Strange signal on 14.250 MHz

Drdeak writes -

This is a video I took on the 2nd of January 2009 at my amateur radio station. I first heard it on New Year's eve early afternoon. It was on all day today and other ham operators across the country have reported receiving the signal; a very strong signal as well. The frequency of the signal is at 14.250 to 14.255 MHz. It seems to be on at all hours and no one has yet to decipher or explain it. Any theories? Anyone?
Curious, anyone know of a good explanation? Please share in the comments.


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Comments

Oldest comments listed first.

Posted by: Anonymous on January 9, 2009 at 1:17 PM

Alien dance party, no question.


Posted by: AC0KG on January 9, 2009 at 1:24 PM

Did anybody get an idea what direction it was coming from?


Posted by: CustomFabWorks on January 9, 2009 at 1:40 PM

Please tell me you recorded the signal other than this video.


Posted by: CTR on January 9, 2009 at 1:46 PM

I'll take a look at it at tomorrow but if it turns out a US citizen is broadcasting I'll have to delete it and pretend it never happened or I'll loose my job. Hope it's a Russian cold war era relic!


Posted by: John Kiniston on January 9, 2009 at 2:04 PM

I see a discussion about the signal on the QRZ Forums: http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=187813

Interesting stuff!


Posted by: Uncle Shooter on January 9, 2009 at 2:08 PM

I also heard it from Lansing, MI right on 14.250 faint but audible. Moved the antenna twice and it comes from North to North West.


Posted by: C3PO on January 9, 2009 at 2:12 PM

Sounds like an Imperial Probe droid


Posted by: Timm Murray on January 9, 2009 at 2:14 PM

I get the feeling that the creators of "Lost" have gone too far with their viral ads this time.


Posted by: Roel A. on January 9, 2009 at 2:25 PM

Sounds Like

He sounds like Wallace, from Wallaca and Grommit.. Even has a dog, only the wrong name.. :)


Posted by: Can Özbay on January 9, 2009 at 2:41 PM

Anybody has a good record of this?

All right, I'm totally excited about this , and I want to have some research on this signal in my studio. But this video's sound truly sucks. + our Radio Guy moved the camera while recording, which caused a phase shifting. If someone, somehow, someway could find a good&normal record of this, pleeease let me know.

cheater.boss@gmail.com / info@canozbay.com

=)
Cheers


Posted by: drdeak@deakenergies.com on April 12, 2009 at 9:51 AM

Excuse me

Apparently Radio Guy didn't know you would want to analyze the sound content, so maybe the next time you could be kind enough to inform same of your intentions. After all we do wake up every day just waiting for your schedule reports.


Posted by: Han on January 9, 2009 at 2:53 PM

It isn't friendly, whatever it is...


Posted by: Can Özbay on January 9, 2009 at 2:55 PM

Well maybe yeah ? :D

Ok, the aliens are out of chocolate-cookie stocks, and they just want to borrow some. Who knows ? :D


Posted by: cyenobite2 on January 9, 2009 at 3:04 PM

Welcome

I for one, welcome our gray overlords.

It reminded me of the stories where there were mysterious posts in newspapers and even craigslist about a phone number one would call, only to hear odd sounds like this. I thought I heard this story on boingboing but a search turned up nothing. Perhaps it was the microchip they implanted in my head...


Posted by: Alex on January 9, 2009 at 3:22 PM

Okay!

I'll head down to my uncles whos got a digital ham radio unit and get him to really focus on it! Thts if its being picked up in the UK?!


Posted by: Trevyn on January 9, 2009 at 3:55 PM

The rhythm sounds like someone talking. I wonder if it's an encrypted numbers station?


Posted by: George on January 9, 2009 at 3:56 PM

Listen Closely

Its a count down. don't you hear it? they are using our satellites to globally communicate. The signal is cycling down until it stops.... RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!


Posted by: Stephen Walder on January 9, 2009 at 4:10 PM

Coinsidence?

On the 2nd of Jan we were out walking and saw what looked to be a flame high in the sky (around 5pm GMT), an orange sort of light. It just stood still in the sky in the same place. To be honest nobody thought much of it, nobody could understand what it was so we all quickley forgot about it.

Then I see this:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/01/09/ufo.england.turbine.jet/

and then I hear about this!

Perhaps its somthing to do with the credit crunch!? :o)

Interesting though.


Posted by: SuperJdynamite on January 9, 2009 at 4:24 PM

Maybe it's a new numbers station: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station


Posted by: Joe on January 9, 2009 at 5:58 PM

How much do you want for your Collins S-line? W2PHDL is not a legitimate callsign. Especially if you're in the UK.


Posted by: drdeak@deakenergies.com on April 12, 2009 at 9:59 AM

You have it wrong mate.

I did not say W2PHDL...look me up on www.qrz.com for your satisfaction......I was ill with flu that 2nd of January 2009 and said W2PHD "OUT." I listened and it did sound sort of like "el," but not so. I am licenced as W2PHD in New York. I also made the mistake of saying the second of July 2009, but it was the 2nd of January 2009. All's forgiven? There were other reports about this signal on qrz.com I spoke with many hams that day that heard it also, only on that particular frequency as I have been told by others that happened upon it. No fake signals, no ulterior motives; just happened to be listening in for someone to have a chat with and came across it. I'm a scientist and not a prankster. I hope that ticks your tock.


Posted by: Brian McNett on January 9, 2009 at 5:59 PM

There's some interesting, near-vocal formant motion going on in that signal. I think the suggestion that this is perhaps a new type of numbers station is about right. If I were running a numbers station in the current social-political climate, I'd want to a) disguise the voice of the person reading the numbers and b) render the numbers themselves unintelligible to anyone without the right equipment.


Posted by: JohnW on January 9, 2009 at 7:07 PM

Attempt at music?

To me it sounds exactly like someone twanging away randomly on a jaw harp (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew's_harp)


Posted by: JAS none on January 9, 2009 at 7:23 PM

It's aliens wondering why our moon isn't made of cheese.


Posted by: JAS on January 9, 2009 at 7:30 PM

Nope. I was wrong before. This will eventually be decoded as, "All your base are belong to us."


Posted by: DJFelix on January 9, 2009 at 7:31 PM

Easy one ...

I sent this to my dad, and this is what he had to say:

--snip--
Harmonic.

Google search of harmonic radio signals 14.250 MHz provides articles about it usage.

http://www.google.com/search?q=harmonic+radio+signals+14.250+MHz

Brings back a lot of memories, like running into an old friend at the mall.
--snip--

Cheers!


Posted by: max on January 9, 2009 at 9:48 PM

Dear JOE

http://www.qrz.com/callsign/W2PHD

what he said was "W2phd ... Out." The call sign works out for someone in Brooklyn who happens to be from London.


Posted by: Richard on January 9, 2009 at 9:56 PM

none

Sounds like feedback when a microphone has been left too close to a speaker. Possibly done accidentally possibly by someone leaving their radio on and not noticing it.


Posted by: dnny on January 9, 2009 at 9:57 PM

Maybe they have activated "the woodpecker" again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Woodpecker


Posted by: Pony on January 9, 2009 at 10:07 PM

is it a *cough* Buddha Machine?

Google the buddha machine, it's a little ambient sound generator thing. I bought one to check it out and promptly wrapped it up as a xmas present for someone I didn't like. It's presumably been regifted a few times since then.
Anyway, can you hear a loop in it every say 2 or 3 minutes?
Whoever makes these things seems to be trying their darndest to market them as a cult item or something. This would fit into that logic I'm guessing.


Posted by: M.D. Peco on January 10, 2009 at 5:18 AM

The Wee, Small Details...

I'm not a licensed ham,but I'm techie enough to see how easily this could be faked. Please note, the date given in the video is "Second July 2009." From there, lets look at the talk with the dog... Sweet and endearing, huh? That is slight of hand for your feelings... it makes you want to believe more... Something's not right here....


Posted by: christian.ryan on January 10, 2009 at 6:16 AM

With the restart of season 4...

Cylons, duh....


Posted by: Anonymous on January 10, 2009 at 6:51 AM

I will have to agree, its the clue we have all been looking for. Its a signal from the cylons who are returning to their homeworld "EARTH". Hence we are all cylons, the 5th cylon (s) are us.


Posted by: norm declavier on January 10, 2009 at 7:39 AM

everything's a conspiracy

Hey MD, I'm not a licenced ham either, but I'm rational enough not to call something fake if I have no means of even trying to verify it, when hundreds of licenced hams who actually own radios seem to be confirming it. He probably just mis-spoke the date.


Posted by: TD on January 10, 2009 at 8:54 AM

It sounds like a really bad

CW signal to me, like one from a really poorly constructed transmitter. The rhythm sounds vaguely morse-codish.


Posted by: Jack of Most Trades on January 10, 2009 at 12:21 PM

Eww.

Sounds like REALLY bad CW. I can make out an occasional character. And 14.250 is the 2nd harmonic of 7125, which is the old US Novice band on 40.
Then again, any of you ever see the movie "On the Beach"?


Posted by: Anonymous on January 10, 2009 at 1:42 PM

Who would broadcast illegible code for days on end?

If it was completely random you'd still occasionally recognize a few characters of code.


Posted by: Synthesizer Geek Delux on January 10, 2009 at 2:04 PM

A synth perspective


This sounds like a synthesized or heavily sampled human voice. However they then took that still humanish sounding voice and used it as the Filter for the feedbacky wave sound you hear. This is called Convolution in some fields. Others have called it "Morphing" of two samples.

I concur with some of the theories above that this is a Numbers Station that someone is attempting to conceal with audio processing.


Posted by: wackyvorlon.myopenid.com on January 10, 2009 at 6:00 PM

I'd like to see the FFT on this. It might be a beacon, with a loud 2nd harmonic.


Posted by: xintox on January 11, 2009 at 8:05 AM

interesting

these sorts of things always intrigue me. My first thought was to see which notes they map to on the music scale.


Posted by: Mark on January 11, 2009 at 1:26 PM

Wacky guy

Any looked at the guy's website?

http://deakworld.com/ (artwork is NSFW)

Also he's got another you-tube video of acoustic levitation.

This whole thing is pretty weird.


Posted by: drdeak@deakenergies.com on April 12, 2009 at 10:04 AM

Whacky or wierd better than dull.

Get my drift?


Posted by: meristem on January 11, 2009 at 9:10 PM

I'm surprised that no one has tried to slow down a recording of this yet?


Posted by: RWR on January 11, 2009 at 10:41 PM

Be aware:

Dont hear this at night and alone in front of your computer, or you can be abducted.


Posted by: GAL on January 12, 2009 at 6:31 AM

It's as clear as a bell!

Don't you hear it....."Klaatu barada nikto"


Posted by: Laughing on January 12, 2009 at 10:04 AM

Really sounds like the way personal computers of the 80's encoded digital signals so that they could be recorded to cassette tape.

Slow it down as Meristem suggests and you'll hear exactly what I'm talking about.


Posted by: Spock on January 12, 2009 at 2:58 PM

I believe if you listen to this signal underwater it would sound like the songs sung by Humpback Whales.


Posted by: Anonymous on January 12, 2009 at 8:32 PM

The signal apparently consists of 7 non-musical tones or carriers which periodically shift upward in frequency and wrap around to the bottom of the channel, and have no phase modulation or sidebands but appear to be modulated by voice using a "vocoder" process; although I do not know if the tones are vocoded before or after the voice. This does not seem to be data unless it is slow parallel ASCII which I doubt. It does not appear to be very well scrambled or encrypted and is probably either a joke or in any case meant to be heard rather than concealed. Consider everything I said to be a "very good guess" including that I think the source of the signal may be Alaska, because if RDF can't pin it down, it is probably HAARP (oops, I suppose mentioning that automatically disqualifies my opinion, but I don't care).


Posted by: barry.tikkanen on January 13, 2009 at 7:52 PM

At least the background noise should have been greatly limited at the time. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=30238


Posted by: duh retards... on February 1, 2009 at 5:06 AM

harmonics is the correct answer. its called image response interference. its bleed over from broadcasted digital tv signal. i bet all you ham ops never heard of side band either. this is too funny


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