8/10/2019 BegClaAug12
1/3
BEGINNER'S CLASSROOM FOR AUGUST 2012
AN UPDATED LOOK AT UTILITY "BROADCASTING"
The last time a Beginner's Classroom was devoted to Utility
Stations was
back in February 2004, so I thought this month's column could
have a two-
fold approach. First, we'll look at the basics of Utility
"Broadcasting" as wasstated eight and a half years ago, and then
we'll take a gander at what,
when and where utility stations can be heard today.
A Utility Station is defined as a non-broadcast station that is
not directingits transmissions to the general public. Before the
turn of the millennium
there were many types of Utility Stations that people could hear
on the highfrequency (HF) bands. CW, or Morse Code, RTTY
(teletype), international
aircraft, weather broadcasts, ship-to-shore these were all over
the 2 30MHz frequency range for listeners to catch. Things have
changed a lot since
the advent of VHF technologies, the Internet and Satellite
broadcasting, allof which have seen transportations, companies and
other groups who used
utility transmissions switch their methods of communication.
However,there are still a number of utility broadcasts that are
still out there for the
listening.
There are a couple of good reference guides you might wish to
considerpurchasing if you're getting into this portion of the
listening hobby:
JUST THE FAX: A Shortwave Radio Listener's Guide to Weather
Facsimile Reception- This new book by Steve Handler, mentioned
in the
July 2012 Beginner's Classroom, is a handy guide on how to
receive WEFAX(Weather Facsimile). Go towww.shortwavereport.comfor
details on how to
purchase this book.
Utility DXer's QSL Address Handbook - This new book, also by
SteveHandler, gives known addresses for various types of utility
stations, as wellas comments and suggestions on how to send
reception reports to these
http://www.shortwavereport.com%20/http://www.shortwavereport.com%20/http://www.shortwavereport.com%20/http://www.shortwavereport.com%20/
8/10/2019 BegClaAug12
2/3
"non-broadcast" broadcasters. Again, go to
www.shortwavereport.com to
find out more about this book and its contents.
2011/2012 Guide to Utility Radio Stations- This is one of a
number ofinformative books published by Joerg Klingenfuss. It
includes station and
frequency lists, as well as schedules for various VOLMET and
NAVTEXtransmissions. There is already a free supplement published
in January
2012 that comes with this reference. For these and other books
fromKlingenfuss Publications, go to www.klingenfuss.orgor go
through UniversalRadio in the USA atwww.universal-radio.com(Phone:
1-800-431-3939).
How do you find HF Utility Stations? Apart from looking up
frequencies forvarious services still in the 2 30 MHz range, my
suggestion is to take onefull megahertz, say the 6 MHz range, and
slowly scan from 6000 to 6999kHz. You might hear something such as
Air Force One on 6122 kHz, New
York Radio (aircraft/weather) on 6128, Shannon aircraft
broadcasts on 6580,
an LDOC (Long Distance Operational Control/Airline Companies)
two-wayaircraft transmission on 6637, 6640, 6643 or 6646 kHz, or
even the Halifax
Military on 6694 or Trenton, ON, Military on 6706 or 6715 kHz.
Althoughthey can pop up anywhere, try the 6, 8, 10 and 13 MHz range
as well! A
couple of my favourite stations were always the Shannon VOLMET
station on5505 kHz and the International Distress and Safety
frequency of 2182 kHz.
I used to state that it is better to look up material on the
Internet to find
interesting Utility stations. However, much of the resource-tank
of Utilitytransmission sites has dried up in the past few years.
That being said, there
are a few places that you can try.
One website that still exists is Utility World, found at
www.ominous-valve.com/uteworld.html. This site comes directly from
the Utility World
column found in Monitoring Times by Hugh Stegman. I encourage
you to
go to the site, as well as pick up a copy of MT either through
their ownwebsite or at a magazine store for all the wonderful
information found within
its pages. Another possibility would be Bill Hepburn's DX Info
Centrelocated at www.dxinfocentre.com. Bill has a page which give
HF Radio
Facsimile frequencies and another which gives current VOLMET
frequencies
for aviation weather info.
If you are a member of the ODXA Yahoo Group on the Internet,
then you
can see what is being heard on aviation, Navy MARS (Military
Amateur RadioService), maritime broadcasts, etc. Allan Stern
forwards items he has sent
to the HF Monitors Yahoo Group to our own ODXA Group on a
regular basis.I've noticed that two of his favourite frequencies to
listen to are 11175 kHz,
which has a lot of transmissions from aircraft out of Dover AFB,
and 13927
http://www.shortwavereport.com%20/http://www.shortwavereport.com%20/http://www.klingenfuss.org%20/http://www.klingenfuss.org%20/http://www.universal-radio.com%20/http://www.universal-radio.com%20/http://www.universal-radio.com%20/http://www.ominous-valve.com/uteworld.htmlhttp://www.ominous-valve.com/uteworld.htmlhttp://www.ominous-valve.com/uteworld.htmlhttp://www.dxinfocentre.com/http://www.dxinfocentre.com/http://www.dxinfocentre.com/http://www.ominous-valve.com/uteworld.htmlhttp://www.ominous-valve.com/uteworld.htmlhttp://www.universal-radio.com%20/http://www.klingenfuss.org%20/http://www.shortwavereport.com%20/
