RE: [backstage] OT: Name That Bizarre Sound at the Bottom of the MW Spectrum

2011-07-21 Thread Christopher Woods 

  I recorded this a while ago (3rd of January 2011) when I 
 was scanning 
  MW and LW bands late at night... as one is wont to do when one is 
  bored. This was at my Dad's old place in Steeple Claydon, picked up 
  right at the bottom end of the MW band:
 
  http://chriswoods.co.uk/files/ste-036_strange_mediumwave_signal.mp3
 
 I turn to the UK Radio Frequency Bands website at such moments:
 
 http://ukspec.tripod.com/spectrum.html
 
 If this is right at the bottom end of MW, it might be the 
 Navtex at 518KHz if your radio can tune that low on MW.
 
 [snip]
 
 From the document above:
 
 87.34.. Eurosignal paging, to 87.415 (4 x 25kHz channels A-D)
   heard in UK from Europe. info.
   Used to be a constant AM tone with pips and doodle-doo
   noises, as featured in the song Professionnels by Air (Premiers
   Symptomes), and could be heard on tuners at 87.5
  Changed in March 1998 to bursts of FM data.   French channel
   is 87.39 (C)
 
 But I'm no ham so others more knowledgeable might be able to 
 step in here.


Incroyable! You've nailed the second sound as Eurosignal paging, and you
were bang on. After more than a decade, I finally know what it is. It's eery
to hear almost the exact same sound emanating from speakers after all these
years... Was my explanation that accurate or do you just have ninja Google
abilities? I bought 10,000Hz Legend when it first came out, never even heard
(or knew they released) an album called Premiers Symptomes. Crikey.

Having just reached the end of Les Professionels, I've just realised
everyone who ever uses the track only uses the portion which loops the
ending guitar riff.

Sadly I don't think the first sound is NAVTEX, I played the file back
through decoding software (admittedly a poor recording) but it just decoded
nonsense characters even without Strict FEC enabled (see screengrab:
http://chriswoods.co.uk/files/2011_07_21-frisnit_navtex_wrongsignal.png )
Also the spectral information wasn't focused in the correct band. I may try
and tune in tonight though with the old Sanyo boombox radio I have, see if I
can pick something up at midnight...

Thanks for IDing the mystery FM audio though!

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Re: [backstage] OT: Name That Bizarre Sound at the Bottom of the MW Spectrum

2011-07-20 Thread Jon Knight 

On Sun, 17 Jul 2011, Christopher Woods wrote:

I recorded this a while ago (3rd of January 2011) when I was scanning MW and
LW bands late at night... as one is wont to do when one is bored. This was
at my Dad's old place in Steeple Claydon, picked up right at the bottom end
of the MW band:

http://chriswoods.co.uk/files/ste-036_strange_mediumwave_signal.mp3


I turn to the UK Radio Frequency Bands website at such moments:

http://ukspec.tripod.com/spectrum.html

If this is right at the bottom end of MW, it might be the Navtex at 518KHz 
if your radio can tune that low on MW.



There's also a very strange broadcast I picked up on 87.5FM in the south of
France many years ago which has stuck with me vividly ever since. I never
recorded it - used to listen on my walkman when in the car on holiday - but
could synthesise it. Was only well receivable in and around the town of
Collioure; a repeating pattern of pure sine tones (mostly wavering around
two semitones with occasional arpeggios from a lower note), some slight
variations in the pattern - the 'sequence' would always end with a 'signoff'
note which would sound like one half of a dialup handshake procedure before
beginning again. This was in a coastal area with several bays, I was
wondering whether it might have been an automated weather buoy / weather
station or somesuch similar?



From the document above:


87.34.. Eurosignal paging, to 87.415 (4 x 25kHz channels A-D)
heard in UK from Europe. info.
Used to be a constant AM tone with pips and doodle-doo
noises, as featured in the song Professionnels by Air (Premiers
Symptomes), and could be heard on tuners at 87.5
Changed in March 1998 to bursts of FM data.   French channel
is 87.39 (C)

But I'm no ham so others more knowledgeable might be able to step in here.
-
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