military

Back into HF

Posted on by VA3DBJ

After a long gap, I am finally back into HF, after grabbing the ETON Elite 750 from Radioworld. It is so nice to hear Gander and New Centre on the Atlantic HF frequencies and the amateur radio operators, hamming it up on the bands.

When you want full shortwave capabilities and a classic design, choose the Elite 750. A 360-degree rotating AM antenna enhances the radio’s ability to pull in weak AM signals. You can also listen to AM, FM , SW, LW, SSB and aircraft band frequencies, and you can program in up to 100 of your favorites for each band. 

I have started the Shortwave – HF page, that I’ll be working on gradually as i progress back into my HF listening. A lot has changed, since the last time I used to monitor the frequencies, but yet at the same time, not much has changed.

Annual Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Exercise Set for May 14

Posted on by VA3DBJ

03/10/2022

The 2022 running of the Armed Forces Day (AFD) Cross-Band exercise will be held on May 14, 1300 – 2200 UTC. A complete list of participating stations, modes, frequencies, times, and other details will be announced on April 1. The event is open to all radio amateurs. Armed Forces Day is May 21, but the AFD Cross-band military-amateur radio event traditionally takes place 1 week earlier, in order to avoid conflicting with Dayton Hamvention®. During the exercise, radio amateurs listen for stations on military operating frequencies and transmit on frequencies in adjacent amateur bands.

Military and amateur stations have taken part in this event for more than 50 years. It’s an exercise scenario, designed to include ham radio and government radio operators alike.

Per previous announcements: “The AFD Cross-band Test is a unique opportunity to test two-way communications between military communicators and radio stations in the Amateur Radio Service, as authorized in 47 CFR 97.111. These tests provide opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly controlled exercise scenario that does not impact any public or private communications.”

Military stations in various locations will transmit on selected military frequencies and announce the specific ham band frequencies they are monitoring.

An AFD message will be transmitted utilizing the Military Standard (MIL-STD) serial PSK waveform (M110), followed by MIL-STD Wide Shift FSK (850 Hz RTTY), as described in MIL-STD 188-110A/B. The AFD message will also be sent in CW and RTTY.

Full details will be released on April 1.

Radio Amateur Finds Another “Zombie Satellite”

Posted on by VA3DBJ

British Columbia radio amateur Scott Tilley, VE7TIL, has found another “zombie satellite,” as he calls them. This time, he tracked and identified radio signals from the experimental UHF military communication satellite LES-5. Tilley says he found the satellite in what he called a geostationary “graveyard” orbit after noting a modulated carrier on 236.7487 MHz.

“Most zombie satellites are satellites that are no longer under human control, or have failed to some degree,” Tilley told National Public Radio (NPR) earlier this month. It’s not clear whether LES-5 is still capable of receiving commands.

LES-5 was built by MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and launched in 1967 as part of the military’s Tactical Satellite Communication Program. It was supposed to shut down in 1972, but it continues to operate as long as its solar panels are facing the sun. Tilley told NPR that he was inspired by a ham in Cornwall who, in 2016, found an earlier satellite — LES-1 — built by the same lab and launched in 1965. What intrigued Tilley about LES-5 was that it might be the oldest functioning geostationary satellite in space.

After British Columbia went on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tilley found himself with a lot of free time for such a search. He located LES-5 on March 24.

From his home in Roberts Creek, British Columbia, Tilley, an amateur astronomer, routinely scans the skies for radio signals from classified objects orbiting Earth. Since he started, he’s located dozens of secret or unlisted satellites.

In 2018, while hunting for an undisclosed US government spacecraft lost in a launch mishap, he spotted the signature of IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration), a NASA spacecraft believed to have died in December 2005. The discovery delighted space scientists. NASA and another ham in the UK confirmed his finding. Launched in 2000 on a mission to monitor space weather, IMAGE mapped plasma patterns around Earth.

Military says no link between movement of armoured vehicles and COVID crisis

Posted on by VA3DBJ

The Canadian Armed Forces is shooting down suggestions of a link between the movement of a large number of army trucks and armoured vehicles and the COVID-19 crisis, after video of the vehicles spurred questions about a potential military mobilization.

Video of the military vehicles being transported by rail circulated on social media over the weekend, sparking calls to the Department of National Defence over whether the Forces was mobilizing or otherwise preparing to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the Defence Department says the vehicles were returning from a training exercise that was to be held at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta in May. Canadian Army commander Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre cancelled Exercise Maple Resolve last week due to COVID-19.

In response to the social media posts, the Quebec-based 2nd Canadian Division made its own video using the same footage superimposed with the words “No link with the coronavirus.” The message was repeated in French.

The spread of the videos and questions about a potential military mobilization nonetheless sparked concerns within the Defence Department, which has been on heightened alert for false information — deliberate and unintentional — given the current climate with COVID-19.

“The risks and impacts of misinformation during this critical period are real and need close and careful monitoring,” department spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said in a statement.

“While it is normal and expected that the public are, at this time, far more sensitive to the public environment, the viral propagation of inaccurate or decontextualized content could lead to confusion or impact efforts to flatten the curve.”

The Canadian military has curbed many of its activities in light of COVID-19. Training exercises and some operations have been suspended or cancelled to protect the force from the respiratory illness and ensure the military is ready to respond should it be called upon.

The frigate HMCS Fredericton has been ordered to cancel a number of port visits and ceremonies during its deployment with a NATO fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, while two other naval vessels are cutting short their drug-interdiction efforts and returning home from the Caribbean.

The military has stopped providing updates on the number of service members who have contracted COVID-19, suggesting the information could be used by adversaries.

Chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance warned in a letter to military personnel last Friday that they needed to “face the reality that the three-week operational pause we are experiencing now may continue.”