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REVISED Aug 18, 2006 14:47 ET
Reported "Firedrake" Jammer/Intruder Shifts Frequency
NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 17, 2006 -- A Chinese-language "intruder" signal first spotted earlier this summer on 14.260 MHz this week shifted
frequencies. International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 Monitoring System (IARUMS) Vice coordinator Uli Bihlmayer,
DJ9KR, says the powerful jammer -- dubbed "Firedrake" -- had been transmitting
Chinese music on 14.260 MHz since August 5.
"This offender is active day and night -- all day, every
day -- and causing very harmful interference to the Amateur Radio Service,"
Bihlmayer informed ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch Liaison Chuck Skolaut,
K0BOG, and IARU Region 2 Monitoring System Coordinator Bill Zellers, WA4FKI, on
August 15. In an August 17 update, however, Bihlmayer said the music jammer now
has moved to 14.050 MHz. This part of the 20-meter band is allocated to the Amateur Radio Service on an exclusive basis throughout the world.
According to Bihlmayer, German telecom authority Bundesnetzagentur
pinpointed the transmitter's location as Hainan Island in Hainan Sheng Province, PRC, located south of the mainland in the Gulf of Tonkin. Hainan Island also was the apparent source of an over-the-horizon radar signal heard on 75 meters in
Region 3. Bihlmayer said.
Citing complaints from members, Skolaut has reported the
intruder to the FCC, although as he and Zellers point out, the Commission has
no authority to make intruder stations outside the US stop transmitting on
Amateur Radio frequencies. Such situations typically are dealt with through
diplomatic channels.
Skolaut says he was able to hear the jammer for himself -- on
its new frequency -- from W1AW. In July, when the same jammer also was appearing
on 18.160 MHz, Bihlmayer alerted telecom authorities in Germany and Hong Kong, as well as IARU Region 3 and the Peoples' Republic of China embassy in Berlin to the situation. The 17-meter band also is a worldwide exclusive Amateur Radio
allocation.
According to reports filed this month with DX Listening Digest, the
14.260 MHz Firedrake signal was an effort by the PRC to jam the clandestine "Sound
of Hope" transmission beamed to the Chinese mainland from Taiwan, with Amateur Radio operators being caught in the crossfire. A "parallel" signal on 18.160
MHz apparently had disappeared as of earlier this week, and the jammer now has
been appearing on 17.330 MHz. The signal also has been heard on 7.130 MHz,
which is allocated to broadcasters in much of the world outside of Region 2
(the Americas).
Short wave listeners said the AM carrier, heard earlier
this summer on various 20-meter phone band frequencies, would occasionally drop
out at the top of the hour apparently for a monitoring check, then reappear five minutes
later.
Skolaut says he's received reports about the music jammer
from all over the US, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. "I have one ham
reporting it regularly from New Zealand," he said. Before August 5, Skolaut
said, reports indicated that the transmission contained both talk and music and
was more intermittent, but "now it's pretty continuous and entirely music."
Page last modified: 02:48 PM, 18 Aug 2006 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2006, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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