Taking the lead of the amateur radio community, shortwave stations, WRMI in Miami, Florida; KBC; and VOA with their "VOA Radiogram", and PCJ Radio, are discovering the powerful and robust communications that can be accomplished with modes like Olivia, MFSK64, RTTY, and PSK.
Had we looked back down the road even a decade ago, there is no way anyone would have guessed that shortwave stations would even give amateur radio digital modes a first glance, much less start using digital modes.
Jan Oosterveen of KBC says: "Olivia
is a robust digital text mode. It can overcome all types of noise. But
can Olivia 8-1000, reduced by 24 dB, be decoded under the amazing
voice of country singer Suzy Bogguss? We will find out 24 March 2013 at
about 0130 UTC, with the mode centered on 2500 Hz. This will be during
The Mighty KBC broadcast to North America, 0000-0200 UTC on 7375 kHz.
And at just before 0200 UTC, MT63-1000 (long interleave) in Flmsg format
will be centered on 1500 Hz, and an MFSK32 image centered on 2500 Hz." Jan says "Listen between 00.00-02.UTC on 7.375 kHz beamed to North America."
The following joint press release from VOA and WRMI has this useful information:
While it will be strictly one mode at a time this weekend on VOA Radiogram, WRMI, Radio Miami International, will fill its channel (9955 kHz) with multiple instances of digital text.
On Saturday, 23 March 2013, 0400 UTC to 0400 UTC Sunday (midnight to
midnight EDT), WRMI IDs will be in BPSK63F, centered on 900, 1300, 1700,
2100, 2500, and 2900 Hertz. (The RSID will guide you to 2500 Hz.)
On Sunday 0400 to Monday 0400 UTC, PSKR250 will be centered on 900,
1700, 2500 (RSID will be 2500 Hz), and PSKR125 on 1300, 2100, and
2900 Hz
The WRMI IDs are generally at the top of the hour and sometimes also
at 30 minutes past the hour. Don ‘t let low signal level and noise on
the channel discourage you from trying to decode these.
Taiwan-based PCJ Radio International will transmit a message in MFSK32 via WRMI at 0227 UTC on 31 March 2013.
(End press release)
Now, since DRM turned out to be dead in the water; this should become interesting since the equipment and software to decode digital modes is easily available, or CAN be accessed by most people even if they have to ask a friend or family member to do it, the wider audience will definitely take interest for the reason that those regions of the globe who have been victimized by China's malicious interference would still be able to decode quite easily since the job of separating interference from digital communications is actually easier than separating it from the spoken voice.
This could very well go beyond an experimental stage to become a trend if stations turn out to like this sort of efficiency. The only real drawback is that digital modes are full duty cycle that can add to wear and tear on transmitters. However, there is a chance that the digital traffic might be pre-recorded, therefore saving the transmitters from the dreadful effects of full duty cycle work.
Here's an interesting thought as this article closes: It would be neat to find out later on down the road that China's choice to use digital modes for malicious interference was the impetus for this trend of experimentation! The next thought to go with it is that it would be interesting if entire programs start to be conducted in digital modes.
Showing posts with label VOA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VOA. Show all posts
Friday, March 22, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
China Starts Communications Media War - Targets BBC and VOA Broadcasts
Just when everyone got used to hearing Firedrake, China's most well known music used to maliciously interfere with foreign broadcasters, the world has been hearing THIS! The recording was made on
The sound you hear in the recording resembles one of several digital communication modes that can be heard across the high frequency bands from 160meters (1800Khz) to about 10meters (28500Khz) and usually in SSB (Single Side-Band) mode. What you are hearing is someone knowingly, willfully, and maliciously interfering with international broadcast services.
At first, it seemed as though the BBC was the only victim of this nasty behavior, but the VOA (Voice of America) has also been a target of a well organized and well-resourced country. The guess at this time, given the timing of these instances of interference is that the malicious radio interference is originating from China.
"The BBC said that while it is not possible to know who is doing the jamming, "the extensive and co-ordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China." says an article at VOA's website. The BBC is incorrect that there is no way to know who is performing the illegal and malicious broadcast interference. Triangulation and other RF Direction Finding techniques are available. There has been no news about if the BBC and / or the VOA are seeking such remedies.
Consistent with the recordings out here of the now famous malicious interference which has affected just about every part of the world on the shortwave bands, VOA says this:
"At VOA headquarters in Washington, engineers say that while the agency's Chinese-language broadcasts are routinely jammed in China, its English broadcasts usually are not. They noticed the jamming of the English programs about a month ago and say it appears to use a new technology."
The technology being used is not new, but is a combination of digital modes based on something similar to RTTY and possibly SSTV. Shortwave America is making efforts to identify this mode and how it was written in an attempt to decode it to see if there is anything such as a message or other identifiers being sent in the data stream. Even if there are only zeros and ones being carried, it tells us something about who wrote this digital mode, what their mindset was, what their technical abilities are, and might even tell us about the sort of equipment being used. Just like when police use ballistics to test bullets, we in the communications circles can do a sort of analysis of these signals to identify specific characteristics of it.
This specific digital mode is definitely military in nature because of the wobbly weebly sound that is heard in the recordings. If you scan across the HF bands in any mode, you can hear a digital mode that has nothing but THAT "wobbly weebly" make up to it. It's simply a shifting of tones which is a variance of phase shift keying with data attached to it. Now, listening further, you can hear what almost sounds like a characteristic of what we have known for decades as the "Russian Buzzer"; only it's in a fast high pitch that comes in bursts of sound in a 1-2-3 beat pattern.
All of these details of the mode being used would tend to indicate someone who has knowledge of radio technical arts specific to digital, data, ciphers, code writing and decoding, transmitter and antenna capabilities in high-power environments, antenna radiation patterns, signal propagation, and communications warfare. The offender is going to be a male between 30 and 50 years old, has a background in high level government communications with military experience, holds a certification or license for radio work, likely has an electronics degree or holds advanced mathematics understanding whether documented by an educational institution or not.
The offender is operating voluntarily as opposed to being under duress due to the sort of time and concentration needed to create and then pre-record the digital product. Those affected should know that this is going to be someone of either an Asian or Middle-Eastern culture who holds communist or other extreme beliefs. It appears to be a fact that whoever is performing this interference is someone specifically assigned to run the sound on a repeating loop until the program being interfered with is over, or someone who is actively sitting by a receiver and operating the signal direct from a single site.
Since China has recently had a change in administration, it would make sense if this is someone wanting to show the higher leadership that they have foreign broadcasting under control, someone who wants to project a favorable image to higher leadership. This would be consistent with comments made on certain internet sites who carried the story of the targeted BBC/VOA interference to programs directed to the East and Southeast regions. The comments are pro-Chinese Government, communist in nature / tone, and openly sympathizes with such. This observation of comments and comment posting behavior at these websites was made by retired RNW member, Andy Sennitt.
According to Keith Perron at PCJ Radio:
Shortwave America has learned from PCJ that the Chinese Government employs upwards of 300,000 special agents who do nothing but internet police work aimed at censoring web based communications and creating propaganda. This includes posting their propaganda on internet sites, and comments sections of internet sites with phony accounts.
More information from PCJ says that Sina Weibo has had postings that reveal english broadcasts that were free from interference along with the frequencies and times.
Additionally, an anonymous source inside China says word has gotten around that there is indeed an uncomfirmed order to
BBC Statement regarding interference to BBC World Service Broadcasts
BBC China Crew Detained By Chinese Military After Filming Cyber-Warfare Headquarters
Shortwave America will have more on the renewed Chinese war against foreign communications as it develops.
The sound you hear in the recording resembles one of several digital communication modes that can be heard across the high frequency bands from 160meters (1800Khz) to about 10meters (28500Khz) and usually in SSB (Single Side-Band) mode. What you are hearing is someone knowingly, willfully, and maliciously interfering with international broadcast services.
At first, it seemed as though the BBC was the only victim of this nasty behavior, but the VOA (Voice of America) has also been a target of a well organized and well-resourced country. The guess at this time, given the timing of these instances of interference is that the malicious radio interference is originating from China.
"The BBC said that while it is not possible to know who is doing the jamming, "the extensive and co-ordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China." says an article at VOA's website. The BBC is incorrect that there is no way to know who is performing the illegal and malicious broadcast interference. Triangulation and other RF Direction Finding techniques are available. There has been no news about if the BBC and / or the VOA are seeking such remedies.
Consistent with the recordings out here of the now famous malicious interference which has affected just about every part of the world on the shortwave bands, VOA says this:
"At VOA headquarters in Washington, engineers say that while the agency's Chinese-language broadcasts are routinely jammed in China, its English broadcasts usually are not. They noticed the jamming of the English programs about a month ago and say it appears to use a new technology."
The technology being used is not new, but is a combination of digital modes based on something similar to RTTY and possibly SSTV. Shortwave America is making efforts to identify this mode and how it was written in an attempt to decode it to see if there is anything such as a message or other identifiers being sent in the data stream. Even if there are only zeros and ones being carried, it tells us something about who wrote this digital mode, what their mindset was, what their technical abilities are, and might even tell us about the sort of equipment being used. Just like when police use ballistics to test bullets, we in the communications circles can do a sort of analysis of these signals to identify specific characteristics of it.
This specific digital mode is definitely military in nature because of the wobbly weebly sound that is heard in the recordings. If you scan across the HF bands in any mode, you can hear a digital mode that has nothing but THAT "wobbly weebly" make up to it. It's simply a shifting of tones which is a variance of phase shift keying with data attached to it. Now, listening further, you can hear what almost sounds like a characteristic of what we have known for decades as the "Russian Buzzer"; only it's in a fast high pitch that comes in bursts of sound in a 1-2-3 beat pattern.
All of these details of the mode being used would tend to indicate someone who has knowledge of radio technical arts specific to digital, data, ciphers, code writing and decoding, transmitter and antenna capabilities in high-power environments, antenna radiation patterns, signal propagation, and communications warfare. The offender is going to be a male between 30 and 50 years old, has a background in high level government communications with military experience, holds a certification or license for radio work, likely has an electronics degree or holds advanced mathematics understanding whether documented by an educational institution or not.
The offender is operating voluntarily as opposed to being under duress due to the sort of time and concentration needed to create and then pre-record the digital product. Those affected should know that this is going to be someone of either an Asian or Middle-Eastern culture who holds communist or other extreme beliefs. It appears to be a fact that whoever is performing this interference is someone specifically assigned to run the sound on a repeating loop until the program being interfered with is over, or someone who is actively sitting by a receiver and operating the signal direct from a single site.
Since China has recently had a change in administration, it would make sense if this is someone wanting to show the higher leadership that they have foreign broadcasting under control, someone who wants to project a favorable image to higher leadership. This would be consistent with comments made on certain internet sites who carried the story of the targeted BBC/VOA interference to programs directed to the East and Southeast regions. The comments are pro-Chinese Government, communist in nature / tone, and openly sympathizes with such. This observation of comments and comment posting behavior at these websites was made by retired RNW member, Andy Sennitt.
According to Keith Perron at PCJ Radio:
Shortwave America has learned from PCJ that the Chinese Government employs upwards of 300,000 special agents who do nothing but internet police work aimed at censoring web based communications and creating propaganda. This includes posting their propaganda on internet sites, and comments sections of internet sites with phony accounts.
More information from PCJ says that Sina Weibo has had postings that reveal english broadcasts that were free from interference along with the frequencies and times.
Additionally, an anonymous source inside China says word has gotten around that there is indeed an uncomfirmed order to
BBC Statement regarding interference to BBC World Service Broadcasts
BBC China Crew Detained By Chinese Military After Filming Cyber-Warfare Headquarters
Shortwave America will have more on the renewed Chinese war against foreign communications as it develops.
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