I Found Shortwave Radio's Biggest Unsolved Mysteries!

[@jamesa2961]

I ain't gonna lie. My dad would have loved this channel. He passed away 3 and a half years ago from cancer. Everytime I watch ur videos I feel like he is watching over my shoulder. Man I miss him. Thanks for the great video man. From Minnesota usa here

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks brother ❤️

[@dougtaylor7724]

That is one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever heard. And I’m old. 😂

[@matthewmiller6068]

I wonder what my Grandfather would have thought of all this streaming video stuff you can just pull up these days...so much detailed engineering stuff out there!

[@Hold_My_Pocket]

If my dad had known about the number stations in the 80s, he would have gotten involved, and that would have become our new hobby.

[@StalinTheMan0fSteel]

Maybe the strangest thing i personally ever encountered on shortwave was when i was a kid in the 80's, during the solar peak, a couple of times calling CQ, unkeying the mike and hearing my CQ at a much lower level in the background! I thought I entered the Twilight Zone! I found out later it's called "Long delayed echos" It's your signal traveling all the way around the Earth and returning. 8-)

[@thomashenden71]

Echo from a neighbouring parallel Universe, slightly behind our time? 😄👽

[@StalinTheMan0fSteel]

@@thomashenden71 LOL!

[@jimbotron70]

Did you hear also your dad from the '60s? 😉

[@StalinTheMan0fSteel]

@@jimbotron70 Now THAT sounds like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

[@jimbotron70]

@@StalinTheMan0fSteel "Frequency" movie.

[@johnnorth9355]

You are very mistaken - the biggest mystery in Short Wave radio is how I feel compelled to keep spending money on stuff on the off chance I just might need it for my next project (that never materialises !). Come armageddon I might just have the vital bits needed to get in contact with everyone - oh err I think I have just found the flaw in this plan.

[@grahamfisher5436]

I have visions of the original film version of The last man on Earth Staring Vincent Price 😂

[@theonlynafester]

"Let me know if you've heard it" you sound like Crimestoppers and I'm here for it xD

[@dougtaylor7724]

I love the pictures that scroll through the video. Combined with fascinating subject matter and Lewis’s narration, it better than anything on TV!

[@TheCosmicGuy0111]

Ringway is the master of his domain!

[@davedavies8002]

I love his spy stuff .. the radio stuff is way beyond my knowledge but I watch every video .. slowly learning, anything I don't full know fascinates me

[@TheOneTrueDragonKing]

The last one you covered, the Irregular Dash, sounds like someone learning morse code to me. Perhaps someone accidentally had their "transmit" switch turned "on" when practicing. A simple case of the one thing nobody on this planet or off of it is immune to: "Oops!"

[@338mag]

We used to pick up a skip signal on CB at work. A hispanic sounding man in English would do some sort of sound check saying: " aaaaaaudio, aaaaudiooo, audio, aaaaaaudio. Audio. Heard the guy all the time it seemed .

[@thormusique]

Great episode, Lewis! I do remember the Faders back in the 70s. In fact, there was a period from about 1977-80 when I'd hear them in pretty much every HF band. A blast from the past indeed, cheers!

[@RPrice_OG]

Number stations aren't just mysterious, they can be down right annoying. In the 80s one occasionally set up somewhere near my house in Orlando, FL. I didn't have a radio and didn't need one as it was so strong it bled over into the TV bands and made them unusable. This could go on for many hours a day for several days at a time. I had no idea what a number station was then and was so pissed at the woman that kept saying groups of 5 numbers for no apparent reason.

[@RCAvhstape]

The Irregular Dashes remind me of the signal in the film "On the Beach", received by a submarine after a nuclear war. They hear a signal near San Francisco, but can't read the code, as it sounds random, so they send a party ashore to investigate and search for survivors.

[@paulstubbs7678]

Only to find it's a blind cord wrapped around a morse key getting the odd puff of wind through an open window.

[@RCAvhstape]

@@paulstubbs7678 Yeah, I wasn't gonna spoil that.

[@BigShittin]

@@paulstubbs7678 thanks for spoiling the ending guy

[@3rdalbum]

​@@BigShittin People should really be more considerate. I'd been planning to see that movie for the last 65 years, I guess now it's ruined.

[@tonybalm1513]

Great film!

[@CB-RADIO-UK]

I love the drone footage. Very nicely done.

[@sondrayork6317]

That one sounded like Morse code being sent by an inexperienced operator lol.

[@warmstrong5612]

The "crackle" sounds more like a coffee percolator to me rather than tin cans being dragged across the ground. I hear that sound and I think 'Oh, coffee's ready'.

[@boilerroombob]

Great information lewis.... a good listen on the bands in the 80s and 90s had most of us wondering and logging just what some of these transmissions really were ....some solved ...some still a mystery...but always good to discuss.

[@treyaldridge1757]

Is it just me or does the crackle sound like a sped up clip of the coconuts being knocked together to sound like horses in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

[@markt.3454]

This is fascinating stuff! I got my first HF receiver, and old Helicrafters SX-42, in the late 80s and had a ball listening to everything on the bands.

[@bobsoldrecords1503]

Faders was frequently heard by me, back in the eighties. It seemed to pop up constantly

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

_"20-Minute Idler"_ That was my ex-wife's nickname for me...😉🤭

[@kellymarieangeljohnson114]

The crackle was around in the early 1980s I heard it between the broadcast bands often with good strength I can't remember the frequency was a long time ago

[@SpecialGuestStar]

I'm pretty sure the "crackle" is just a broken Morse transmitter, the Buzzer's Morse counterpart does crackle all the time while idle, but I observed the same behaviour with other Russian mil. CW counterparts, too.

[@deildegast]

The irregular Dash sounds a bit like the sputnik satellite signal, where the gap length and the dash length both carried information.

[@SeraphinaPZ]

"The Crackle" to me sounds almost like rain falling on to some surface.

[@johnpinckney4979]

Good one! How about a show on clandestine broadcasters?

[@grahamfisher5436]

He could do.. But you'd never know 😂

[@3rdalbum]

Like pirate radio stations? I'd watch the living daylights out of that.

[@johnpinckney4979]

@@3rdalbum Nope. Pirates are usually apolitical. Clandestines are anything but! Past clandestines I've heard include Radio Truth, Radio Sandino, Radio Free Dixie (Likely Cuba), Radio Espana Independente (Allegedly DDR origin), Radio Euzkadi, La Voz de Cuba Independente y Democratica, and Radio Caiman, among others over the years.

[@radioweebdx7680]

I did some monitoring of the 20 Minute Idler, on some occasions the carrier would not switch off after 20 minutes and then continue on until the next hour and then switch off 20 minutes past the next hour. I never caught anything that was regarded as an actual message from this station though. I think the signal came from the Russian Navy and was a RTTY type signal.

[@ianchard]

The irregular dash sounds like the signal from On The Beach

[@patring620]

I scan the spectrum constantly and rarely hear anything anomalous. I wish I would. I just sometimes wonder if theses unknown signals were automatic direction finding signals or bacons of some sort - just noise to provide a bearing, maybe even a constant triangulation bearing of some sort. Fascinating stuff. I hope to find something interesting to report. The many digital modes almost pollute the ham bands. The signals take all forms and would make finding an anomaly difficult in some portions of the band (which might be ideal if a signal was meant to be hidden). Interesting stuff. Thanks Ringway.

[@OGmolton1]

great channel, i love the Dillinja-esque closing music

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

_"Biggest Unsolved Mystery"?_ You mean the *_Russian Woodpecker_* REALLY WAS a *_Russian Woodpecker??_* 😉🤭

[@SSN515]

Tapping at suet spread on a CW key.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

​@@SSN515>>> 🤭

[@dougtaylor7724]

Ah yes, big woodpeckers. Reminds me of a story. A US intelligence officers sends some foot long condoms to Russia hoping to me them feel inferior. They write medium on them and send them back.

[@mariom.9472]

I heard something like the idler on channel 24 on the German CB Channel about 25 years ago. I could hear it with S7 - S9+ for around four weeks, then it disappeared and never came back.

[@Dratchev241]

i remember in the very late 80s early 90s a wide band siren on cb. it would take up several cb channels in the usa. heard it for about a month then it just disappeared never heard again.

[@JJiMedia]

Love the video and the footage. The "20-minute idler" sounds surprisingly similar to a RTTY transmission idling, at least to me. I haven't heard the original one, but similar signals do still appear on HF, usually followed shortly by real RTTY but everytime it leaves me without decoding, as my OpenWebRX+ knows only a few of them and I can't dial them in (either the two signals are too far apart or too close to each other to acquire anything other than garbage). The only thing I've ever managed to decode is the German weather service at Pinneberg.

[@ProtoHadron]

6:25 the name immediately reminded me of the song "Sixty Minute Man"

[@burgesj7]

I love gettin the willies to be honest and you provide, good lord

[@tammymakesthings]

Given that the XC “crackle” signal alternates with Morse code transmissions, I wonder if it could be some sort of digital signal propagation beacon. It could also have been an over the horizon radar being tested.

[@DM01710]

Fantastic , Big thanks

Radio transmissions/transmitters amaze me, I used to maintain various generator/switchgear in transmitting stations for MOD In Scotland

[@andylinton2798]

Fascinating, as usual. I guess the mast with the cap hat is an aeronautical beacon?

[@aspergerio]

Cheers for another great upload, Mr. Wingray

[@sandybottom6623]

XE The Echos sounds like an American landline ring tone.

[@XPFTP]

becons to space. then turned off to listen for a response.

[@rupertbollywood1190]

Irregular dash and some others have unifying features: data pulse wave bursts, 2014 date, heard by US listeners and/or around US bases in the UK. This suggests usage in coordinating Victoria Nuland's CIA op in Ukraine in 2014.

[@reeceevmez4106]

I’ve heard all these is 2024!!! Okay they may have only been heard in of your video but I heard them !😂😂

[@hvcomputech]

Nice cards with typewriter letters

[@andreasfragner9029]

So many questions. Thera must be some retired ex military or others who can explain what these signals are for?

[@ryank5tar]

Great work. You are the best Presenter on U Tube.

[@Ztbmrc1]

Interesting signals. We would need some receiving stations able to take bearings of those mystery signals... One question to the video pictures. That antenne to be seen i.e. at 6:00, that mast wit 3 rods on top. Is that be a NDB antenna (top loaded) or what is it?

[@winstonchurchill6506]

Just a rumour the woodpecker was realy a giant hedgehog called spiny norman...cheers lewis

[@merlin5476]

Monty python perhaps 👍

[@grahamfisher5436]

What do you call? a Russian with a spade stuck outta his head ? 😂

[@merlin5476]

I've searched around for quite a while now to find out what the strange Trumpet tune was that i recieved on MW at various frequencies in the 1970's.!! Ive searched so many channels on y.t. but to no avail.

[@IndependentNewsMedia]

Interesting video, God bless.

[@sondrayork6317]

It sounds like some kind of clock signal if it’s ticked right to the second. Sounds like it could be a time signal. The kind of data that is being used sounds very much like WWV uses on 60 kHz long wave.

[@DonLogan-jj5os]

Has there ever been any disclosure or acknowledgement by the British government about its use of SW numbers stations?

[@grahamfisher5436]

Department of Trade and Industry - "These are what you suppose they are. People shouldn't be mystified by them. They are not for, shall we say, public consumption."

[@Hold_My_Pocket]

@@grahamfisher5436 hahahaha I really new to the SW scene, the technical side, combined with the history is really interesting

[@franciscolopez3229]

What do you guys think about this sounds on 10 meters? It's hard to explain, but it sounds like birds chirpping starting on a high note then gragually fades out on a low note. Sometimes, it does fade quickly and sometimes it sounds like laser guns in a scifi movie. It's on SSB by the way.

[@fretlessfender]

Might be propagation testing equipment, they chirp!

[@rEdf196]

In 1992 I recall a strange signal adjacent to the then popular North America pirate radio frequency of 7415 kHz. It sounded a lot like a Star Wars Tie Fighter at roughly the same pitch. It was single sideband like STANAG signals was it Data of a signal Jammer? no sure. It was strong every night throughout the summer and fall of that year but gradually faded away. then many decades later in 2014 i found a very strong similar sounding Tie fighter noise on websdr forgot the frequency though but was present for many hours then disappeared and never heard again since.

[@TheSillyshyguy]

Another excellent video!

[@davidcastle7212]

I remember that one from the 7os.

[@firedogman2280]

I do have a question for you, or a video idea, have you ever heard of secret listening posts outside the usual intelligence or frequency monitoring? For research or something else? fell down a rabbit hole and wanted to see if anyone knew more.

[@tt3233]

First one sounds like interference from a motor.

[@bac1111967]

The good old days.... it was better in the early 70's though... trust me!

[@kluafoz]

Does anyone here ever come across conversations?

[@arthurtwoshedsjackson6266]

When will you be getting back to UK radio systems , amateur radio antics and antennas?

[@Bluelagoonstudios]

I remember Echo's, I thought that it was an analog telephone signal routed to a transmitter. But in the 70,80,90s I heard a lot of Italian users on SSB. I quit listening end of the 90s because I was working on those damn things. (damn things because of human error, when I asked the transmitters were off, and they didn't) And no need after a long day of work to open any channel on the bands.

[@wisteela]

I'm wondering if the first one was for plane navigation.

[@randallreed9048]

Irregular Dash: This is silly, but upon hearing it, my mind immediately went way back to the original movie On the Beach (1959), that dystopian post-nuclear war tale starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner and Tony Perkins. In the story, Australia hears a persistent signal from the USA and sends the sole surviving US Navy nuke sub back to North America to investigate. When they track down the signal, it is at a deserted radio transmitter with a Morse code key tied to an empty Coke bottle that was randomly activated whenever the wind blew the shade in front of the window. One if the lines has a sailor monitoring the signal saying that he heard a [nonsense] sentence transmitted only yesterday... Reminded me of the broken clock that was right twice a day.

[@davidthompson3415]

The first one sounds like slow scan video🤔

[@viktormai6064]

These could be Russian over-the-horizon radar stations for early detection of nuclear missile launches. And also the "perimeter" ("dead hand") systems.

[@nowster]

Has Heaton Park BT tower lost another tier off the top since this drone footage was shot?

[@KF0LFX]

Heard a weird station on 10.715.0 mhz today. A spanish women voice speaking numbers and then a weird data type signal. Anyone else heard this one?

[@KF0LFX]

Mystery solved. It's HM01 out of Cuba presumably.

[@optroncordian7863]

The signal from XE sounds very similar to the one used from HAARP when they were bouncing from the moon ... They were sending a two seconds bursts and then listening to the echo ... Could that be something with the same purpose ...

[@alandavidpryce5459]

Love the photographic and drone content

[@jameyevans29]

Nice pictures!

[@GamingKing545]

i wouldn't be surprised if stanag replaced this

[@jameyevans29]

Do a video of your antenna farm please

[@3rdalbum]

Shaw T Wave and The Faders

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

I find the choice of using weird irregular, analogue, sounds and usually really annoying sounds as a channel marker rather odd, especially for the number stations where numbers are occasionally read out loud without a fixed schedule. Imagine if you're a secret agent or whoever is supposed to listen for and decode these messages; and you have to listen to a horrible buzzer sound all the time just in case they some day will give an encrypted order. I can't imagine you could easily make an automated system to automatically trigger and start recording and/or turn up the volume on the system when the placeholder sound is an irregular fuzzy buzzing. Those that send a very regular square wave beep could easily be have an automated system to notice when the actual transmission starts; but even with modern signal processing the UVB-76 buzzer seems rather hard to program anything for, without a ton of false positives... And imagine having to listen through hours of recordings of that noise every day whenever the system has falsely detected a potential voice message.

[@jimbotron70]

They likely have a set up schedule of broadcasting, so they know when to tune in.

[@QuadMochaMatti]

Where is Robert Stack?

[@paulwilliams2663]

Brilliant

[@carlsgarage2023]

Is Radio 4 MW off air across the UK at the mo?

[@shayne109]

mw? its on its usual 198KHz LW what frequency do you mean?

[@carlsgarage2023]

@@shayne109 720KHz here in Belfast. I think 15th April was the cut off date.

[@JohnJones-ce5ri]

Nothing a gas axe wouldn't fix.

[@Ploggy.]

🙂👍

[@richardsanders4624]

Don't mention 2014...! U2ube gets Triggerd.

[@XavierCarbonelli]

I remember hearing a constant transmission around that time (can't remember the HF frequency) that sounded exactly like the sound effect of the ray guns on the Martian ships in the film War of the Worlds (1953). Never heard it again.

[@RCAvhstape]

I swear I've heard that on the radio at some point. Don't remember where or when.

[@joeyjamison5772]

Good luck trying to find where that stuff is coming from. I was into short wave listening and ham radio in the 1960s and then radio in all forms when I was in the US Air Force. I can't even remember how many discussions there were as to where many of those transmissions were emanating from. It was everything from the Russians to the CIA to space aliens and beyond.

[@associatedblacksheepandmisfits]

Could some of these sigs come from satellites ?🤔

[@jimbotron70]

Unlikely, they never use HF bands.

[@associatedblacksheepandmisfits]

@@jimbotron70 who knows what goes on in intelligence gathering 😉

[@jimbotron70]

@@associatedblacksheepandmisfits They mostly operate on UHF, VHF and GigaHertz bands with satellites.

[@joeyjamison5772]

@@brucebaxter6923 Atmospheric reflections and ionization are not present all the time.

[@stonerman15]

Make more unsolved mysteries

[@JimAllen-Persona]

4:05 If XC iineterfered with Shanwick HF, they should've shut it down.

[@jonfr]

That sounds like a digital signal with some type of modulation. I am not sure on the modulation, but it sounds advanced. That's unusual for the 1970's and to the 2001's since digital was not that advanced in those days.

[@DanFrederiksen]

ET ships frequent our skies and seem to emit complex broad band EM. Look for a main tone around 5-20MHz with complex harmonics up and down for the smaller discus scout craft (10-15m diameter).

[@DanFrederiksen]

@@chrisclark4112 eh no. how do you figure?