All the way back in 1992 I was interested in Morse code, I purchased a Morse code tape cassette and listened to back and forth to work in my Geo Metro. I never really did pick it up, I suppose because I didn’t have anything to practice with or some driving factor like a radio to train for. I even put it on my evaluation support form as a personal goal in 2003. But now finally, in 2017, I am making (slow) contacts with Morse/CW. I took a class with CW Academy, and it was a very good instructor led, distance learning program.

http://www.cwops.org/cwacademy.html

If you have also wanted to learn Morse, but have difficulty self-learning the skill, sign up for one of their classes.

I just recalled that as a teenager, I was given a Trans Oceanic 7000 by someone, likely my Grandfather who I recently learned was a amateur radio operator.  I remember listening to radio dramas in the 80s late at night when I couldn’t sleep.  It took a bit of searching to find the make and model of the radio as I just remembered the map that came with the set, but it appears they are for sale from time to time on Ebay and sites like that.  I wish I remember what happened to that set, it was well made and would be a nice addition to my shack.

http://www.worldofradio.com/

Mr. Glenn Hauser has an interesting show on shortwave that I caught on 7.731.  He talks about interesting events on the spectrum.  Definitely a show I will listen to regularly as it exactly what I am interested in.  His website has a lot of information and should consume a few hours of reading.

This is the first time I have seen this sort of format – a station transmitting in a four segment transmission.  A carrier, a voice segment slightly higher, a tone segment slightly higher than that, then a data segment beyond that.

They transmit the time in English and French, with a tick beep for seconds, and every minute they send a digital encoded time.

I will have to see if there is a decoder for this or other time stations to synchronize clocks as a project.

This station was fairly easy to find information on, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHU_%28radio_station%29

I have heard of these stations, but had never heard one on the air.  It is in Single Side Band (SSB).  The first voice was female, repeating sequences of letters in the NATO alphabet.  Another voice came on, this one male, beginning at 7PM US EST time.  This second station likely was not collocated with the original because the signal was much weaker.  Some websites identify this as a Strategic Command frequency, which makes it even more interesting.  I will have to continue to monitor this one regularly.

Interesting to finally catch one of these stations on the air.

This was a fascinating find. Apparently this was a maritime station that was idle for many years and then brought back to life by hobbyists. It appears they use the original equipment.

http://www.radiomarine.org/

A little more in depth about the previous log – this was captured using Fldigi – software that can demodulate digital communication modes as well as decode CW (Morse Code). I was able to hear this CW transmission and decode it with Fldigi.

The CQ part is the station requesting to speak with any station. DE means ‘from’, followed by the call sign KPH. QSX is a request to listen on a frequency. The transmitting station then is saying – ‘Any station, this is KPH, please listen for me’.
I am unable to understand the rest, I assume the frequencies that the QSX is meant for.

Very interesting find and it is really great that hobbyists are able to keep this piece of history alive.

on 12.086 MHz in CW mode:

K V EV TV CQ DE KPE KPH KPH QSX 500 4/ /8/ E T/W /22 OBS? AMVER? Q U? ANS 500/HF ITU CHE E<AR>

K VV AI V VEAV CQ DE KPH NEPI KPH QSX 59 O I /6/D REE N16/ E OBS* N? KRU? INS 50E E/HF ITU CH3 <AR>

K VVE UVV V UV DE EPH KP GH QE X 50* E /8X W2/16/22 OT ES? AMVER * QEU? ANS 500 <VE>HF EU CH3 <AR>

K VVV VVV VVV CQ DE KPH KPH KPS QSX E 10 4/6/8/12/ W6/22 HS? AMVER? QRU? ANS 00/HF I V E K VVV V EV U5 CQ DE UPH KPH KPH Q 5O T0 T/B I8/12X W6 J*
WBS* AMVEA L Z RU? ANS 500/HF ITU CH3 <AR>

K UVV VVH UV NQ DE KPH KPH KPH QSX 500 4/6/8/12X A6/2F O SS* AMVE * <AA>RU? ANS 500/IF IT CH3 <AR>

K VVV VVV A CQ DE KPH KPH KPH
<AA>SX 500 4/6/8/ M2/W S/* J OBSI AMVER* T EU? ES 50* I I ITU CH3 <AR>

12.806 MHz is not an amateur allocation so this conversation is something other than US amateur traffic.