Monitoring POCSAG Pager Messages on 138.150

1705452  14:29:43 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   LAMRT One of the spare radios is missing from mob 1. Please check your bags and return it as soon as possible. Steve 14:29hrs 19-04-14

0271905  14:37:49 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   EMCS WOULD LIKE TO CANCEL A CALL OUT

0944904  15:12:10 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   (891)15:11 DEVON SNOW BUNTING DAWLISH WARREN NNR 200YDS BEYOND LAST GROYNE SX989798  *HANTS SPOONBILL TITCHFIELD HAVEN NNR THIS A/NOON PO14 3JT SU534023

1981006  15:26:02 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   LLMRT Ref. R057744 12 YR OLD LAD HAS NOT BEEN SEEN FOR 2 HRS HAS WATER AND ON THE  LLANBERIS PATH 07714957260 15:25hrs 19-04-14 L @

1981006  15:38:15 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   LLMRT R057744 Continue to stand by no contact with informant John Grisdale 15:37hrs 19-04-14

0940412  15:45:30 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   KSMRT   tl taking call. Kath 15:45hrs 19-04-14

0944132  15:57:20 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   KSMRT   FT Call out . Ankle injury poss Yarlside. Respond to base or Cross Keys RV with Kendal Team. Adrian 15:57hrs 19-04-14

1999084  16:44:52 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   16.39 BMRT snatch incident @ Windgather Rocks. Vehicles required. Respond to  01298918918. Ta Janette

1999084  16:44:49 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   BMRT standby inc windgather. All mobs en route. Thanks Rob S

 0951348  17:53:11 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   KSMRT STAND DOWN CASUALTY ALL SORTED AND WITH NWAS 17:52hrs 19-04-14

0303562  17:59:41 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   PLS CONTACT BRIXHAM COASTGUARD 01803 882 704

0945873  18:01:29 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   St John Ambulance Cumbria On-Call Team, Daily Test Message.

LAMRT Langdale/Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team

LLMRT Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team

KSMRT Kirkby Stephen Mountain Rescue Team

BMRT Buxton Mountain Rescue Team

EMCS East Midland Central Station (Alarm Monitoring Station in |Nottingham)

All monitored on 138.150MHz

I have just completed the easy discriminator modification on my Uniden Bearcat 9000XLT. I say easy,  the soldering to the PCB at point TP3 had me nervous as it was out of my comfort zone, having been used only to more basic soldering and I was worried about damaging the radio. But I wanted the discriminator tap so much that I figured even if I had to buy a new radio I was prepared to take the risk of possibly damaging this one. I turned off my mobile phone and house phone so as not to be disturbed, but even with shakey hands and a wide tipped soldering iron it was OK and I would do it again no problem. Like all things, it is mostly a case of confidence and being prepared to accept responisibility for any possible damage you may do!

Two tips: get a narrow-tipped soldering iron. If I did it again, I wouldn't use a wide-tipped one. And obvious really I suppose, tin the wire well before you attempt to solder it to the TP3 point.

Phew! With that out the way the world of VHF data decoding is at my fingertips and I have had hours of fun so far. Firstly with AIS using MultiPSK:

Then I experimented with POCSAG pager decoding, using the freely available PDW decoder software, the selected results being at the top of this entry.

I am only just uncovering the wide variety of pager users, and the mountain rescue teams really catch my interest.

I have also built a small line level adjuster, comprising a variable resisitor mounted inside a box with two 3.5mm jack plugs for the input from the scanner's discriminator socket and the output to the laptop, as I wanted to bring the RX level down to a more manageable level, but it functions OK without it if you can't be bothered with any more soldering.

So far I have only sat on 153.15 and the much more interesting 138.15mhz, so there are many more frequencies to try.

73 for now, M6RDP 

Review of Realistic DX394 Short Wave Receiver by RadioShack

DX-394 with Radio Shack Speaker 21-549A

Close-up of the superb display on the DX-394

This is a review of the Realistic DX394 Receiver by RadioShack. It is, in my humble opinion, a very much under-valued radio and I want to tell you why, having tried AOR 7030's, The Yaesu FRG100, The Lowe HF150, and numerous portable radios, my all-time number one favourite is the DX394!

The first thing I should explain is that, as far as I am aware, there are one or two, perhaps three, slightly different versions of this radio. I have serial number C006779 and on the back panel there is a small sticker with the letter "B" on it, identifying it as a "B" version model. The first DX394 I owned was an "A" model and years later when I purchased the "B" model I now own, there were a number of big differences immediately apparent. The first, and as a utility listener this was HUGELY important to me, was that the upgraded model didn't need to be offset by de-tuning the "fine tune" control. Let me explain: On the "A" model, if you wanted to tune to 8867 KHz, you would enter 8867 and then have to de-tune to approx 8866.8 KHz to be spot on. I also noted some frequencies needed more or less of an offset than others. This was fine when the frequency was active with plenty of traffic to enable the fine-tuning required, but seriously problematic for sitting on silent frequencies for hours waiting for that elusive call from far away. I missed some great stuff because of this short-coming, and I often woke up to a tape recording of aircraft over the South Pacific region calling Nadi or Auckland or Pascua Island only to discover I had forgotten to de-tune, and had 45 minutes of garbled rubbish. Very annoying! This does not happen with the "B" version. 8867 KHz is spot on 8867 KHz and I have never once had to de-tune a single frequency to correctly resolve a signal.

The second difference was in the sound quality. On both sideband but especially on AM, the audio quality was far superior. It seems to my ears (forgive me as I am not aware of the technical differences between the various models) that the "B" version uses better quality filters. I wouldn't want to go back to an "A" version. Just thought I'd mention this before I start telling you more about the radio as it is important.

I do not know of ANY short wave radio receiver with so many timers! There are 5, yes FIVE, separate timers on the DX-394. Many times have I set up a few minutes of recording on WWV Fort Collins at 18 minutes past each hour for the propagation report. For example: at 0217, 0317, 0417 and 0517 for 2 minutes each time. Just think of the number of late-night DX your could try to identify on the hour!

Another thing I love about this radio and that sets it apart from others I have tried is the excellent medium wave performance. It hears weak MW signals far better than my Yaesu FRG-100 or my portables. I have made a small, passive, medium wave loop covering 540khz to 2500khz and feed it directly into the 50ohm input of the DX-394. It is a terrific combination. If you are interested in medium wave broadcast or maritime MW utility listening, the DX-394 would be an excellent choice.

However, the NDB beacon band is not so good. In fact it is appallingly bad. Do not buy the DX-394 if you are an NDB beacon DXer. It is just totally deaf on this band. Even with a high quality RF Systems DX-10 amplified vertical antenna outside, it hears nothing at all.

The audio quality is OK. Fine for utility listening, but only adequate for broadcast listening. Years ago I had read that the Radio Shack speakers were very good and to consider them in preference to the costly Yaesu and Icom optional speakers. Well last month I was lucky enough to come across one at my local radio club equipment sale. And so for only £3 I bought one. In my opinion it is simply made for the DX-394. I hadn't realized before connecting the speaker, but afterwards it was evident that what I didn't like about the DX-394 audio was the fact it was somewhat muffled. It lack clarity and sharpness and isn't all that pleasant to listen to for any length of time. And during fading there is quite a lot of hiss evident. But through the Radio Shack speaker, the audio is beautiful. I prefer it to my Yaesu FRG100 and Icom 703 both of which I would rate highly for audio in their own right. When there is QSB on the signal, the signal deterioration is far less marked on the Radio Shack speaker, and I find I can listen for hours through this speaker, when on the DX-394 alone I would long ago have switched off. Gone is that muffled, almost processed characteristic. It has nice bass tones, but not too much so. And the higher, treble tones are much more soothing on the ear. As you can see, I can't recommend the combination of DX-394 and Radio Shack speaker highly enough.

The DX-394 also has another really cool feature: it will tune below 150khz all the way down to VLF and ELF. This is nicely demonstrated on this nicely demonstrated You Tube video
This means you can hear time signals, submarine communications, beacons and all sorts of other interesting utility stations. On his You Tube video Steven is using only a long wire and getting acceptable results. I was lucky enough to already own the RF Systems DX-10 antenna, which hears all the way down on VLF, and I can hear a plethora of stations down here. Just to re-cap: the button sequence to open your DX-394 up for VLF and ELF is:

LIMIT
PGM
1
FRQ
ENT

I have tried, somewhat half-heartedly, to listen for some natural radio sounds, but have so far had no luck.

Something else I love about the DX-394 is how easily it lends itself to quickly entering and then swapping between a number of frequencies. If you knew for instance that RAI Radio Uno in Italy were on 657, 900 and 1575khz and you wanted to quickly jump to and fro between these frequencies to see the best one, or to spot when the changeover to RAI's regional programming had occurred, this is all the key presses that would be required:

FRQ 657 ENT PGM 1 ENT
FRQ 900 ENT PGM 2 ENT
FRQ 1575 ENT PGM 3 ENT

then all you would need to do to quickly jump between them is to enter their respective memory channel number. So simply pressing 2 will take you straight to 900khz, another single press of the number 3 will take you to 1575khz etc etc I have used this facility numerous times to help identify different stations or to check for new frequencies of the same station. It has been invaluable. I know you can do this on all radios. But it is the ease with which the DX-394 lends itself to this task with so few key presses that I so appreciate.  

I hope I have covered everything you might have wanted to know, and I hope this review has been helpful. As always, if you want to contact me please do so via comments and I will reply that way too.

73 and as I have finished this on 24th December: Merry Christmas 

First log of Turkish Civil Defence ALE Network

I made up a QRG file this morning of all the Turkish Civil Defence frequencies and at 0536UTC got my first catch, a sounding from the Turkish province of Karabuk on the Black Sea Coast. The ALE address was 3781, the 78 identifying the province.

I like this network as there is a way of identifying the station heard. Many ALE nets do not have such a system and when you receive the ALE addresses you have no way of knowing where the station was. SONATRACH, the Algerian Oil & Gas network are like this. It would be so cool to be able to identify which oilfield or pumping station you are receiving, but sadly I have found nothing online to suggest this is possible.

Israeli Air Force Boeing 707 Appears on ALE

This Boeing 707 serial #272 (a "vc" variant of the Boeing 707 - whatever that means. I can't find an explanation on the net except that it is somehow modified) appeared on my PC-ALE screen this morning at 06:57UTC on 9057khz. This is such a cool way of hearing aircraft. The other evening I was sitting down relaxing, listening to Rachmaninov's vespers whilst the PC was doing all the hard work of scanning lots of white noise in search of some interesting catches for me!

I like ALE so much I am hoping to get a second laptop running on my Icom 703  - the idea being to scan another range of freqs I might otherwise not scan due to their inactivity and thus increase my chances of a nice catch for the log book.

By the way, the aircraft ID appeared as M72.

73 Adam M6RDP

Israeli Air Force Active on HF ALE Network

Last night between 1634 and 1733UTC I heard a number of cals on the Israeli Air Force HF ALE netwrok frequency 9219 khz. They were 3 Israeli Air Force C130H/KC130Hs K35, K22 and K45  (serial numbers #435 ,#522 and #545). Also got a call from TSM, though I can not find any address info on the net for it.

Since starting ALE decoding I have heard some great traffic I would never otherwise have heard on voice channels: USCG Jayhawk Helicopters, HC144s and Bombardier Q400s, RAF AWACS E3s, Air Force Bases across Northern Algeria, and now these terrific catches from the Israeli Air Force.

It is a really exciting mode, still very active and with plenty to offer the utility listener and aircraft/military enthusiast.

Yaeus FRG100 and PC-ALE

I just wanted to show you this video of G4ZLP Electronics' superb Yaesu CT62 Digimaster CAT interface set-up to scan the 50 Algerian Air Force ALE frequencies using PC-ALE at the 5 channels/sec scan speed. To scan HF freqs like this is, in itself, awesome. But that it actually stops on receipt of ALE signals and remains on channel to decode them is unbelievable.

The Algerian Military have divided up the countro into 6 military regions (RM):

ale address CM1 - First military region of BLIDA
ale address CM2 - Second military region of ORAN
ale address CM3 - Third military region of BECHAR
ale address CM4 - Fourth military region of OURGLA
ale address CM5 - Fifth military region of CONSTANTINE
ale address CM6 - Sixth military region of TAMANRASSET

ale address COF - Commandement de Forces Aeriennes, Cheraga, Algiers
ale address CNC - can't find this one but would hazard a guess at Centre National de Communications. It is at Algerian Air Force HQ at Cheraga, Algiers

HMG - Hammaguir Air Base (SW of Bechar) notable for its role in French Rocket Launches in the 1960s and 1970s. A close up view of Google Maps  shows the debris of decaying rocket towers in the desert sand.

Monitoring the Algerian Air Force ALE Network

It has taken a long time to get the software and hardware set-up correctly, but after a lot of help from Sam on the UDXF Yahoo Group and a lot of patience on my behalf, I am now successfully monitoring a whole host of interesting military HF networks using ALE. Although the software is easy enough to download (PC-ALE & MultiPSK) and I have used it before for single channel monitoring, getting it hooked up to my Yaesu FRG100 and then successfully scanning was a little trickier. I think the different versions of PC-ALE work better with some radios than others. Finally, the new Beta test version v1.08 was installed and it works like a dream, stopping on active channels even at the fast scan rate of 5 channels per second. Previous versions would scan but not stop properly. I still find MultiPSK a lot more sensitive to weak signals, but it is really not so well set up to monitoring large numbers of frequencies (The Algerian AF have over 50!) for SWLers like myself. Here are some of my latest decodes from the last few days:

[19:17:20][FRQ 11156000][TO ][CM3            ][TIS][CNC            ][AL0] BER 20 SN 05
[19:17:18][FRQ 11156000][TO ][CNC            ][TIS][CM3            ][AL0] BER 20 SN 04
[19:17:16][FRQ 11156000][TO ][CM3            ][TIS][CNC            ][AL0] BER 21 SN 04

[19:24:07][FRQ 11114000][TO ][COF            ][TIS][CM2            ][AL0] BER 30 SN 07

[06:23:41][FRQ 13377000][TO ][CM3 CLR        ][TIS][CNC            ][AL0] BER 18 SN 04

CM3 3rd Regional Command Centre Bechar AFB
CNC Algerian Air Force HQ, Cheraga
COF Algerian Air Force HQ, Cheraga
CM2 2nd Regional Command Centre, Oran AFB

Interestingly, I have hooked up MultiPSK with DX Labs free "Commander" software using the setting for the Yaesu FT757. I nned to disable the "continuous interrogation" button, and then it all works fine.

In addition to the Algerian Air Force, I have had decodes from the Brazilian Navy in Fortaleza contacting its vessels in the South Atlantic; the USAF air bases and AWACS aircraft; the UK AWACS aircraft on the UK DHFCS network; FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency in the USA; The Civil Air Patrol in the USA; .... there is so much to hear and what's more, you can leave the set-up decoding while you walk the dog or prepare dinner and come back to interesting transmissions on the screen!

I have also experimented with Sorcerer multimode decoder and although more sensitive than PC-ALE it won't hook up to my radio and in fact the facilities for scanning and radio hook up seem far too limited to be of much practical help.

Anyway, just wanted to update the blog with these latest ALE musings. Next project is to build a broadband HF loop for the back garden. The commercial offering are way out of my financial league for the moment and I suffer a lot of local QRM from a house full of youngsters next door! My single-freq tuned loops out in the garden offer total noise elimination, but being tuned devices are quite useless for scanning multiple frequencies. I have seen a design by Des (M0AYF) and with the help of an Mo friend in the radio club here in Torquay, I hope to build it myself.

73 for now. Adam