Strange Traveling Sound

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SCPD

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I know there are plenty of strange sounds that occur on HF but this one sparked my interest. For about a month or so from time to time I'm getting this strange whistling sound that travels along the band. I mean I will here it on one freq and can literally follow it accost the band. Any ideas? Im thinking its atmospheric?
 

w2xq

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What is the range of frequencies? Many years ago I found experimental radar around 4900 kHz. Turned out to be NOAA experiments; one of the several east coast transmitters was on the Jersey shore. Played havoc with Ghana on 4915.
 

SCPD

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What is the range of frequencies? Many years ago I found experimental radar around 4900 kHz. Turned out to be NOAA experiments; one of the several east coast transmitters was on the Jersey shore. Played havoc with Ghana on 4915.

Thanks Tom, I have been getting it mostly between the 10-12 KHz bands.Tonight I followed it down from 11 khz to well into 10 khz USB. Maybe it is radar but it does not sound like the common laser gun. Its just a constant whistling sound moving slowly down the band.Almost like a jet passing overhead as it slips off freq.
 

ridgescan

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Token pointed it out to us that night so I chased it down and videoed it-that thing was running right over radar and military coms! I never saw them do this sweep before. By the way HAARP has been pretty active last week or so.
 

SCPD

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Token pointed it out to us that night so I chased it down and videoed it-that thing was running right over radar and military coms! I never saw them do this sweep before. By the way HAARP has been pretty active last week or so.

Im getting it right now on 11130kHz USB slowly moving down the band.

Time 0051z
 

Token

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N1RGR, you are talking about a slightly different thing I think, not HAARP.

The "drifters" (what I call them in my log) that you are describing have been around for decades. I remember hearing them in the 60's when I first started playing with radios. I have no real idea what they are, but from their actions/characteristics you can make some assumptions of what they are not. There are some known signals that sweep, various radars, sounders, and HAARP, as mentioned before. But that still leaves a lot that fall into “other” categories.

First, not all of them are the same, I have seen several different types, and they have different actions. Several may be natural, but the very repeatable ones (and the majority I have seen) probably are not. The natural ones are more random and hard to pin down, the probably not natural ones often have indicators below.

Many have very fixed and linear sweep rates across wide bands. This linear rate would argue against accidental, and clearly indicate against natural.

Many display very low levels of modulation on the carrier. In several cases I have seen 120 Hz hum on the signal. This would possibly indicate a source with 60 Hz mains power. On others I have seen 100 Hz hum, likewise possibly indicating 50 Hz mains power. These would argue against natural, but say nothing in regards to accidental.

Many show a very clear and low noise carrier, with the exception of the modulation I mention above. This would argue against natural.

Almost all of them I have seen drift down in frequency. No idea of what that might indicate, but if accidental I would assume a more random distribution of sweep directions.

Most have not displayed detectable levels of synthesizer step. This could be as simple as they are not synthesized, or might just be that the steps are below my ability to detect. One means analog, and the other means nothing at all ;)

T!
 

Token

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Ionosonde

Ionosondes are generally very easy to ID. Most sweep up in frequency and sweep rates are often in the 100 kHz / sec range. I do not believe that is what the OP was describing, and it was what I was describing.

I should, however, do a video of an ionosonde so that users can see what they look like, and connect that to the sounds they hear.

T!
 
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