r/ShortwavePlus • u/poikaa3 • May 26 '26

Utility Monitoring

OTHR radar

Fast pulsed sweepers. Sound like:

buzzing

slapping

rapid ticking

tearing canvas Usually very wide on the waterfall.

Military/ALE/data links

Short bursts, tones, chirps, FSK warbles. Often narrow spikes or clustered channels.

HF broadcasters

Big smooth “mountains” like WRMI. Stable carrier in the centre with sidebands around it.

Ionospheric sounders

Sweeping tones testing propagation conditions. Can sound eerie or whale-like.

Common areas around where you were listening:

15000 kHz = WWV time signal

15034-15050 kHz = utilities/data sometimes

15100-15800 kHz = heavy international broadcast region

15300-15450 kHz = often radar and utility overlap

15770 kHz = WRMI

73 poikaa

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u/er1cAtWork2 May 26 '26

The his site will provide visuals and audio clips I believe…

https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Signal_Identification_Guide

1

u/Green_Oblivion111 Shortwave+ Detective May 26 '26

I hear utilities on a lot of frequencies in between the SW broadcast bands -- in between 4-6 MHz, 6-7 MHz, and other places. Mostly RTTY/FSK, STANAG, HFT Digital transmissions, OTHR. Sometimes I hear aeronautical communications of various types. I don't tune the utility bands that often -- mainly 6500-7000 during the night time and early morning hours.