++++++++++++++++++ Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 20:53:34 -0600 From: "George, W5YR" To: ai2q at adelphia.net Cc: Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion Subject: [121789] Re: Woodpecker on 15 meters! No rumor, Alex . . . Back in my early manhood, spent in such sin and debauchery as QRO operation, I once ran a Drake C-Line station with a Heathkit SB-220 linear connected to a 3-element beam. I observed the Russian Woodpecker one evening on 20 meters with a scope and saw that he was transmitting a code consisting of four pulses to a group with each group missing from 0 to as many as 3 pulses in various positions. I fired up the rig on 20, pointed the beam due North over the pole, and played with the keyer until the dots were exactly synched with the Woodpecker pulses. I then fired off a couple of short blasts. He stopped. I tuned up the band and he had moved up about 5 KHz. I zeroed him again and fired off another couple of shots. He stopped. Well, this went on for about 10 minutes until either he tired of the game or his shift ended or whatever. He went off the air and I didn't hear him again that entire evening! I don't have a legal reading, but my actions were consistent with evaluating the performance and tuning of my amplifier by using a pulsed test signal, etc. 73/72/oo, George W5YR - the Yellow Rose of Texas Fairview, TX 30 mi NE of Dallas in Collin county EM13qe Amateur Radio W5YR, in the 56th year and it just keeps getting better! QRP-L 1373 NETXQRP 6 SOC 262 COG 8 FPQRP 404 TEN-X 11771 I-LINK 11735 Icom IC-756PRO #02121 Kachina 505 DSP #91900556 Icom IC-765 #02437 All outgoing email virus-checked by Norton Anti-Virus 2002 AI2Q Alex wrote: > > Back in the mid-1970s, when the original Russian woodpecker reared its head, > there was a rumor that a keyer set to the same rep rate would cause the > woodpecker op to go nutso! The woodpecker I'm hearing on 80 meters has a > buzzier pulse sound to it, but maybe the same technique would apply. Or, > would that be "intentional QRM?" +++++++++++++++++++ Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2002 20:53:34 -0600 From: "George, W5YR" To: ai2q at adelphia.net Cc: Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion Subject: [121789] Re: Woodpecker on 15 meters! No rumor, Alex . . . Back in my early manhood, spent in such sin and debauchery as QRO operation, I once ran a Drake C-Line station with a Heathkit SB-220 linear connected to a 3-element beam. I observed the Russian Woodpecker one evening on 20 meters with a scope and saw that he was transmitting a code consisting of four pulses to a group with each group missing from 0 to as many as 3 pulses in various positions. I fired up the rig on 20, pointed the beam due North over the pole, and played with the keyer until the dots were exactly synched with the Woodpecker pulses. I then fired off a couple of short blasts. He stopped. I tuned up the band and he had moved up about 5 KHz. I zeroed him again and fired off another couple of shots. He stopped. Well, this went on for about 10 minutes until either he tired of the game or his shift ended or whatever. He went off the air and I didn't hear him again that entire evening! I don't have a legal reading, but my actions were consistent with evaluating the performance and tuning of my amplifier by using a pulsed test signal, etc. 73/72/oo, George W5YR - the Yellow Rose of Texas Fairview, TX 30 mi NE of Dallas in Collin county EM13qe Amateur Radio W5YR, in the 56th year and it just keeps getting better! QRP-L 1373 NETXQRP 6 SOC 262 COG 8 FPQRP 404 TEN-X 11771 I-LINK 11735 Icom IC-756PRO #02121 Kachina 505 DSP #91900556 Icom IC-765 #02437 All outgoing email virus-checked by Norton Anti-Virus 2002 AI2Q Alex wrote: > > Back in the mid-1970s, when the original Russian woodpecker reared its head, > there was a rumor that a keyer set to the same rep rate would cause the > woodpecker op to go nutso! The woodpecker I'm hearing on 80 meters has a > buzzier pulse sound to it, but maybe the same technique would apply. Or, > would that be "intentional QRM?" +++++++++++++++++ Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:35:23 -0600 From: Steve Yates To: QRP-L Distibute Subject: [121865] Re: Woodpecker on 15 meters? SWOTHR? Message-ID: <000f01c1c966$2e899420$092abcd0 at pavilion> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT It certainly is not "THE WOODPECKER" over-the-horizon-radar of the ole USSR days. It appears to be a chirp rather then an impulse. The chirp is something like 170 kHz wide. If you spin your VFO real fast over the signal you will notice that the pulses seem faster in one direction then in the other. This is characteristic of a frequency chirped signal. Given that the frequency of operation doesn't change with propagation characteristics like the old woodpecker did I would suspect that it might be a CW surface-wave-over-the-horizon-radar using an FM chirp (sawtooth or triangle maybe) for range discrimination. A vertical polarized HF signal launched on the ocean will travel quite a ways beyond the horizon via surface wave (i.e., ground wave). This would be in line with the British reports. But then again I'm only guessing based on what I'm observing. There doesn't appear to be much intelligence in the transmission. Steve Yates AA5TB aa5tb at arrl.net Fort Worth, TX - Grid EM12hu http://www.qsl.net/aa5tb/ ++++++++++++++++ Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 19:12:27 -0800 From: "John Moriarity" To: , "Low Power Amateur Radio Discussion" Subject: [121873] Re: Woodpecker on 15 meters! Message-ID: <000f01c1c973$ccd026a0$9c5fa13f at johnslt> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > Well, this went on for about 10 minutes until either he tired of the game > or his shift ended or whatever. He went off the air and I didn't hear him > again that entire evening. By then, they had your co-ordinates entered into the missle targeting system ;-) 73, John, K6QQ +++++++++++++++++ Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 07:46:48 -0500 From: David Hinerman To: qrp-l at lehigh.edu Subject: [121892] Re: Woodpecker on 15 meters? SWOTHR? At 07:35 PM 3/11/2002 -0600, you wrote: >It certainly is not "THE WOODPECKER" over-the-horizon-radar of the ole USSR >days. It appears to be a chirp rather then an impulse. The chirp is -- snip -- 2 or 3 years ago, wasn't there an OTH radar station doing something similar in the ham bands? I think it was based in Newfoundland. Dave -------------------------------------- "You can fool some of the people all of the time. That's enough to make a living." - Lance Burton Dave Hinerman WD8CIV at worldnet.att.net +++++++++++++++