147.435 - The Repeater Beyond Human Comprehension

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Re: 147.435 - The Repeater Beyond Human Comprehension

Post by ericbarbour » Sun Jun 05, 2022 12:44 am

You find all this strange, but it's been a routine characteristic of shortwave broadcasters for decades. Made easier by modern solid-state transmitters that allow the station to change frequencies by just punching a few settings on a PC. Even the antenna tuners are automated for "ease of use".

I am still amazed there is ANY broadcasting on SW today. No one knows how large the audience is (have seen only very rough estimates) and it almost certainly has declined greatly post-Cold-War and thanks to the internet. Those bands still exist only because of international treaties that would be difficult to renegotiate. The FCC would certainly love to sell off the entire radio spectrum to corporations, but they can't. Some UN members would object strongly because they still use SW.

For example: the Chinese goverment uses the crap out of the 41-meter and 25-meter bands. Propaganda? Dunno, never heard any of it. Most of what I can get in California is usually in Spanish.

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Re: 147.435 - The Repeater Beyond Human Comprehension

Post by Strelnikov » Mon Jun 06, 2022 3:48 pm

ericbarbour wrote:
Sun Jun 05, 2022 12:44 am
You find all this strange, but it's been a routine characteristic of shortwave broadcasters for decades. Made easier by modern solid-state transmitters that allow the station to change frequencies by just punching a few settings on a PC. Even the antenna tuners are automated for "ease of use".

I am still amazed there is ANY broadcasting on SW today. No one knows how large the audience is (have seen only very rough estimates) and it almost certainly has declined greatly post-Cold-War and thanks to the internet. Those bands still exist only because of international treaties that would be difficult to renegotiate. The FCC would certainly love to sell off the entire radio spectrum to corporations, but they can't. Some UN members would object strongly because they still use SW.

For example: the Chinese goverment uses the crap out of the 41-meter and 25-meter bands. Propaganda? Dunno, never heard any of it. Most of what I can get in California is usually in Spanish.
I checked and WWCR is running on both 7490 kHz and 5442 kHz, so I don't get it. Allan Weiner's WBCQ was running on that frequency (5442) at one time, so they might be trying to horn in there. It's not a harmonic of 7490 kHz as far as I can tell. I've seen photos of modern US shortwave stations, I know how automated and computer-controlled they are. Which makes the 5442 kHz thing even more bizarre, because they are directly doing this.

....I am still amazed there is ANY broadcasting on SW today. No one knows how large the audience is (have seen only very rough estimates) and it almost certainly has declined greatly post-Cold-War and thanks to the internet. Those bands still exist only because of international treaties that would be difficult to renegotiate. The FCC would certainly love to sell off the entire radio spectrum to corporations....

You've written that before, in an email. I agree that the FCC are corporate stooges and the last FCC Chairman (Ajit Pai) was a creature of the the telecom industry. Shortwave broadcasters know their audience from the emails they get from them, the QSL card requests, and WTWW's Golden Oldies/Schlock Rock show has an online request page. Email has made all of this quicker. Remember that the stations stay on the air from the shows buying airtime, and most of them are religious nutballs -- the ones with the real cash are the cults like the World's Last Chance people, the Overcomers' Ministry (formerly R.G. Stair's, now run by "Pastor" James RIce), and the "University Network" of Melissa Scott's edited tapes of Gene Scott, among others. They will use anything from websites to radio in all bands to get their message out, to get donations and followers.

The deal with the Chinese is that the 41 meter (they bleed into the 40 meter ham band after midnight) and 25 meter stuff is meant to hit the Chinese inside the PRC, hit the Taiwanese, hit any Mandarin speakers in America with a SW radio or a dongle on their laptop. I've heard them broadcast in Russian and French. All state shortwave broadcasters have multiple programs in various languages, and the Chinese are trying to show that they are competent operators, along with impressing on "Overseas Chinese" that the homeland knows what is doing. That the search term "Chinese explosion" turns up multiple chemical plant blasts speaks to the opposite.
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Re: 147.435 - The Repeater Beyond Human Comprehension

Post by ericbarbour » Thu Jun 09, 2022 1:30 am

Strelnikov wrote:
Mon Jun 06, 2022 3:48 pm
I checked and WWCR is running on both 7490 kHz and 5442 kHz, so I don't get it. Allan Weiner's WBCQ was running on that frequency (5442) at one time, so they might be trying to horn in there. It's not a harmonic of 7490 kHz as far as I can tell. I've seen photos of modern US shortwave stations, I know how automated and computer-controlled they are. Which makes the 5442 kHz thing even more bizarre, because they are directly doing this.
If they are well-funded, buying used transmitters and ancillaries would be no problem. The FCC obviously doesn't care how many channels they occupy. And since the VOA and various other "state sponsored" SWBs have been cutting back, I suspect there are a lot of big SW transmitters available now. This is probably why the PRC is getting bolder with their own SW "outreach". Back in the 1960s and 70s I personally heard examples of SWBs (religious or political) trying to openly jam each other's programs. VOA stations were "popular targets" and not just because the USSR didn't like them.
Shortwave broadcasters know their audience from the emails they get from them, the QSL card requests, and WTWW's Golden Oldies/Schlock Rock show has an online request page. Email has made all of this quicker. Remember that the stations stay on the air from the shows buying airtime, and most of them are religious nutballs -- the ones with the real cash are the cults like the World's Last Chance people, the Overcomers' Ministry (formerly R.G. Stair's, now run by "Pastor" James RIce), and the "University Network" of Melissa Scott's edited tapes of Gene Scott, among others. They will use anything from websites to radio in all bands to get their message out, to get donations and followers.
That was generally true for broadcasting going right back to its murky origins. Father Coughlin, John Brinkley, Paul Rader, list goes on and on. You can always reach fresh suckers via radio. My point is: the broadcasters know their audience, but they don't share their information or mailing lists with anyone. Actual commercial stations want to maximize audiences and ad revenue, so they are willing to try anything, including third-party "open" rating services like Arbitron. By comparison these SW people are secretive and weird.

Is WBCQ still giving Hal Turner airtime? That's a REALLY bad idea. Not that it will stop them or him. "Well, Sean Hannity is an old friend" ha ha etc. etc. Supposedly WBCQ will cheerfully sell airtime to any crank with cash.

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Re: 147.435 - The Repeater Beyond Human Comprehension

Post by Strelnikov » Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:53 am

More of that wall-to-wall WARFA jamming, 40 minutes worth: https://archive.org/details/warfa-main- ... 3908.0k-hz Jamming was going on when I hit record.

I think I started recording this one at 8:01pm so its a complete net recording. Jamming starts up at 2:53 in the recording.
https://archive.org/details/warfa-main- ... 3908.0k-hz
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Re: 147.435 - The Repeater Beyond Human Comprehension

Post by Strelnikov » Mon Jun 27, 2022 5:33 am

More pointless crap:

https://archive.org/details/kj-6-jka-co ... 3908.0k-hz
This is Willard Young (KJ6JKA) one for the WARFA net operators checking his audio after the Thursday (6-23) session. He's done this before, and this might be a soundboard clip from the jammers. It says 6-24 because the recorder is set up for Coordinated Universal/Greenwich Mean ("Zulu") time.

https://archive.org/details/warfa-relay ... 3890.0k-hz
Tonight's jamming of the WARFA relay frequency at 3.890 Mhz (3890 kHz) after 8 04pm (they don't start using it until the jamming of the main frequency starts, and the jamming was from 8pm on.) As far as I know, the WARFA net is the only net in the United States that has been jammed year after year, and this has supposedly gone on for 15 years.

https://archive.org/details/warfa-main- ... 3908.0k-hz
The main frequency of WARFA (Western Amateur Radio Friendship Assoc.) jammed from start to near finish. This was tonight (06-26) and they were done by 8 45 PST instead of 9:00 pm.
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Re: 147.435 - The Repeater Beyond Human Comprehension

Post by Strelnikov » Sat Jul 09, 2022 7:32 am

https://archive.org/details/the-wtf-sig ... 3885.0k-hz
Snippet of strange transmission that ran from 8:02 to 8:57pm. Looks like they were transmitting in sideband. Loud and strange. No voice, music, etc. If they were jamming, they were jamming dead air.

https://archive.org/details/warfa-main- ... 3908.0k-hz
Relentless collage jamming, parody songs, etc. aimed at the Western Amateur Radio Friendship Association on their main frequency of 3908 kHz (3.908 Mhz). This went on before the check-in net began, on top of the awful early July band conditions for 75 meters. They gave up before 9pm.

https://archive.org/details/warfa-relay ... 3890.0k-hz
Good example of how bad 75 meters can sound in the middle of the summer. No jamming.

***

I think I've made my point uploading these WARFA recordings -- William F. "Billy" Crowell* or his friends/cronies are still jamming a boring ham radio check-in net because Crowell is just that petty over some nonsense that happened nearly 20 years ago. This is what happens when you are an ex-lawyer who lives out in the middle of nowhere; you just go insane and run a vendetta on shortwave amateur radio. The length of this feud reminds me of the Owen Oyston affair in Britain, where for 15 years (1983-96) a real estate man and fish and chip shop owner, Michael Murrin, was used as a catspaw by some Conservative Party members to find anything against Labour supporter and businessman Owen Oyston. Millions were spent investigating and it turned up very little, and it wrecked Murrin and spoiled some important business deals Oyston was trying to start in Lancashire as Thatcherism was de-industrializing Britain. Nobody gained anything.

https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/arti ... on-affair/

* ex-W6WBJ. He lost his license two years ago and yet he is still possibly jamming. I wish I could "fox hunt" in Diamond Springs just to see if it is actually his transmitter or if it is some other goober.
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Re: 147.435 - The Repeater Beyond Human Comprehension

Post by Strelnikov » Wed Jul 20, 2022 3:18 am

Late response:
.....My point is: the broadcasters know their audience, but they don't share their information or mailing lists with anyone. Actual commercial stations want to maximize audiences and ad revenue, so they are willing to try anything, including third-party "open" rating services like Arbitron. By comparison these SW people are secretive and weird.

Is WBCQ still giving Hal Turner airtime? That's a REALLY bad idea. Not that it will stop them or him. "Well, Sean Hannity is an old friend" ha ha etc. etc. Supposedly WBCQ will cheerfully sell airtime to any crank with cash.
The SW people pay for the broadcasting by selling the airtime, and they will run ads on shows that allow for it. Alex Jones' InfoWars is chock full of them; meanwhile (dead) R.G. Stair is completely ad-free because the cult pays for everything, so they can either run ancient tapes of him making predictions of events that never happened or the new leader "Pastor Rice" leading an actual church service. I consider all the US shortwave stations I have written about to be commercial because they sell the airtime; also Arbitron doesn't apply to shortwave, only AM, FM, and digital subchannels of a broadcast signal.

Is WBCQ still giving Hal Turner airtime? That's a REALLY bad idea. Not that it will stop them or him. "Well, Sean Hannity is an old friend" ha ha etc. etc.

They give him airtime because the checks clear and WBCQ says "free speech" like a mantra. Remember they also sell time to the Overcomers' Ministry of the dead Ralph Gordon Stair, and Allen Weiner himself spoke up for Stair in 2018: https://overcomerministry.org/wp-conten ... evised.mp3
Weiner and his wife went down to Stair's farm/compound in South Carolina more than once, claimed it wasn't an oppressive hellhole.
Allan is a very weird dude.

Supposedly WBCQ will cheerfully sell airtime to any crank with cash.

That is true of every English-language shortwave station inside the United States, possibly any non-government Spanish broadcasters.

Bonus:

https://archive.org/details/warfa-main. ... 3908.0k-hz

Copypasted from site:
Against my better judgement, here is last Sunday's WARFA net recording. The check-in net itself starts 11-plus minutes into the recording. Band conditions were Summer awful for 75 meters; you could not make out the Hi-Fivers check-in net that runs before WARFA. Jamming began 30-plus minutes in and lasted the rest of the allotted time for the net. Soundboard collage, WA7BZI recordings, stuff from the 3840 kHz days. All of it run through Audacity by the jammer(s) so the jamming is easy to comprehend by us. The FCC has let the rot go to the bone at the top of the 80 meter band.

Yet again recorded off the KFS WebSDR in Half-Moon Bay, CA.
warfa.org
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