and to the right so I have to lock the left frequency out and the right frequency so it stops right on the frequency. This is in the HF Air craft bands.
Steve

 

[majoco]

.

 

[ka3jjz]

Keep in mind that it's not quite the free for all majoco suggests when it comes to the ham bands. Parts of some bands are all CW, some are reserved for digital only (30 meters, at least here in the US), and others are voice. Get up to the high end of 10 meters, and you start getting into FM territory. So you can't use a 'step', really, to scan like you can in the higher bands.

Too, scanning on HF is virtually useless anyway - the lower frequencies, being more sensitive to noise issues, would make it stop scanning on any noise like source. Using a waterfall is a better approach

Mike

 

[Saint]

Keep in mind that it's not quite the free for all majoco suggests when it comes to the ham bands. Parts of some bands are all CW, some are reserved for digital only (30 meters, at least here in the US), and others are voice. Get up to the high end of 10 meters, and you start getting into FM territory. So you can't use a 'step', really, to scan like you can in the higher bands.

Too, scanning on HF is virtually useless anyway - the lower frequencies, being more sensitive to noise issues, would make it stop scanning on any noise like source. Using a waterfall is a better approach

Mike

I find the scanner in SDRuno software is doing a good job in the hf air bands.

 

[bearcatrp]

Too, scanning on HF is virtually useless anyway
Mike

Really? There is plenty of HF activity to scan through the bands. Between the EAM's, the gospel crap, and the hams complaining of enlarged prostates or there other personal issues they complain about, which they complain allot, there is plenty of stuff in the HF band. Your statement is WORTHLESS!

 

[Saint]

I am talking about the scanner feature in SDRuno.

I have been using the scanner feature in SDRuno and it works real good once you know how to set it up, If you have a bunch of frequencies from different bands then the noise lenel from the difference bands is going to bounce around and you will have a problem scanning the list of frequencies. Bu I find that if you find several bands that the noise level is about the same then it's easier to scan from on band to the other. I have been doing a little experimenting with the hf air bands and the scanner feature does a good job once you get the settings right.

It take a little practise but you can do some scanning in the hf bands.
Steve

 

[ka3jjz]

How do you account for the different noise levels in each band? That would almost surely trip you up at some point

Mike

 

[Saint]

Yes that's what I said going across different band with different noise levels is realy not going to work, also different frequencies in a list you want to scan that are in different bands can be tricky but there is some scanning you can do in hf, it's not imposible. To say you can not do any scanning in hf bands is not true.

 

[Boombox]

Using a regular HF SSB portable, when I tune the HF ham bands I do it in 1 khz increments. In the CW portions of the bands you use the clarifier or 'BFO tune' function a bit more. That works. How that would work, or if that concept would work, with an SDR, I have no idea. I would think the waterfall would show activity and you just tune to the activity.

 

[majoco]

Yes, there will be different noise levels from band to band but probably not much across one band. The 8MHz band lowest is 8825kHz and the highest is 8951kHz - only 126kHz wide.

Answering Steve's original question, I collected all the used 8MHz band frequencies and then found the spaces between each adjacent frequencies - now they might look quite random but in fact they are all multiples of 3kHz! So if you set your step size to 3kHz sometimes you will land on an unused frequency but your scan will just pass over that one but you will hit every active one right on frequency - but perhaps not talking!

 

[Saint]

Yes, there will be different noise levels from band to band but probably not much across one band. The 8MHz band lowest is 8825kHz and the highest is 8951kHz - only 126kHz wide.

Answering Steve's original question, I collected all the used 8MHz band frequencies and then found the spaces between each adjacent frequencies - now they might look quite random but in fact they are all multiples of 3kHz! So if you set your step size to 3kHz sometimes you will land on an unused frequency but your scan will just pass over that one but you will hit every active one right on frequency - but perhaps not talking!

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majoco
thanks for the information, trying different setups and SDRuno is doing a good job scanning the 8 mhz air band
Steve