Mysterious Signal on CB Radio - What is This and Where is it Coming From?
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- Опубліковано 8 лип 2024
- I've been hearing a a mysterious signal on CB radio lately. What is it and where is it coming from? If you know, leave me a comment below.
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CB isn't dead..! Remember it's the OG of social media and no data pirates stealing your data for using their service. Time to get more people involved and get back to analog days... Keep spreading the word... 😎☯️
didnt' CA outlaw analog setups? They're trying hard to shutdown all forms of communications in liberal cities.
I got one need to see about this
@William Mills maybe but I wouldn't call SW "social media"
cb was the social internet of its time back then
"OG"?
I am in Connecticut. And I get singles like that also on channel 38. It turned out to be my neighbors had electronic dog fence.
A single signal
I heard a strange noise on my CB radio. Turned out it was kids playing with an RC car in the street. When I keyed up my radio, it stopped the car in the street.
😂
Sounds like you may have been using a linear amp!
When you think you are very close to the signal look for the third harmonic on a frequency of 81.765 MHz
Most radio signals have 3rd harmonics but most are filtered down to a very low level, however, when you are very close to the signal you can usually pick it up and then you can home in on the transmitter site using this weaker signal.
I hope that helps and good hunting 73
Great effort! I think what you are picking up is SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition). Almost every utility in America has SCADA equipment in use. Very low data rate and very bursty as you've discovered. Well done!
Yeah but most of that is on ethernet or wifi, no?
@@oatlord Or, on phone lines using analog data circuits, like our power company uses.
@@oatlord friends with a SCADA engineer and no, they are carried on the HV lines as well as via radio and over the internet usually. SCADA is used in controlling everything from power production and substations to the smart transformers out on the pole.
Modern power networks have lots of monitoring for ensuring no downtime occurs. | so if this signal is HV, it maybe just a old radio-backup tranceiver at a substation that the crystal has malfunctioned dropped out of frequency.
I dont know much about how it works over the HV line between recievers, but it could be some how radiating from a exposed HV line too.
Subscribed. I'm not knowledgeable with RF, but I really enjoyed your investigation. Your calm demeanor and love for RF shows in your delivery. Please keep them coming.
It's so sad the CB radio has died out so much. I had the time of my life during the late 70s and all through the 80s. So many radios I owned. From a 5 channel Base Johnson tube radio to a Cobra 2000. My 1st export mobile radio in 1988. The Superstar 3600, and Galaxy 2100. Wow they were amazing radios.
I’m with ya, had Ham International Multimode, a Nato 2000 and various other rigs and all running through a 200 watt burner going out a comtel 5/8th wave aerial
Still got a Superstar 360 fm mkii that replaced my Cobra 148gtldx that was stolen (still got my cobra powermike tho). Happy days from the 80s and 90s started on AM with a midland 100, then a trc421a realistic then a cb master 2080 before moving to a pegasus3, There’s still a president or 2 up in my loft somewhere, so kinda old school stuff. Eventually forced onto FM by UK law, had all the usual stuff Binatone 5 star, York jcb863, finally found the cybernet beta3000 worked well for me and had a small enough profile to be tucked into handy spaces when moving between vehicles (once I fitted a plug to the power lead). Made a lot of friends through cb, and still grow the magmount up on the car some times although almost no one on there now round here
@@warweezil2802 I started off with the amstrad, you know the one with LED signal display. Moved onto the audioline 342, then quickly moved onto the ones I mentioned. Had the tear drop power mike. Then i discovered girls and it went down hill from there 😂😂😂
@@seancorrigan I had an Astatic Teardrop, it got stolen with the Cobra - I'd love another one. I guess you are referring to the Amstrad 901 bleedover box. Terrible radios if you had another breaker nearby 😳.
@@warweezil2802 that’s the one, i was only 13 at the time but soon moved up to the 342 I loved the days, especially when I got my burner and the ham international Multimode, even breakers from Harlow would get the ump cos I was bleeding over their channels 😂😂😂
Great job and thorough effort investigating that signal. Been puzzled by the same ones for a while, but I think you are on target with that repeater brand you found. Awesome vid!
It’s a transponder system. We have them in my area too. They send temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, all kinds of data. One place we found was in the middle of nowhere from a building that appeared to be abandoned. If nobody cared to turn it off, it might well be abandoned!
By the way, I also have a President Madison as well as a President Adams. Both were modified to 197 channels back in the early 80’s. Great radios!
I had one like this before. Tracked it down to a restaurant. Its the table waiting coasters that light up when your table is ready.
Interesting...there isn't a restaurant that uses those within 10 miles of me though. Doubt I'm hearing them this far out
I would think they would use pager freqs, but maybe not
That's interesting!!!
@Brian J. Medina You and I would get along just fine. Back in the day, 88'-93', I lived in Las Vegas. My cousin and I, in his 1984 Nissan King Cab 4X4, using a President HR2510 and a 1KW linear, connected to a 102 inch steel whip antenna, would drive down the old original strip, which has far less sophisticated old radio systems inside the small casinos, as well as the outside overhead speakers that would play music at low volume as you walked down from casino to casino. Used to drive by, kick on that linear, key up and say, "Slot cheat Isle 4!", or something like that, and you could see inside all the security running around trying to figure it out. Or we'd use a broadcaster type voice and announce certain food specials going on at that moment to get the attention of the gamblers, who would start walking towards the restaurant in that particular casino. The funniest to me, were, a lot of the convenience stores, would have clerks that would bring their own personal ghetto blaster to work so they could listen to music while they were working. My cousin or myself would go in, while the other stayed in the truck parked really close to the building, key that thing up, and say all sorts of foul mouthed shit about the clerk, and the people inside. It didn't matter how high or low the volume was on the radio, when you kicked that thing on, it was so loud it was impossible to miss. I used to see the clerks banging on the radio, cursing back at it, not knowing where it was coming from, and watching all the customers inside while I was standing in line, all staring at the clerk like he was crazy. I tried to keep a straight face, but, it cracked me up so hard every time.
Imagine that - pager coasters shooting skip and such unintentionally. lol
I was in the Radio signal search years ago in the Service . I would say you did a great job in finding and identifying these signals . If your radio that had a direction finding antennae . Stronger when point at the signal and weaker when turned away. The were used in Service to find VC transmitters . But I have to say what a great thinker you are and what a great job you did.
These signals should be reported to the FCC as an interference signal. As such, they can locate the source. It is their job, if they are willing to do it with the lack of staffing. However, when a company is using transmitters which vastly exceed the 4-watt power limit, these surely would not be FCC approved or accepted. Therefore, the company can be fined for making such a non-certified radiation device. In fact, I would show the FCC a copy of Linear's poop-sheet which advertises a product in violation of the FCC's rules.
Coming from a former FCC agent and retired tech, get yourself a directional antenna and receiver pair with adjustable gain, and/or build yourself a doppler df. Take bearings on the signals, it will tell you if you are dealing with more than one and how many. When you get really close to a transmitter, disconnect the antenna. Your receiver should bbe able to still pick it up if you are within yards and you'll even be able to tell when you are within inches of the transmission source.
Sir, I am fluent in six million forms of communication, This signal is not used by the Alliance. It could be an imperial code.
You win the internet best line for the day, Sir.
@@JimNichols hahaha! Thanks man.
Cool reply. Brightened up my day.
Give that man a restraining bolt
@Uintabri stand by ion control.
Interesting find. Thanks for sharing the "journey". Best wishes on discovering it. I look forward to a future video.
I really enjoyed this and the tenacity to find the signal....well done on both the find and the video. Thank you for uploading.
We have these in the Tampa area, before they were the digital packet bursts, it used to be two tones an octave apart. It switched to the digital bursts sometime around 2000. We tracked the signals to various water pumping stations. It's always a small shack, usually located in a public park, with a fiberglass CB antenna.
That was a great effort in trying to track down the source. Well done. I wish that a bunch of guys like you lived closer to me. Weekends would be awesome! Greetings from Arizona.
Think of me as your internet radio buddy. I'm around whenever you want and I come with a mute button. (Stole that line from another youtuber)
@@petemitchell6788 That remark was rude and uncalled for.
@@mikeburch2998 Don’t pick on him. That’s just what people with no friends say of others that they think have no friends.
@@threadie, thank you, thank you. Sometimes people’s lives suck so bad, they’re not content unless they’re bringing someone else down.
Greetings from El Mirage. I haven't used my old radio in 24 years. Still out in the garage in its box. I may go buy a cheap magnet base antenna one day and see if it still works. It was nothing fancy but after the shop over on either 32nd street south of Bell or Cave Creek rd. I forget which, but the tuned and peaked it, set the swr (?) in my old truck and it talked great. I took the truck to them, they pulled it out, took it inside and did their magic, reinstalled it, worked with the antenna and then it worked great.
What a great, entertaining video! I really enjoyed this. Wish it would have been more definitive at the end, but you gave it a great shot! Nice work!
In the 80's cb was big on Long Island. So many funny people. A lot of characters. It was like yahoo chat rooms only people were close enough to have cb breaks and hang out and get into all kinds of mischief..
From Wikipedia regarding the RC "A" channels and ch.23:
"Among several other services that share the CB frequencies is the former Class C Citizens Band service, renamed to the Radio Control Radio Service (RCRS) in 1976, outlined in Subpart C of the Part 95 rules for radio-controlled ("R/C") devices. No voice transmissions are permitted. It has six channels in the 27 MHz band. Five are unused 10 kHz CB assignments between channels 3-4, 7-8, 11-12, 15-16 and 19-20, and the sixth is shared with Channel 23. R/C transmitters may use up to 4 watts on the first five channels and 25 watts on the last, 27.255 MHz. Some in-house paging systems, and car alarms with a paging feature, also use these frequencies, especially 27.255 where the higher power is permitted."
I've been into radio since the early 1970s and never knew this.
@@BryanTorok yeah, it's not legal, but I used 'em all the time back in the 80s when the band was wall-to-wall noise.
RC cars haven't used these frequencies in years unless it's some incredibly inexpensive Chinese toy. Almost everything has gone to 2.4g.
the 27MHz band has really become a bit of a dumping ground. Basically no wiggle room whatsoever between 8.3KHz and 275GHz(!!!) on the spectrum plan.
The reservoir is the water supply. To transport the water to the population center, the water flows through pipes. But water can’t flow uphill. So the water flows into a “Lift Station” where it is pumped up into a tank, then the water is released into a pipe and flows downhill to the next pump station. This continues dozens or hundreds of times until the water reaches its intended destination. Each lift station will have a SCADA UHF radio transmitter with a yagi antenna, usually pointed towards a tall tower where it is received. If there is a problem at the receiving site, then the pump stations couldn’t work as well and the flow rate could not be controlled. The data transmitted on the CB channel is backing up the UHF system and can continue to work without the centralized infrastructure.
Wrong.
Somehow the Chinese did it.
I think this is a good possibility. There are pump stations all through the city and county where I live. There are lakes and the electric company uses the water to generate electricity via steam.. Water is taken from our lake and put into the larger shallow lake. The pump stations all have yagi antennas.
@@chancellor170 Why? Explain
@@chancellor170 Channel 23 - 27.255 MHz - Shared with high power data link and R/C systems.
That antenna on the building at the dam may have been for a receiver, so no transmitted signal you'd pick up. As others have said, a direction-finding loop antenna may be your best bet to track down a specific transmitter. I'm assuming there are multiple; even in the first part of your video from the base radio you could hear differences in the audio signal, matching up with different RF signal levels on the CB S-meter. Kudos for finding those FSK units, gives you more ideas of what to look for, physically.
I was originally into CB back in the early '70s, before and during the big boom and the 23-to-40 channel growth. Like the early Internet, much nicer before the boom! Back then we discovered a doctor or chiropractor who used a diathermy device for treatments, I forget what exact frequency it used in the 27 MHz band, but it killed CB reception for a few channels surrounding it in that neighborhood while it was in use. We did some of the same steps you are now using in order to find it. (Not the SDR spectrum analysis, at least! 😉) Somewhere I have a book from back then with plans to make a direction finding loop antenna with either copper pipe or coax. I'm sure somewhere online you can find plans for an equivalent.
Good luck & have fun!
I was involved in CB radio back in the late 60's into the early 70's. We were on the air nearly 24/7 in the Houston area and had a blast. On weekends we would drive down to the beach (Gulf Coast), back the truck down to the water, and throw a chain connected to the truck bumper into the Gulf. We could skip to Florida and beyond using the Gulf of Mexico as our ground plane. Ahhh, those were the days.
I’m picking up similar sounds near me on the same frequency on USB. I live fairly close to an industrial park so it could possibly be coming from a transmitter there. Seems to come through every 5 seconds and be around 2 seconds long
I enjoy this sort of RF sleuthing. I once heard an endless signal that sounded like very slow, spastic CW on my LowFer receiver at 180 kH. I tried to decode it as Morse, but it was impossible. Then, after monitoring it for about 3 days I walked into my lab/ham shack, and heard the signal and saw at the same time my WWVB reciever's signal being displayed on my 'scope. They were synchronized. My mystery signal was the 3rd harmonic of the WWVB transmitter on 60 kHz, located 50 miles away from me in Ft. Collins, CO.
Wow, hearing a whole bunch in Rockland Co. Ny. Fron S-0 to 40 over. Interesting
This certainly brings back memories. Back in the early 60's I was in to a lot of stuff including CB and model rockets too. I was probably around 10 years old and didn't have a lot of money so I couldn't keep buying new rockets when we lost one. I built a transmitter that could be launched with the rocket. it was crystal controlled on channel 4 CB. I had a plastic Hula Hoop that was almost a perfect circumference for a 1/4 wave antenna on 11 meters (102") I put a 7pf pico adjustable cap across the top and fed the coax with the inside to one side and the shield to the other with the cap connected at the top. After it was tuned to the transmitter I could read the signal about 1/2 mile while the model rocket was still in the air, dropping with the parachute. So we would head out on our bicycles the direction with a walkie and the Hula Hoop listening at the 1khz tone (back then it was kilocycles lol) Always found the critter. It would launch out of sight and the wind direction could be much different at altitude compared with the ground conditions. One day there was this signal sweeping the band from below channel 1 to above the band. (at the time only 23 channels) . A long bike ride later (3 miles) I found the culprit. It was a chiropractor's office across town. Apparently they were using an apparatus that generated RF in the 11 meter band to help heal muscle damage. Later in life I had the opportunity to repair one of these. It used a horizontal output television tube for the output stage. (6JE6) It wasn't a stable frequency though. It would drift up the band as it heated up.
I'm 30 years old and my first time seeing ham radios and cbs and all that was in cannada as a boy scout when I was 9 I never really got into ham radios and cb radios and all that mainly because I don't understand the fun in talking over a radio but it is really cool seeing what y'all are able to do with analog communications.
If I recall correctly 6je6 put out around 20W and can be even more powerful if used for rf signals. It would put alot of harmonics too. That's great.
Good tube back in day just expensive now thank got 2 in drake transmitter there blast even on 11 meter s
My bad about drake transmitter had 6jb6 tube
Cool "detective" work. Radio is STILL fun and full of "mystery"! Just subbed!
A loop antenna and a signal attenuator should lead you right to the source.
Excellent video. The signal you are hearing sounds like telemetry or SCADA and is being used for some sort of commercial/industrial application. The burst lengths are consistent and frequency stability appears solid on each transmission. The appearance of these bursts on different frequencies is likely due to the signals operating on different assigned channels in order to avoid talking over one another. Hope you find the source.
so interesting, I have been on the edge of radio as a hobby for years, kinda looking in at all the interesting things you can hear out there. thank you for taking time to show me and others that radio is awesome
Glad you enjoyed this!
Stay on it! I have no insight to add but very much support you continuing and figuring it out 🙏👍😎
A RDF Loop for receiving only (low currents) is fairly light. It's a bit big at 11m, but it would definitely weed out a lot of the guesses. The VHF looking vertical yagi antenna near the Weather Station is probably a data link for the weather data network. I see two of them pointing 180 degrees apart. Might be a relay link as well. I am not sure how easy an active Doppler RDF is to do at 11meters. Thanks for getting my curiosity going. Great video!
My company has an alarm system that continually checks battery power levels on wearable pendants and undercounter panic buttons. This could be something similar, but for large pieces of equipment over longer distances.
50 years ago here in Australia, most such things (hospital paging systems amongst others) were on 27mhz, when CB was finally legalised here (US system) they migrated all of it to a UHF ISM band in the 433mhz range. SCADA stuff is invariably UHF or 2.4ghz now, nothing left on 27mhz. We have a UHF CB system as well in the 476-477mhz band (either 40ch or 80ch narrowband depending on your equipment) and it allows repeaters and a full 5w out on FM.
Thank you for taking the time to make and post this interesting video.... LM
I was getting those signals a couple years ago once in the morning and once at night , I bought a trifold signal replicater and rebroadcasted to pinpoint the application. It took me a week to find it , so for that whole week I was turning the signal on and off like a thousand times only to find out it was a remote controlled irrigation pump on a rice field. When I found it there was some guys from the company changing out the transmitters, I didn't stop I just kept on driving
Interesting bit of detective work there, I'm in the UK and have the same SDR setup as yourself and you've aroused some interest in me to see if we have anything similar over here. It seems like just about every utility at least has some sort of telemetry system on the go from their properties.
Wow, I really miss CB radios. I still have my JC Penney 6238 base station I bought back in 1981, the same year I got my FCC license. KAZC1792. I don't have the base station hooked up anymore, but as far as I know, it still works. I used it with an antenna I bought at a yard sale that I attached to a 20 foot pole. Since I live in the sparsely populated Mojave desert with no tall buildings to block the signal, I could transmit and receive for miles. It was an awesome hobby back in the day.
Clearly you have far more experience than I do with CBs. I have no clue what that strange signal you are picking up. Nor do I have any of that equipment you are using. All I had is a CB, an antenna, and a lot of fun
You cannot trace the signal source with just a signal level meter. You will find spots where the signal is weak and spots where the signal is strong. You could be in a spot where the signal appears weak and be much closer to the source than a spot where the signal appears much stronger. Signals bounce off of the ionosphere and can add to the original signal to make it appear as a much stronger signal than what it actually is coming directly off of the source antenna. By contrast, the signal that bounces off of the ionosphere could be out of phase with the source signal which would give you a lower signal strength reading.
You should use a directional finder and take several bearings from different places. You can triangulate where the source antenna is. Back in the hay day of CB radio, we use to go out and find people that liked to cause trouble on the channels that we used. It is pretty easy to do.
Back in the 1970s I lived about a mile away from an elder care facility. They had a tone paging system on channel 23 and was easily received on my radio. As you know, this channel is shared with class C and D citizens radio services. Ironically, I later went to work at Fanon Courier company repairing such low power paging equipment. The transmitters only put out no more than 5 watts, but some users placed linear amplifiers on them to boost their range.
And they where in there rights to do so
Wow I've been hearing those signals on channel 23 for years.your research on it was interesting.
Channel 23 - 27.255 MHz - Shared with high power data link and R/C systems - someone is playing with a R/C plane / car / boat etc
@@tihzho Maybe, but it would most likely be a toy R/C plane, car or boat, or someone still using an old school radio from like 15+ years ago. Pretty much everyone in the R/C hobby uses 2.4 GHz DSS radio these days.
@@basshead2003 think most low end cheap rcs still use 27 and 47
I used to get similar noise in my work truck when got near a certain bridge and I noticed one day there was a building below the bridge with a Yagi antenna on top and it was coming from there. Maybe a remote water level sensor? It was strongest in front of the antenna. I could start hearing it about a half mile away and got stronger as I drove closer. It got weaker on the back side of the little beam antenna.
It reminds me a little bit of the signal that some of the car remotes make up on 433.92. The sound and the spectra are pretty similar. 10:29 - Yay foxhunting!! I used to love to do that back when handheld scanners were all the rage. Of course, we didn't have SDRs back then. :-)
It sounds like ATAK signal outputs.
ATAK is a geomapping software for your phone that can be linked to a RF transceiver to transmit position data, chat, image (map) data, as well as updates from each device.
Its limited by the radios range, and also can be used to actively triangulate the locations of devices on a specific digital server over RF.
The military uses a more advanced version of it to actively track the positions of squad member up to air and ground assets, and also reported enemy positions with 3d map data.
Cool video! For some reason this reminds me of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Pretty cool and well done video. Just checked it out and I am hearing these signals on 27.255 as well. Using my FT-818 and my end fed some were up to an S8 even. If nothing else this could give you a good indication for propagation. If you suddenly hear a bunch of them strong and constantly there's a good chance 10 meters and maybe 6 meters is open!
Where I live, the telemetry from water towers put out data bursts that sound exactly like this. The difference is that they aren't as frequent as what you have in this video. They transmit a short burst every few minutes or so. Also, they transmit on 451.000 Mhz, and not anywhere near the CB band. If you ever find the source, please make a follow up video.
You need to make a short directional antenna and get a, map and then drive around the area. And plot the directions from different angles and once you get enough draw the intersecting lines until you reach your target area. Aparantly a loop antenna might do the job as they are used in radio direction finding on lower wavelengths.
A directional antenna is always the key to locating an unknown RF source, maybe not hand-held at that frequency.
Awesome. Im gonna have a look for my self. Exited to see an update video.
My 1st CB was a Radio Shack Tandy 23 Channel mobile CB in my car in 1973, when you needed to also buy a CB liscense (mine was KBAR-3416) I still have a Radio Shack 23 Channel handheld CB. TRC-205, still works great!
How odd. I've never heard that one!
I was wondering if you had ever heard this.
To be honest it reminds me of tracking beacons, like the type you would put on animals. If you live near an ocean or animal reserve you will get beacon crossover on your radios on the CB bands. In Louisiana, it even happens across the TV bands. Also, some old systems use a beacon system that is not shielded. These came on school buses, parachutes, and a lot of things to be honest. You might be picking up a signal close by that has not been found.
Just thought I would let you know that here in Catawba county, North Carolina this CB channel was used by the Waste Water treatment pump stations for a good while and still may be to some degree. You could drive around and come close to one and you would see the classic A99 fiberglass base station antenna attached to a short pole on one of their little brick buildings or on their little chain link fence depending on location and site configuration. When that site would transmit it's data burst (sounding EXACTLY like your video's examples) it would PEG your signal strength meter on your CB! Very common to see these in this area. Not sure what brand of transmitters and receivers they were using. During dry weather, you never heard much activity but when a large rain storm came thru, activity really ramped up! Large storm drain water flow rates I assume. Channel 23 is a "home" channel for a lot of old time CB operators still on the air here so we have been listening to this for years now. I personally worked in the radio shop for the City of Hickory NC for nearly 11 years and asked an individual water dept supervisor what the deal was with the CB antennas on their pump stations and he confirmed it. ( I did the city's 2-way radios for their vehicles and the hand-held radios but was never involved with the water plants telemetry equipment. ) He also said they were in the process of converting it over to a "cellular phone" networked type system instead of the CB band they were using at the time so I didn't pursue the matter any further back then. This was about 10 years ago. Don't hear quite so much of it locally now but when the skip propagation comes in, those transmitters jam up the channel from all over the USA and everywhere else they are still being used!
I never made a follow up video but found similar installations in another town nearby. Thanks for the info!
I get a keypad sounding loud code on 13 every so often here in southeast Wis. But every weekday at 3 pm on the dot I get 9 pounds of pulsing static that lasts until 8:45pm! On weekends it starts in Am hours and stays on until Monday at 4 am. It's across all 40 channels. Ticks me off but I just go to other bands. It's very close to my antenna but I like you can't find the source. Keep looking I'm going to..
You're really bringing back a lot of good memories for me. I haven't turned a CB on in over 20 years. I still have 1 radio. An old President Madison Base station. This kind of makes me want to buy another Starduster, or Antron 99 with some extension poles, and set it all up again. I'm subbed.
I have a madison too...my main radio when I was 16. I plan to get it on the air this winter so stay tuned
I use to use a Robyn T123 base unit when I was a kid back in the 70ies with a silver eage D 104 and a mighty mag antenna was a nice setup.
I think you're hearing master/slave telemetry communications such as you would find on reservoirs, sewers, electricity sub-stations, that sort of thing. You're hearing both sides of the communications: The 'master' - the device that initiates a communication sequence (it says to the slave device, "Hey, give me your data"), and you're hearing the response. My guess is that the fainter of the signals is the master, and the stronger is the slave. I'm a SCADA & Telemetry engineer, so I'm used to listening to this kind of stuff.
My water, electrical and gas meters are all remote reading, as are many municipalities now, this could be what these signals are.
Im no expert in radio signals but telemetry is what I thought it was. Pretty simple digital signal, obviously not digital voice or complex data
That my home ch (23) I like it , that's where i test my old radios . Alfred NYC / PR
Great video, as always. It is nice to see, judging from the comments, that so many people here started with CB radio and then moved up to "better' places. We too, moved up, but we don't forget where we came from. We are keeping CB radio alive..!!! Thank you
When these became popular (and the band actually opened up!) we believed that they were communicating with one another.
I've been around CB for 51 years and wish that the band would open up for one more sunspot cycle before I die.
There's always Sporadic E propagation which happens intermittently about this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere.
@@LouiseBrooksBob , true, but it's nothing like I remember it from 50 years ago or even the last solar peak.
50 years ago, winter season had strong propagation from all over the globe. West Coast stations would dominate from dawn to dusk.
Summertime brought sporadic E and late night meteor scatter. Daytime was typically quiet but by 9pm the southern states blasted in with 20 dB over 9 signals.
The last cycle, with CB now common worldwide, featured something new: polar path flutter on a worldwide heterodyne that came in all night long.
@@petemitchell6788 , I had to check my inventory, but I have 3 VHS machines and a slew of tapes. One is a combo DVD/VHS, one is a 4 head stereo VHS, and one is a regular machine. I seem to have lost the remotes to all if them. I have way more pre-40 channel CB radios.
Sounds like packet radio. Like APRS.
Just make sure that it's not a "mirror" frequency you hear, some receivers with lower selectivity can "hear" data traffic on a frequency several MHz away.
I agree
I remember late 60’s in CT using my cheapo walkie talkie on whatever CB channel those used, hearing tones and what I’d now describe as a data burst, occasional beeping almost Morse code type. Interesting video.
I think you’re on the right track.
I’ve heard that same type of signal a little over cb frequency on lower side band in the past.
This may be a waste of time, but I wonder if the signal would be stronger if you checked the next harmonic up and down.
Something you can do to help you isolate it more is to find where it is the strongest and then remove the antenna and see if you can still hear it.
That should get you within seeing distance. Then set radio on ground and kneel down behind it blocking signal and rotate until you do then look up and move ahead till you find it.
The directional antennas on the building are most likely in the 400MHZ band for weather and water level, temperature, humidity, and flow, telementy. This is a guess from their size and orientation. Those antennas are not in the 11 meter band. If you record the audio and feed it into Audacity, you might be able to find the baud rate, packet format, etc of the signal for signal analysis to better understand the source. A good directional antenna is most useful when hunting those signals. A pair of base loaded dipoles tuned to the 11 meter band can be used to make a DF unit based on time of arrival to DF the signal and track it down. It has been a long time since I have been on a bunny hunt in the 11 meter band. Mobile DF gear is generally home built as DF in this band is not too common. Most DF gear is geared toward the Ham Radio bands using Dopplar or small yagi antennas. Dopplar and Yagi antennas for 11 meters is huge, so other options such as Uadcock, loop, or time of arrival are most effective in a compact package.
Looking at the bursts, it appears to be a polled sensor array with units being polled with responses. A more careful look at the times of the various frequency pairs may reveal a polling sequence over time. It appears none of the transmissions were close to overlapping which indicates a probable host polling setup.
Unfortunately, you are on the other coast so it would be impractical to get with you with my DF gear, It is home built and not easy to package for shipping.
Great video and very interesting. I'm a tech ham and not going any further. But "11 meters" is really where the fun is. I thought you tracking down of that signal was amazing. I can't offer you any help but I'd sure love to know what you eventually find. Thanks for a great video and I appreciated your effort.
Love it when i hear other hams using 11 meters and not being stuck up. I'm also a ham but maaaaaaan i sure have so much fun on 11 meters
After watching this video you might want to do a follow up. The strongest point you had for signals was a power pole which maybe the powerlines are adding to your signal strength. I would deliberately move off site, say the Walmart or the Home Depot and getting a signal strength there away from the power and anything overhead. It does appear to be multiple transmitters.
I agree with the comment about a hand held , directional signal finding fox hunt style antenna and sniff it out !!!
You considered the weaker signals as being farther away, but they could just be attenuated by being indoors or inside part of the dam.
It makes sense that they might use Linear type controllers for some of the dam mechanical parts or machinery.
I've heard that also. Listen in between 27.5 - 27.8 /10 kc steps, for a beep beep followed by a serious tone bust with an almost immediate response, signal level difference between stations. This repeats back and forth several times. Strong signals up to S-9. buzzing woodpecker sound
Wow this brings back memories. I lived about 3 miles from a hospital and they had a Diathermy machine that could be heard across the CB band. It wasn’t the same signal you have but it pulsed and could be heard over a wide area. “
Description of Function Short wave diathermy produces high frequency alternating current. The heat energy obtained from the wave is used for giving pain relief to the patient. 2 Operational Requirements A device using electromagnetic energy in the shortwave frequency range (3-30 MHz) for therapeutic purposes.”
We had glass factory in our state that used to heating to fuse the glass as a system tech for charter before digital revolution that rf would pulse creating rf disturbance resulting in familiar 60 cycle humm or known as humm bars on TV video this distortion was focused to about 20 miles from factory ( which at the time operated 24/7 only seriously interfering with the ch 3 frequency on the old 6 mhz tv spread band
We had glass factory in our state that used RF heating to fuse the glass as a system tech for charter before digital revolution that rf would pulse creating rf disturbance resulting in familiar 60 cycle humm or known as humm bars on TV video this distortion was focused to about 20 miles from factory ( which at the time operated 24/7 only seriously interfering with the ch 3 frequency on the old 6 mhz tv spread band
I don't know anything about radio but there is no way I would live in a house directly in front of a dam like that.
the houses probably pre-date the dam and some might have actually been converted into offices for rangers, dam employees, etc. - easier to maintain existing buildings rather than build new? who knows?
Great video! Interesting indeed
I rarely get down in the CB band, but I thought I'd give it a listen. I'm in Indiana
Didn't hear anything on 27.255 but I'm getting the steady digital sound on 27.250
It's stronger on my vertical. At one point I was thinking the utility company sends data/control down the lines. But that's usually low band and that signal would be stronger horizontal, not vertical.
Interesting
Excellent detective work! Time to get a few hams and do a "Fox Hunt" as a group! With such help you will find what you're looking for!
Maybe this is the answer to the Fermi paradox?
I would add the following sites to your search: railroad crossings (the signals and gates can be remotely controlled), disaster siren towers (there's something that would want an intermittent "status" signal to be passed between the controller and the controlled equipment), and finally (and this would be my personal prime suspect) railroad switch points.
Great detective work! Please keep is posted.
Great idea!!! Thanks I'll add those to the list
are you sure about that? everything is wired here in the US from what I see, all still relay controlled mostly. the only things I know the railroad uses is PTC (220 MHZ), and if the RR still has it, ATLS in the 900s. also UHF frequencies 457.9375, 452.9375 and 457.925 are the frequencies for equipment such as end/head of train devices, and distributed power controllers (remote control for engines in the middle or back of trains).
@@ntekniklaus3710 Correct. Railroad signals and crossings are basic relays. They activate when the wheels shunt the rail at certain points.
@@CMDR.Gonzo.von.Richthofen or wires between to tracks as I leanred ;)
@@SevenFortyOne It is not going to be the railroads, police, fire, city, county or any entity like that; all of these would by some form of grant or licence be allocated the frequencies they use in a business band and not in the CBRS band - that is allocated for its own uses.
I had Snake Customs rebuild my Cobra 2000 I'll have to take a listen. Sounds interesting to me.
It is possible that the signal is part of a telemetry system that transmits data from the dam to another location. That other location receives the data and can also control the outflow of the water from the dam. I worked for a large irrigation district and many canals had monitors that sent data to a central location.
Every signal has its departure point the one I spend a lot of time on is the world wide hum its a VLF constant that started about 10 years ago...apparently not everyone can hear it its akin to being able to hear the 50Hz hum on a household power point (240V 50HZ) here in Australia
My dad used to be the project manager at Buffumville dam in Oxford, MA. They have transmitters that report for data logging of water levels. They are flood control dams, so having accurate monitoring of rising water levels is important... That would explain the transmissions being so frequent... I don't know what frequency they operate on, but that would definitely be my first guess.
That would be my first guess too - BUT the CB band (assuming this is from America) is NOT authorized for this band. A buddy of mine runs the monitoring for my city. I asked him once if he was using the 900 Mhz band. he was. I could tell by the size of the antennas I would see around overpasses. 900 Mhz uses antennas where the elements are only about 4-5" - whereas CB antennas are 9 FEET for a 1/4 wave. The ones you see on cars are usually much shorter (about 3') as the additional 6' is wounds up as a coil. CB is not authorized for digital signals - but they might soon be authorized for FM! The FCC has proposed that and they are using it in Europe already.
@@hotpeppersrcool i expect what is being heard isnt the primary frequency signal, but a harmonic... That would also explain why it seems to be a relatively weak signal, never a full power signal even being right there at the dam... Its basically just a dirty transmitter spilling over into harmonic frequencies in the CB band.
@@hotpeppersrcool In the United States, Part 95 of the FCC rules allow use of the six 26 MHz/27 MHz RC frequencies for high power control, supervision, data link, telemetry networks and "attention getting" devices. Mean (average) power limit is 4 watts on 26.995 MHz, 27.045 MHz, 27.095 MHz, 27.145 MHz, 27.195 MHz and 25 watts on 27.255 MHz. The majority of high power systems use 27.255 MHz - however some do transmit 4 watts on 26.995 MHz. Many of these devices are in use in the United States and elsewhere. Common uses include farming, agribusiness telemetry and remote control, lightning detection systems (with remote sensors and/or remote alarms/sirens) and numerous other applications. Harris Radio (under the brand name PRIVATEPAGE) produced a local area paging system that operates on 27.255 MHz, RadioShack sold two similar versions, one advertised as having a 7 watt transmitter, the other advertised as having a 4 watt transmitter.
Telemetry networks.... Thats the dam. I guarantee it
@@johntetreault I do see where the FCC opened up Channel 23 (27.255) for RCRS. That wasn't the case in "the old days". When Radio Scrap used to have CB's hooked up to an outside antenna to demo I remember you could turn on one of their little RC cars and go to Channel 11 or 12 (I think the RD channel is in-between) and whistle and you could steer the car that way. LOL! I've got a TRAM that has a VFO for receive and it shows where the original RC channels were. CRAZY that you can have 25 watts on Ch 23 now though. I can't find the subpart of 95 that says anything about data - but I did find in the RCRS rules how it is strictly prohibited...
@@johntetreault
§ 95.733 Prohibited RCRS use.
The rules in this section restrict certain uses of RCRS transmitters.
(a) Simultaneous use of multiple channels. An RCRS station must not transmit simultaneously on more than one RCRS channel in the 72-76 MHz band when such operation would cause harmful interference to other RCRS operations.
(b) Data transmission. No person shall use a RCRS transmitter to transmit data. Tones or other types of signal encoding are not considered to be data for the purposes of this paragraph, when used only for the purpose of identifying the specific device among multiple devices that the operator intends to turn on/off or the specific sensor among multiple sensors intended to turn on/off an indicating device for the operator.
(c) Pay for operation prohibited. RCRS stations must not be used for commercial purposes. An RCRS operator must not accept direct or indirect payment for operating an RCRS transmitter. An RCRS operator may use an RCRS transmitter to help him or her provide a service and be paid for rendering that service, provided that the payment is only for the service and not for operation of the RCRS transmitter.
(d) Limited transmission. No person shall use an RCRS station to transmit any message other than for the operation of devices at remote locations. Accordingly, the transmission of other messages by an RCRS operator, such as voice, telegraphy, etc. is prohibited.
Do you have access to a frequency counter? That's sometimes helpful in identifying what an antenna is being used for. I got mine at Radio Shack years ago. If money is no object, you could pick up a doppler radio direction finding kit.
I have heard those signals as well. When the DX rolls in you realize cb isn't dead. There are some heavy hitting stations out there. Some are as powerful as a clear channel station.
Hi, Interesting video, I have a similar problem that is on my 20mtr band. 24/7. On VHF the best way to DF it is to put a directional antenna on a portable radio walk towards the signal when you get full deflection change the antenna to either a lossy one or a dummy load when that is full deflection remove the dummy load and that should bring you to the tx'ing antenna.
This brought up a memory from about 1977-198x. Back then I was into CB (repair as well as use and no, I didn't have a 2nd Class at the time. I did get in trouble thou). 1 night I was talking to a friend on Ch23 and someone keyed a dead carrier on us.
We thought it would go away after about an hour but didn't. So we track down the source and knocked on their door. He said "I have no idea what your talking about." and shut the door. My friend decided to call the Police and of course there was nothing they could do. I said "let's just go to another channel". Anyway, over the years (yep, years) I would go and check it from time to time to see if it was still there and it was. After about 20 or so years the signal had degraded a lot. The x-mitter was dying (and did). To this day I have no idea who or why they had done this. I know it didn't transmit any audio or data. Just a silent carrier.
Oh well.
btw, I did get my 2nd 2 years later.
Cool story!
You should have called the FCC.
At the time, they would have interviened. Transmission time was regulated (5 minutes max)
@@jplacido9999 - My friend said he would call them, but years later I realized that he didn't. Can't talk to him now because he died in 1986 (only 35 at the time).
@@baileyyard5116 I understand my friend. It was a good oportunity.
I'm sorry for the lost of your friend
Odd sounds here in AZ that flow across the entire 11 meter band, sounds like a woodpecker hammering away
The ol'Russian "woodpecker" signal. Look that one up. It's an interesting story.
@@baileyyard5116 The Woodpecker has been silent for a long time. Chernobyl nuclear plant was it's power source.
Great video! Got us a mystery here.
Nice video, I really enjoyed watching and hipe yiu make some more like this, thank you
Have you seen the movie "Independence Day"? They found a strange signal as well.
Just saying
No no no no no nope.
I’m outa here. No no. No. No.
Skynet
@@ericruggles4631 Govnet?
I wonder why camera video from dish network satellite on-board camera was shut down. I think the camera saw something it wasn't supposed to and cia and nsa agents at norad threw a hissy fit.
@John Niedermier, plot twist, the alien signal was actually saying, "Human women, preferably the most attractive of your species, please send nudes".
At my QTH there are several very similar sounding busts in the 433mhz ISM band that is shared with the ham 70cm band... Turns out they were keyless car entry systems!
I'd recommend that you make a loop antenna, and track it down. My guess is that it's some sort of digital monitoring signal. Such signals contain plenty of harmonics, which means lots of RFI. Where I live, the electric power company uses a digital signal, transmitted on the AC lines, to take the "meter readings." Every 15 min. or so, a LOUD buzz comes through every AM radio. It's NOT coming into the radios through the line. It's just as strong in radios running on batteries.
You need to make a homemade direction finder loop antenna..... When you attained the stronger signal at the telephone pole it was just the wires re-radiating the signal giving you a false impression. A very easy direction finder antenna can be made with these components. An old back of TV set UHF loop. A one to one balanced to unbalanced balun. A picofarad range trimmer capacitor hooked parallel across the loop. Six feet of coax. A receiver with an S meter. Adjust the trimmer for two 180 degree deep nulls at the frequency in question with the given length of coax. Without something like this you"ll never find the source.
I agree. This is how to find them/it
I thought the same. In the early 80s I had a handheld loop that worked well. Look for the null in the signal and you had a choice of two directions. Move, redo and triangulate and bingo you're there.
Definate carrier signal in burst. I wonder could it be transient transmissions from glasnost GPS sattalites?
Enjoying your videos and learning a lot! Yes,I’d like to see more CB videos!
Cool! Glad you liked this one
@@SevenFortyOne I’m going to get me a President McKinley on payday along with a President antenna which will extend the warranty to a full 5 years and a power supply and set up a base station! The antenna I’ll use for mobile. I recently purchased the indoor 5 feet Firestik for my base station. I’m very impressed with its performance as I live in Chattanooga and my apartment is on the 7th floor. What a difference that Firestik is making!! I sure don’t want a refund!!
Similar tones here in Central, NJ, just much less frequent.
I live next to a dam( 2 miles away from it) and I don't get any sounds on ch 23 or 11 meters. 11 meters is clean in my neck of the woods. I also have a cell tower 1/2 mile from me and I hear nothing coming from it on 11 meters or ch 23. My house is 300 yards from a water gauge station and I'm not getting any signals from it. I'm using the same omni-directional antenna as you up 60 feet. I'm on the Idaho/Washington border just south of Canada.
Please update us when you figure out where the signal is coming from. Tnx
IM IN ILLINOIS , I HAV HAD THIZ SORTA HAPPEN DUE TO NURSIN-HOME SECURITY DOORZ ...
- Godspeed
As to tracking down the signals, we used to put a magnetic mount antenna on the far back of a metal trunk lid, so the ground plane was all to the front of the car. Failing a metal trunk lid, mount a whip to one back corner to get as much of the metal roof to act like a ground plane as possible.
That is very interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing
Those XT-1 style transmitters are popular for standby generator status. I have a repeater site with a Generac generator that has a remote status panel to let a dispatch center know if the repeater site is on generator power.
Thanks for the info! That's a great tip!
@@SevenFortyOne ham radio traffic
27MHz is part of an ISM band! Your hearing weather sensors, etc! :D
That's why I went to the dam...I was hoping to find some water level sensors or something like that
Deffinately sensors that are reporting to a host. These double sideband signals used to only be available in the military before anybody knew about digital comms. The host asks for reports and the clients report in spaced intervals. Could be any type of sensing network. Nice work!
William Arnold m
@@SevenFortyOne look at the river for a gauging station, should be within a mile of the dam.
@@davemcmurrick7962 Hit the National Weather Service Hydrology page. When you drill down to an individual sensor they will give its location...sometimes with GPS coordinates.