USAF High Frequency Global Communications System

timbo

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The HFGCS frequencies have been very busy the past week or so. Best freqs to listen to are 11.175 and 8.992 MHz both on upper sideband.

It's not constant chatter but way more than I've heard in years...

Overview:


Under the Title General Calling, go to the sub title Frequency Guide and then click on the HFGCS hyperlink for the four page list of frequencies. You want the voice frequencies list, Pretty sure you won't be able to decode the previous ALE freqs. :cool:
 
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Can you make a recording and upload it?

I'd like to hear what they talk about.
I don't really have a way of recording it...it mostly one callsign calling another and then letter groups. I'll see if I can find an mp3 somewhere on line where they have been recorded. I know they are out there as I have listened to the recordings.
 
Can you make a recording and upload it?

I'd like to hear what they talk about.
Part of the way down this page are 4 recordings of some messages. Unless you have the codebook, you won't figure out what they're talking about. Still fascinating to listen to though...and when it appears that the shit may hit the fan (or has hit the fan as the case may be), they increase many fold. They were almost nonstop after 9/11 for about 2 weeks or more.

They have noticeably increased the past week or two.

 
Part of the way down this page are 4 recordings of some messages. Unless you have the codebook, you won't figure out what they're talking about. Still fascinating to listen to though...and when it appears that the shit may hit the fan (or has hit the fan as the case may be), they increase many fold. They were almost nonstop after 9/11 for about 2 weeks or more.

They have noticeably increased the past week or two.

Holy crap that is some wild stuff!

Gave me the chills listening to it.

Thank god for our military. We may be about to have an old fool as commander in chief who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground - but at least the military still functions.

I wonder who exactly the voice was on the transmissions. With AI voice ID - even he is not anonymous.

Regarding radio transmissions - sometimes I have a hard time understanding them. I guess it's good I'm not in comms.
 
Holy crap that is some wild stuff!

Gave me the chills listening to it.

Thank god for our military. We may be about to have an old fool as commander in chief who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground - but at least the military still functions.

I wonder who exactly the voice was on the transmissions. With AI voice ID - even he is not anonymous.

Regarding radio transmissions - sometimes I have a hard time understanding them. I guess it's good I'm not in comms.
Yeah, it's probably some poor non-com enlisted person with a top secret / crypto clearance that's given a sheet of paper with a message on it to read over the air. Pretty sure the reader has no idea what they are transmitting but some US (or other country's) .mil / .gov asset or operative knows what they are saying.

The echo on the signal is caused by many station locations on the same frequency transmitting the same info. The signals are arriving at the receiving antenna at a millisecond or two apart. It gives that weird disembodied voice sound. It is definitely eerie.

I'm listening to 8.992.00 Mhz (USB) as I type this and they are pretty active tonight...seems to be transmitting on the top of the hour and then thirty minutes later at the bottom of the hour.
 
This movie horrified me as a 5th grader:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOFsOA9VsBk


I was always fascinated with one of the scenes where the local ham in the neighborhood was communicating with others and found that the closest city was wiped out by the nukes.

I put so much emotion in the ham operator because he was the only means of communication to the world outside of the small farming community that the movie was about.

So, whenever I hear lone voices on the radio speaking secret codes it freaks me out.

The 9/11 comms were also very creepy like when Bush flew around in high altitude possibly expecting a nuke attack.

There are so many facets of ham radio that is alluring.
 
HFGCS frequencies (8.992 and 11.175 MHz) are almost non stop busy today. I wonder what's up?
 
No copy of anything here- on either freq. central MA
Monitor the frequency for a bit...it's about every 15 minutes or so...

When I said non-stop...I meant there have been multiple transmissions inside an hour...sometimes I listen for hours and hear almost nothing.
 
ok...just heard it...station call sign is "dedicate" standing by for traffic. short transmission...I heard it on both frequencies.
 
Here comes a string of letters.
11175 had better copy. Barely heard on 8
It was multi-path fluttery and 'echoey'

Will keep it on for a while while I am working out in the shack and report back... since it is interesting.
 
Here comes a string of letters.
11175 had better copy. Barely heard on 8
It was multi-path fluttery and 'echoey'

Will keep it on for a while while I am working out in the shack and report back... since it is interesting.

It's actually being broadcast from several different stations at the same time...that's why you hear an "echoey" signal...the signals are arriving at your antenna micro to milli seconds apart. When I was in the Navy in the 70's, we used to use these frequencies for phone patches, etc...at that time, the call sign was Mainsail. According to stuff I've read recently, those frequencies are still used for phone patches but much less frequently...cell phones and satellites took the load of that kind of traffic off those frequencies.
 
I am honestly not familiar with the technology but if the information is important enough to be coded would it not be possible to just send encrypted audio data and just the receiver (radio) decode it?

What would be an example of the information in these messages?
 
I am honestly not familiar with the technology but if the information is important enough to be coded would it not be possible to just send encrypted audio data and just the receiver (radio) decode it?

What would be an example of the information in these messages?
They actually have exactly what you are asking about...it's called "ALE"

You can read about it here...

 
How are you tuning into these frequencies? I don't think my sdr goes that low.
I use my HF transceivers but I also have an SDR radio that I can hear them on. I have the SDRplay RSP1A.

HRO carries them...

here's a link to the sdrplay specs:


 
Usually takes hams five times to confirm each other call signs.

KILO PAPA WHAT?
KILO DELTA 1...
OK I HEARD CHARLIE GOLF 2...
NOOOO

It’s part of the fun.
I was not in the military, but I still know the nato alphabet and I freak the f*** out when I hear some retard just shouting random words to try and tell someone a serial number or network a machine.


View: https://youtu.be/dNYMQpcqscA
 
So you have me intrigued. I got an upconvertor for my SDR but my discone antenna isn't rated to go that low. Is there an easy (or affordable) antenna design to tune into those frequencies?
 
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