France Sector Map

 

My FIRST EVER SITOR A Maritime Logs

 

12654.0 TAH Istanbul, SITOR A/ARQ MKCV (4360) Istanbul w/test reply to unid ship THE QUICK BROWN FOX etc (25JUN25 0557) (AJT)

12557.0 Hanjin Pioneer, SITOR A/ARQ mmsi 440021000 test req to MKCV Istanbul (25JUN25 0952) (AJT)

12557.0 Songa Sapphire, SITOR A/ARQ mmsi 248940000 test req to MKCV Istanbul (25JUN25m 1355) (AJT)

 

Here's a link to the Youtube video that inspired me to try this rather vintage mode.

 

Quite challenging to get these first SITOR decodes. Signal level into Multipsk needed to be around 40-50% (I was inputting much higher and also much lower levels). I sat my Tecsun portable on 12556.0 USB and just waited. Eventually, with luck and conditions behind me, big signal levels appeared which I recorded USING A LEAD into a small portable voice recorder. This allowed me to repeatedly input the signal into MultiPSK until I hit the sweet spot. It took several days to get there. Couldn't have done it without the help of fellow UDXF forum member Patrick. THANK YOU. Great news for me as this mode is much more challenging and hands-on than GMDSS which is a bit too easy for me.

Anyway, here was what the MultiPSK looked like with the noise/interference removed for anyone else who may want to give it a go:

 

4360 IST.RD
MQCVGA@-@-+?
TRY AGAIN OR USE 'OPR+'
*GA+? AGAIN OR USE 'OPR+' 
*GA+?
TRY AGAINAIN OR USE 'OPR+' 
*GA+?

THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG 0123456789

 

I'm hooked now! 73 Adam

 

Location: Dawlish, UK
50.5823N 3.4644W

Tecsun PL660 with telescopic whip and
Realistic DX400 with indoor homemade broadband active loop
Software: MultiPSK

HF Logbook May 2025 with 8894 Algiers and Russian Navy morse code prominent

Here is my log for May 2025. Been experimenting with digital log options after a lifetime of handwritten logs. This one went wrong as the software crashed and I lost everything except screenshots!

I'll try a different programme for June.

 

HF AERO VOICE LOGS Dec 24

 Hi all,

Selection of December aero logs:

  

Air Ocean Maroc Challenger 604 heard in West Africa en-route from Ouagadougou to Rabat 

8891.0 Bodo, USB wkg Emirates 30Y over Svalbard at 00 long QSY Iceland 8864 (18DEC24 0753) (AJT)

4675.0 Iceland, USB wkg Iceair 623 checking in at 30W (17DEC24 1817) (AJT)

8861.0 Dakar, USB wkg TAM8070 with level change (16DEC24 0703) (AJT)

8894.0 Nouakchott, USB wkg Air Ocean Maroc Challenger 604 QSY 133.0 (16DEC24 0701) (AJT)

8894.0 Algiers, USB wkg Turkish 538 crossing Algierian border next 123.8 (14DEC24 0650) (AJT)

8894.0 Algiers, USB wkg Algerian Air Force IL76 7T-WIQ upon departure (02DEC24 0745) (AJT)

Location: Dawlish, UK

50.5823N 3.4644W

Tecsun PL660 and telescopic whip 

The Algerian and South Atlantic voice tfc can be silent for days, and then suddenly propagation conditions open up and it is quite active for a few hours or days. Still no LDOC traffic for months and months, aside from Stockholm. I've been monitoring my last known active freqs for Saudi Ops and Iberia amongst others, but can only presume LDOC voice is really infrequently used these days. I'll keep at it and post anything of interest. Thks. 73 Adam 

 

Russian Vega VEF-206 repair

Radio working perfectly again

  

I have a Russian Vega VEF-206, bought a few years online for the nostalgia of once again owning the first shortwave set I ever bought as a boy in 1983/4 from a local electronics shop in my hometown of Callington. Reception and audio quality is superb. And so when it recently developed intermittent very low audio and signal levels which could be remedied by a gentle slap on her head (!)  I eventually discovered this solder joint that had come away from the PCB. I have just resoldered it and she is working as good as new again. 

I thought at first it was a component failure, but after posting a question on the UK Vintage Radio Repair forum and needing to more carefully clarify the symptoms, I discovered the intermittent nature of the fault. So as well as a small degree of technical skill and patience which I learnt in abundance over the few years it took me to eventually get my vintage Swinburne CR600 airband scanner working, this weekend I have also discovered that carefully clarifying the symptoms is also key. 

But more than any of these things, I have learnt that without the help and kindness of other people us beginner repairers would be lost. Not sure it would have been possible in the pre-internet days to ask for and receive help and guidance from technical experts and other hobbyists and enthusiasts from around the world. So if I'm ever tempted to think ill of the internet and complain about the time it wastes and how we'd be happier without it, I shall remember this!

I actually sent my airband scanner from Swinburne Electronics, a 6-channel, crystal-controlled scanner from the 1980s, off to several "professional" repairers advertising their services online. At huge expense. One even charged me £50 just to tell me it was completely broken and no longer repairable due to the age of parts! Can you believe it. You pay to send it off, you pay to have them look at it, you pay to have the *hopeless radio" returned. And then....... with the kindness and patience of other people who offer their services for nothing, you work on it together over the months until it is fixed and working just as it did when your parents first bought it for you, some 40 years previously. Some of these "repair" people ought to be ashamed of themselves. But of course, none of it is regulated. 

No wonder so many of our belongings end up in landfill and few people get anything repaired.

I'll post a video of my own VEF-206 radio receiving a shortwave station in the next few days.

 

Russian Navy Tactical Callsign 2 Logs

 

14552.0 : RUNY CW XXX XXX DU78 DU78 85509 KRUGLÄ K 331 331 UPSOPSIH ... 77K (23AUG23 1010) (AJT)

12461.0 : RUNY CW FBMC FBMC DE Y87S Y87S (28AUG23 0600) (AJT)

Using Tecsun PL660 and Telescopic whip 

50.5823° N, 3.4644° W

More Russian Navy CW Monitoring with decode of SYNOP message

 As you may know I have been listening to the Russian Navy morse code messages on HF in my latest shortwave adventures. Last night I received a message from Yakov Grebelsky UCBC5 which was something like this:

UCBC5 .......SML FOR RCD88 RMB97.....17181 99568 10118 41598 71304 10170 40240 54000......

This is a routine weather observation which can be decoded by hand (eg 99568 means latitude 56.8 degrees north etc). In fact even just those two first sets will give you its lat 56.8N and long 11.8E in Kattegat.

But inputting these codes into metaf2xml will give you all the data including temperature, wind direction, pressure etc in a visually appealing and easily understood format.

This is quite an intricate area of shortwave that many may be unfamiliar with but keen to have a bash at, so hope this gives you inspiration! It's great fun. And CW, unlike SSB, propagates much better.

GL 73 Adam