Firedrakes Mar 30, 2013 1420Z-1535Z

[skeezix]

1400Z-1430Z
1420Z 15400 kHz 35433 S7
1430Z Off air

No other Firedrakes found 9-22 MHz 1420Z-1430Z


1430Z-1500Z
1434Z 15870 kHz 15431 S5 Very weak, just above the noise.
1434Z 15800 kHz 15431 S5 Very weak, just above the noise.
1438Z 14980 kHz 25432 S6
1438Z 14750 kHz 45544 S9+ Nice & strong.  Bandwidth looks to be about 16 kHz.
1440Z 13970 kHz 35333 S8
1441Z 13530 kHz 45433 S9
1442Z 13130 kHz 45434 S9+

All off at 1500Z.

No other Firedrakes found 10-22 MHz 1430Z-1445Z


1500-1530Z
None found 12-22 MHz 1500-1530Z


1530Z-1600Z
1535Z 15485 kHz 25332 S5

No other Firedrakes found 10-22 MHz 1530Z-1550Z




_{Perseus SDR with Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop}

[jFarley]

Interesting results, skeezix.  

I notice that 2 of these are covering VO Tibet via Madagascar (15400 @ 1400z, 15485 @ 1530z).  I heard both of these jammers about a week ago.  I also noted that a week ago, the 1430z BC of the VO Tibet on 17535 was left uncovered by FD until very late in the program slot, and that even today you did not note an FD on this freq at this time.

Shhh!  Let's not tell them.

[skeezix]

Mum is the word.

I've also been trying to hear the Voice of Tibet, but so far have yet to hear them. The more elusive they are (or, more specifically, the more they're jammed), the more my curiosity is piqued. But only to a limit with them... they broadcast in Chinese and I only know one word: bing = disease (got that in a fortune cookie).

Token has a couple of great images he posted in another thread of spectrum over about 4.5 MHz of when the Firedrakes come on.
http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,10639.msg31742.html#msg31742

Word on street has it that the Chinese listen to the freqs and if there's a VoT broadcast, then they fire up their transmitters. Looking at Token's second image (since it was at the same time of my loggings in this thread), only 13530 looks like it may have had something on before it. And that was weak at his location.

Looked up 13530 at http://www.short-wave.info and they list Sound of Hope on there from 2000 to 1700Z. But, with 100W non-directional transmitters. Then looked them up on all freqs and they have a lot of 100W non-dir broadcasts. Unless the sun helps our F2 layer, not going to count on hearing them whether or not they're jammed. They also have some broadcasts at 100 kW and 300 kW going to the NW. Perhaps a chance of hearing those. Not giving up on the 100W ones, as that may be generic info to fill in something unknown or they may find another transmitter. Perhaps they can borrow Wolverine's...  

[jFarley]

Well, best of luck with the VOT.  I am off again next Friday and plan to listen again through the sked because it really is a very interesting cat and mouse game, and it's interesting to try to imagine what everyone out there is thinking.  From my notes, a typical patten has the VOT coming on a freq close to what is sked, then a couple of minutes later, a carrier comes on 1 or 2 kHz away from the VOT.  Most often, the FD audio will come on shortly after, but in some cases it seems like the technician never turns on the audio, and this creates a hole for possible VOT reception.

I really wasn't aware of the whole concept of sync'ed audio on multiple FD channels, and I agree, Token's pics are way cool.

[skeezix]

According to http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html, they say that Chinasat 6B delivers the audio to the jamming sites. This would be consistent with hearing exactly the same audio on all of their transmitters.
 

[Token]

Token has a couple of great images he posted in another thread of spectrum over about 4.5 MHz of when the Firedrakes come on.
http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,10639.msg31742.html#msg31742

Word on street has it that the Chinese listen to the freqs and if there's a VoT broadcast, then they fire up their transmitters. Looking at Token's second image (since it was at the same time of my loggings in this thread), only 13530 looks like it may have had something on before it. And that was weak at his location.

VoT is only one of the Firedrakes targets, I think it goes after SoH most often, but also some VOA transmissions.

There were signals on several of the freqs in my image before Firedrake started, but that wide bandwidth scope I showed in those images does not show very weak signals well.

I do believe that the Chinese listen to the freqs before bringing the jammer online.  However, I also think they bring it up at times even when nothing is present.  And as for you or I not hearing / seeing a signal that does not mean that the target area, China, does not have a signal there.  I have used Asian remotes, mostly in Japan, to  confirm stations I had no trace of locally.

T!

[jFarley]

Great points, Token.

So much to learn, so much to learn.  Your posts are really appreciated here.