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Odd Signal on 27.125 mHz (CB band Chanel 14)

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spongella

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The signal is back today, am receiving it at the home QTH. This signal appears only when the band is open and it's heard even while on the road so I don't think it is diathermy, unless those signals travel very far. I have a .wav file of it but it's not a recognized format so I'll try to get an audio recording that is compatible. Thanks for all your opinions.
 

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Driverj30t9

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Can't you use some type of radio direction finding to find the source? Oh wait only when the bands open, that would rule it out being local then.
 

wb1ccp

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Could be most anything. A number of people have beacons set up on random frequencies for propagation studies or other unknown reasons. It could be milliwatts halfway across the country.

CB channel 14 / 27.125 MHz is the channel used in tons of kids' walkie-talkies and remote control toys. The RC transmitters sounded like an 8-10 KHz tone switched on and off as the user pressed the buttons.

I have experienced diathermy interference in the distant past. (Do they even still use that?) It was a fairly broadband signal that wiped out most of the 27 MHz band, modulated with a harsh 120 Hz buzz-saw noise.
 

wska999

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Actually some diathermy equipment still operates at 27.120. Yes they still use it. I went to visit one of my ham friends not too long ago in Orlando, and they had one going at the facility what he was at. I just got off the interstate and still had the CB on channel 19, and it wiped out the whole band as I pulled into the parking lot.
 

wska999

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I have experienced diathermy interference in the distant past. (Do they even still use that?) It was a fairly broadband signal that wiped out most of the 27 MHz band, modulated with a harsh 120 Hz buzz-saw noise.
[/QUOTE]

Yes they do.
 

brickson98

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Just wanted to chime in and say I heard this the other night as well while the band was open. I don't hear it when the band is closed. I am located in SE Wisconsin. Seems like it probably is local considering your profile says you're from NJ. And I hear it in SE WI as well. The hunt continues. Here's a YouTube video I uploaded of what I'm hearing. Sounds like a time signal (like WWV or CHU) mixed with The Pip.
 

spongella

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Yep brickson98, that's the one, good catch. Our hospital is about 6 miles away so I am not sure how far a diathermy signal can travel. Have not heard it except when the band is open so I think this is traveling via skywave.
 

brickson98

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Yep brickson98, that's the one, good catch. Our hospital is about 6 miles away so I am not sure how far a diathermy signal can travel. Have not heard it except when the band is open so I think this is traveling via skywave.
Yeah, I never hear it except when skip is going. And the closest hospital to me is just under 5 miles away, as the crow flies. I really hope the source of this can eventually be tracked down, because I've been digging around on the internet and asking around for a good two days now, and I still can't find even a hint of what it could be. But we can confirm it's been heard only when propagation is good in both western NJ, and SE WI. I'm hoping to spend a bit of time researching things and digging around on the internet this weekend, and maybe get some more clues on it. I love trying to figure stuff like this out, and I'm pretty new to it, but this one seems to be my first unsolved oddity that I've heard first hand, on my own equipment, not on a webSDR. I wasn't really expecting to do any oddity chasing on CB, but here I am! Haha.
 

brickson98

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So I have a little update. Propagation conditions were pretty good Saturday night, but I didn't hear it again on any channel. I did look into harmonic frequencies of the frequencies that The Pip is on. All I could find was that when The Pip is on 5448KHz, there is a harmonic freq at 27.24MHz. That's not super close to ch. 14 at 27.125MHz, so if it was that, you'd think you would've heard it between ch. 22 and 23. So that wasn't much of an explanation.

I'm starting to lean towards this just being a beacon somebody is using. But I do think I'm going to nickname it the Skip Pip. Haha.
 

spongella

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Brikson98 there was a weak CB band opening here on Saturday night also, around 6pm but no SkipPip. Propagation was from the Carolinas but weak. I checked the 10m ham radio beacon band (28.1-28.3 MHz) and heard two weak beacons from 4 land. I like that name SkipPip.
 

brickson98

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Brikson98 there was a weak CB band opening here on Saturday night also, around 6pm but no SkipPip. Propagation was from the Carolinas but weak. I checked the 10m ham radio beacon band (28.1-28.3 MHz) and heard two weak beacons from 4 land. I like that name SkipPip.
I'm glad you like the name, haha. I wonder if it's coming from up north somewhere, because last time skip was rolling, I heard a few stations calling from the north of me, but Saturday night I didn't. That could be just because they weren't calling, though. Last time I heard it, skip seemed to be coming from not just the Carolinas, but the whole East Coast. Last Saturday, I heard the whole East Coast once again. Made contacts in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Delaware.
 

brickson98

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Has anybody heard the "Skip Pip" on 11m lately? The last few times I've been around the radio while skip was coming in, I didn't hear any odd noises on any channel. Although, I haven't been on the radio quite as much as usual lately.

Oh, and happy New Year to everybody!
 

brickson98

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Well, I haven't heard anything for awhile now. Has anybody else heard anything, or has this mystery gone silent?
 

spongella

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As of 8 am local time or 0100 UTC the skip pip is coming in here about an S5. The shortwave band in general is at an uptick today so I am not surprised. Using a bidirectional loop it appears to be coming from either N or S.
 

ll_Cartel_ll

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The signal is back today, am receiving it at the home QTH. This signal appears only when the band is open and it's heard even while on the road so I don't think it is diathermy, unless those signals travel very far. I have a .wav file of it but it's not a recognized format so I'll try to get an audio recording that is compatible. Thanks for all your opinions.
here is someone hearing it on AM

Here it is at my QTH sometimes on 27.155 today, right now 27.125

I've tracked the noise to a church across the street.
I am in Chilliwack BC
 
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