Friday, February 23, 2007

Mystery Time Station heard on 5100 kHz

Last evening on the UDXF newsgroup, Jon in Florida posted a message regarding an apparent mystery time signal transmitting on 5100 kHz. From Jon's post:

"UnIDed station on 5100 kHz sending time pips and top of minute tone. No voice heard. I've noted this station on 5100 every night i've checked since first heard in early Dec (perhaps a bit earlier). 99.99 % sure its not a image or mixing productbecause i've checked useing 3 different types/brands of receivers. R75, WJ-8716 and Racal ra-6790/gm. heard on all 3. and using 2 different antennas. a t2fd cut for 3 MHz at 20 ft (and oriented for N/S signals), and a 21 ft verticle... Suspect something South-American.."

This morning I have fired up the San Antonio VEN DXTuners and it is there ticking away. Here is some of my observations that I just posted to the list of this station:"Good signal at 1346 UTC. Will continue to check on some of the other receivers for other prop paths outside of South America, but that looks like a safe bet for now. Couple of notes: it appears this time signals is off about 7-8 seconds (slow) from NIST time.

I am hearing the top of the minute tone off by that much. And I though there "may" be some sort of voice iD in there every few minutes but the audio modulation was way under the time tick if it is. I believe there may have been one just announced right before 1353. But I am not sure.More...soon! Nice mystery."

Any takers on who we have here ? Email me at larryvanhorn @ monitoringtimes.com
or gaylevanhorn @ monitoringtimes.com

(Source: The Btown Monitoring Post blogspot via Larry Van Horn)