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What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2022 11:04 am
by Jock Elliott
I prefer SSB voice, and I like listening to aircraft (Gander, for example) and marine (which seems to be rare at my location).

Cheers, Jock

Re: What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2022 4:52 am
by 104
The ones I can here. You have to love them all.

Re: What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2022 7:18 am
by VK5014SWL
I always enjoy receiving Australian HF Marine Weather FAX. I sometimes record the transmissions and decode them at a later date to compare different days.

Re: What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2022 9:57 am
by N2HUN
Definitely worldwide Volmet stations. They give me an idea of band conditions at a particular time of day.

Re: What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2022 11:16 am
by 13dka
Pretty much all of utility is a nice change from the usual to me, I like hunting NDBs or DGPS beacons in winter, DXing NAVTEX stations and of course VOLMETS and the NAT track frequencies, particularly when this gal is on duty:



:)

Edit: Hm embedded player doesn't seem to work so well yet. Here's the file link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vs74o2bb4d7wf ... R.mp3?dl=1

Re: What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2022 12:30 pm
by Andrew (grayhat)
13dka wrote: Fri Jun 10, 2022 11:16 am Edit: Hm embedded player doesn't seem to work so well yet.
working ok for me !

Re: What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 12:52 am
by mckayprod
I would very much like to monitor the transmissions from the US Navy station at Dixon,California, formerly an AFRTS station (and maybe VOA?) that I think I listened to in the late 1970s. I have no ideas what their frequencies or tx modes might be, or what kind of traffic they might be working these days. Since they are local to me, I should have no problem with signal strength. Any suggestions?

Re: What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2022 4:21 am
by 104
Great question. Anything COTHEN of course. The Cellular Over The Horizon Enforcement Network must be high up there as far as utility comms. Amazing USCG Florida comms. when in the green. Caribbean comms outstanding. When in the green. Lets go cycle 25.

Re: What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 6:30 am
by Blubby
I like listening to aircraft fly across the pond on HF SSB. New york, Santa Maria, Gander, etc. My favorite of all time
was listening to Africa. Khartoum, Cairo, Tripoli. I don't hear them anymore though. Less traffic? Who knows.
I also like DXing NDBs below the broadcast band. I have a couple of SDRs and the HF Discovery is excellent there and
easily bests my RSPDX for that. I prefer the RSPDX for everything else. I found many MARS nets with it as well as marine
traffic (which also seems to have really dropped off).
Anything SSB voice is great fun for me. I may eventually add a program for decoding the HF transponders used by the planes.
That would be cool. As it is, I really like hearing the pilots working the controllers.

Re: What's your favorite utility to chase?

Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2022 1:04 pm
by paul
Does the coast guard count?

Also I picked up the Irish VOLMET once which was really interesting. I made some recordings of it.

Does anyone have a suggestion for looking up what utility stations I might hear from a particular location? I've tried to pick up those propagation beacons but I rarely if ever hear anything.