I Solved One Of Shortwave Radio's BIGGEST Mysteries!

[@RingwayManchester]

Watch this first: How Radio Detectives Solved One Of Short Waves Biggest Mysteries! kzbin.info/www/bejne/opnXmZWvoNB4atU

[@TexasPrisonStories]

almost to 100k subscribers! congratulations you earned it.

[@TymexComputing]

Yeah - ive seen that one already and first thought hey, you have already shown the place is revealed, and probably Sam is just a cartoon recognizable payload. The clients that want simultanous support of: {AM, FM, FSK, QAM, QSFP+, 400gbethernet } and pay for AM are the worst clients you can ever encounter :)

[@bradfordjeff]

Mel Blanc, the voice of Yosemite Sam, was an avid CBer and used to talk in some of his Warner Brothers cartoon voices on the air in Los Angeles in the 1970s. He would be proud to know his voice still gets used for oddball radio transmissions.

[@Cemi_Mhikku]

Ironically, he was also not especially fond of carrots, especially raw.They couldn't get that sound right any other way, leading to buckets upon buckets of ABC carrots on the sound stage. No, he wasn't allergic - at least aside from that "allergy" many of us have to anything remotely healthy - that is just an urban legend like much of the lore surrounding the broadcast in question here.

[@deansmiley8221]

​@Cemi_Mhikku another sidenote,Carrots were touted as being good for your eyesight at the same time the British invented RADAR.The whole carrots being good for eyesight was a farse to explain early detection of aircraft.

[@sirsancti5504]

@Dean ... Disregard vitamin A.

[@kleverich]

I work in Wi-Fi, and we still use NI PXI cards ("pixie") for signal generation and analysis. If the customer didn't know about PXI and its capabilities relative to HP/Agilent rack equipment, it was undoubtedly a military customer.

[@TheDalhuck]

At least military adjacent.

[@gir489returns2]

I used to be obsessed with this station as a teenager. It's nice to get some closure on what it was.

[@Gunbudder]

one major downside to wikipedia is that primary sources in the form of witness accounts are not accepted. you have to be interviewed or covered first (like this video), and THEN you can be used as a source for wikipedia. its annoying, but it does keep malicious people from claiming wild things they witnessed. also i love that it was a tech working with labview and not realizing he was transmitting for real hahaha. that is the most real engineering thing i've heard in a while. thankfully there is no fine for broadcasting in that band!!

[@heckelphon]

No that's not good enough, it seems. Take a look at Wikipedia: this has all been reverted instantly. Apparently receiving this information and relaying it to the world here "Just stinks" according to the gods of Wikipedia!

[@TheSynthnut]

Sadly Wikipedia's gatekeepers often seem to just want to play god. I've heard of numerous cases where genuine information is rejected. Wikipedia is amazing but hugely flawed.

[@sprolyborn2554]

Which makes wikipedia inherently flawed and not to be trusted. The truest, most primary source will always be the person responsible for the action. Wikipedia places a third parties' opinion of your actions over yourself as posits that as the truth. Don't trust it.

[@chrism4008]

Wikipedia is a joke. The fact that people invest so much of their time working for them for free is one of the most incomprehensible things to me. The most valuable thing someone has is their time, so it really blows my mind people would spend it laboring for free for wikipedia. Especially since its well known that its not always accurate and that it has a heavy political leaning that prevents it from being objective

[@retsamyar]

@@agranero6 While there is many issues and problems with wikipedia it currently is the best we have. While I think we must continue to make it or something better we should not discredit the good parts. Many will use such examples as a reason to dismiss everything on the site. But that does not mean we shouldnt bring to light the problems nor hide them away to never be worked out. I guess what I am getting at is that we shouldnt just stop trying. If the wiki mod editors failed you repeatedly, we should continue to challenge them. Even if it doesnt work out in the end we must not stop trying to make it better and fair other wise we are failing the ones who come after us.

[@patallen5095]

Great to hear that Yosemite Sam is alive and well, roaming the desert of New Mexico!!! 👍

[@brandonlaragirl]

Maybe he'll take out mud duck! Channel 19 ain't happy with him

[@serioustoday]

Sam and that dragon! The Nobel prizr, Olympic Gold and Oscar of cartoons.

[@alzeNL]

Brilliant as ever, enjoyed all aspects of this video from the technical detail, as thorough as ever, to communications/emails to the person involved. Could easily watch your videos all day, its easily some of the best radio related content available on the internet.

[@RingwayManchester]

Much appreciated!

[@bertholtappels1081]

This is the kind of information and detail that makes this one of your best videos!

[@paladinmaid2334]

Watching this and thinking back, when I was young, a friend of mine had a walkie-talkie that would pick up on something quite unusual, it was a male voice that would just seemingly spout nonsensical things like "Joy to the Island of Centifica" and just listing out different home electrical appliances and other random stuff. Thinking logically now, I believe that it would most likely have been a test of some kind, either a test for signals intercept operators or like Yosemite Sam here, just some automated thing randomly sending nonsense for a specific testing purpose. I remember it scared the shit outta me, cause it made no sense and the voice was so clinical and creepy. This was in Sydney Australia around 2002-2003? Not sure what frequency my mate's walkie-talkie operated on, but likely to be 27 MHz ISM.

[@burgesskj]

Interesting. I was doing some RF work in Yuma at the same time. We had some new compartmental but not secret monitoring systems, which had weird audio tracks. We were exploring a variety of new encryption and clear (without encryption) transmissions in prep for the follow up for the desert warfare back then. There were unknown factors we had to overcome. What how & who are all likely still classified but it's fun to see what public interceptions found back then. There was a lot of noise in the spectrum from 2001 - 2005, I'd never heard of this Yosemite Same station until now. Good on you for figuring this out.

[@MickHurst65]

Love,this. Keep them coming. You're creating a magnificent archive of Radio and it's technology.

[@stratojet94]

THIS IS AMAZING! My friend and I have listened to this and tried to drive down to New Mexico to get a better signal. You are such a hero for figuring this out!

[@dcolb121]

Hero?

[@peterfitzpatrick7032]

​@@dcolb121 his heroic feat of opening an email... duh ! 🙄😅👍

[@rambo1152]

So let me get this straight. Somebody "Didn't think anyone would notice" transmissions of a Looney Tune every 10MHz between 10-70MHz at a minimum of 100W up to half a kW?

[@PapaWheelie1]

Someone didn’t read Dummy Loads for Dummies

[@AnyoneSeenMikeHunt]

@@PapaWheelie1 🤣

[@johnwalton5576]

That was very fascinating and interesting. However, it begs the question, who was "the customer" and why did they need such a set up? Unless I missed the answer in this video, then I say we need a part 3 to officially put this to rest.

[@Peter_S_]

The customer is a polite way of saying 'a three letter agency' without saying a three letter agency. In the same manner, specific components of special weapons systems are called "items". Security clearances were specifically mentioned which doesn't happen in private industry outside government work. The customer was obviously the U.S. Government or a contractor for the same. The need is simple. It's for operational testing of radios, almost certainly mobile receivers.

[@ElRel]

​@@Peter_S_what about stock traders?

[@Peter_S_]

@@ElRel What about them? Stock traders don't need LabVIEW based test instruments or tactical radio testing, except maybe on the weekends.

[@paulsengupta971]

@@Peter_S_ Have you heard about the stock traders "take over" of HF? It's big news in the ham community in the USA. Less latency than over the internet.

[@MPLS_Andy]

​@@paulsengupta971I'd love to see Ringway do a video on this HF trading.

[@ka4dqe606]

Great to see solid/hard/empirical information - much of what the Internet is missing. Thanks for the really interesting video. Cheers

[@highpath4776]

That report is a genius of corporate sales pitch with enough technical info to baffle most financial decisions makers and to inform the experts appropriately. Wonder who the client was , and what they were trying to achieve long-term ? Mil or Mobile Comms ?

[@Muonium1]

"I didn't have a clearance *at the time* ." 🧐

[@wisteela]

This is fantastic. He had no idea what his work would start. The technical details reminded me of encabulators. I wonder if side fumbling was an issue?

[@TheScramblerTV]

Personally, I don't think side fumbling would be an issue because any competent radio engineer would undoubtedly be using prefamulation.

[@paulsengupta971]

I think with all those modulation schemes they were testing the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive diractance.

[@StubbyPhillips]

It all sounds a bit crudely conceived to me.

[@wisteela]

We don't know what it was for though.@@StubbyPhillips

[@craigfdavis]

Must have been that pesky prefamulated dingle arm that caused the unintended public transmission. That's usually the case in situations like this.

[@migalito1955]

Cool beans, but darn it was more interesting to see it as transmissions made by a mad cartoon lover in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Arizona.

[@AnyoneSeenMikeHunt]

“Say your prayers, rabbit.” - Yosemite Sam

[@rovhalgrencparselstedt8343]

I wonder if that MATIC facility is still active today, in the pictures toward the end it did look a bit defunct and abandoned compared to the aerial photos.

[@danbrit9848]

love your work keep doing amazing stuff...you cant stop the signal...

[@fredbloggs545]

System security, Windows XP accounts and Windows XP Remote Desktop....it was never secure!

[@ocsrc]

This sounds like they are looking for the best frequency from the location to transmit on. Like a ham operator looks for the beacons from each band to know what frequency is useable. The idea being to use the highest Mhz frequency available. The time of day and solar activity and weather will be different and the ability to use the same frequency at the same time each day will change. I wonder who would be able to use whatever frequency they wanted and whatever modulation and signal type they wanted ? I am thinking this is for military use.

[@joelmanthis9523]

Absolutely, the thing I wonder about was if it was an actual armed forces that is recognized or a taxpayer funded ghost operation.

[@Noubers]

As someone who sat behind tons of RF test equipment I can say playing something random like that if given the chance would be on the top of my list. I love radios, but it can get pretty mundane sometimes, so little things like that or slipping in easter eggs where you can happens fairly often.

[@petermainwaringsx]

I spent some time in that area, and although I was unaware of this stuff, there are a lot of weird things going on in NM. Great video, thanks for uploading.

[@nillchen]

like what, for example?

[@citizenphaid1880]

Oop…another dog with bone moment. Oh how I love this channel😂 I anticipate your source was the CEO of BBT a company which was bought by NTS in 2006 and which had numerous commercial and defence contracts at the time. That individual wrote the NTS paper from what I can see so the question on everyone’s lips is who was that customer 😂 Some have eluded to fintech (which is my current background) but given the comments made in the report as to cost effective transportation in a brief case I wager this is possibly a product designed to test, verify and enforce the security of military systems.

[@davidsradioroom9678]

Excellent documentary!

[@joeblow8593]

Nice work as always and congratulations on 100,000 subscribers

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

"Varmint...I'm-a gonna blowwww ya ta smithereens..." Something to do w/either rabbits or ducks, one assumes...

[@RingwayManchester]

I’m a gonna blowwwww ya to smithereeensssss

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

​@@RingwayManchester Yeah, after a few more listens it clicked. My childhood memories kicked in too, presumably...

[@alanslade2319]

Brilliant I remember my dad listening to it. Can’t wait to let him see your show. He will be over the moon and back. Love your show thanks for your work love it all. Alan from LUTON 💯🇬🇧😱👍

[@fabianvilarino6469]

@alanslade2319 How did your father listen to this in Great Bretain, when it was broadcast from New Mexico, in the USA? How was it possible?

[@MrHichammohsen1]

Almost at 100K! Congratulations.

[@AdamSWL]

So they were building the ultimate ANNOY-O-MATIC transmitter that ensured any desired waveform could be emitted at a precise time from anywhere by users so authorised. Sounds like a jamming system. Either intentional or not. Or the ability to insert messages into other stations transmissions. Love the technical information and illustrations of the equipment!

[@MalleusSemperVictor]

I don't think that's the case based on the data burst transmission at the beginning. It's more like the "Let's just ping everyone all at once" kind of solution, and if you could decrypt it, the transmission was for you.

[@mm1dea]

wondering about the legality of it all, licenced or not

[@OscarzProductions]

I'm just a fixed-wireless and Wi-Fi guy, but I've really enjoyed so many of your videos about radio.

[@merlin5476]

Back in the 70's in the south of essex i used to love to listen to various odd things on the MW band, one repeated 5 second tune used to go on for hours & sounded like a few notes from a trumpet. I'd love to find out more about it now 👍 and possibly use it as a ring tone.

[@Maschine103]

That sounds familiar, I was hearing that in North Essex in the 1980s

[@merlin5476]

@@Maschine103 it was around the late 70's early 80's. It used to pop up over most ( if i remember correctly) of the mw frequency, i would have been around 15 at the time & it puzzled me as to why it was transmitted!!

[@thebegrsshow]

Nice one Lewis, thanks once again.👍

[@TheWildSide369]

Thanks for al this content. As an engineer I am following the call of the jungle 20 years after finished university. Good of had a life in the UK 10 years ago and understand your accent and expressions. I win always everytime with each one of your videos. Cheers from Bogota. HJ3VMS. Using EchoLink and 10wBaofengs by now. Will see later on where this takes my budget to. Thanks.

[@nvis4080]

I especially enjoy your videos about number stations and ham radio. Thanks,

[@acestudioscouk-Ace-G0ACE]

You do these so well.👍

[@crazyham]

Excellent Video as Always. Keep up the great Work mate & 73 from Down Under ⚡🙏⚡.

[@spacemissing]

All the fun went out of it when the reality hit.

[@BenMursa]

The truth is always way more interesting than the wildest conspiracy theories, sweet video!

[@RevMikeBlack]

This is a great follow-up to your previous story. Thanks.

[@g8rdt]

5:16 first time i seen one of these in use - just built one for leo satelite use - i think the idea is omnidirectional circular polarisation... Kevin..

[@3oo3tube2020]

"a very controlled and flexible environment"? Sounds like the Government had something to do with this. Thanks for the video! Your content is always top notch! KG5WXU 73

[@eldrago19]

The number of answers to mysteries submitted to Wikipedia but deleted shortly afterwards for lack of citations by someone who couldn't be bothered to look for any is probably incredible.

[@MatTurner-e5r]

Sometimes I delete the "citation needed" if it's something so mundane that no one in their right mind would ever lie about it. Goddamn dorks.

[@cidcolead1115]

I worked for many years with that same equipment. The performance claims are real and I saw it work out this way many times. We even flew simulated aircraft navigation equipment on a single engine plane. The only thing he left out is the ability to transmit multiple signals at the same time, record and playback in RF things like the entire FM Broadcast band.

[@Calamity_Jack]

And bear in mind this was all done nearly 20 years ago. I can only imagine the hardware (and software) that's available for doing similar, and even way more feature-enhanced functionality today, probably in a package 1/10th the size. Probably the bulk of it could be done on a tiny microcontroller-based module with simple outputs to antennas.

[@livingdeadbtu]

I'm no expert but don't those specs sound like the RFP for a fully automated numbers station and receiver?

[@thormusique]

Wow, great work, Lewis! It certainly took some time to happen, but I'm glad the longstanding mystery has been put to bed. But I suppose this begs the question: What kinds of end-purposes do you think such a system would be used for? Cheers!

[@Prepologyblog]

Amazing the things that are in my backyard (60 miles to my Northeast ) Thanks for putting this out there 73s

[@ChiefBridgeFuser]

I might be missing something, but why didn't this draw the attention of the FCC? Was transmitter licensed?

[@RingwayManchester]

It was probably something government related so it wouldn’t have been an issue. Have a look at the first video, the FCC did provide a bearing to amateurs

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

Anything radio-related involving the federal government is overseen by the NTIA. The FCC is only for us civilian pedestrians...

[@manmachinemake3708]

I spent 25 years as an RF tech in the wireless industry. Interference hunting was my passion and as such, I was given all the tough ones to solve. That said, with a Yagi a map and a SpecAn, the x-mitter could have been located in 10 working minutes (not including drive time) using triangulation. Especially in the open desert. The "why and what for" is a different issue as is getting the offending signals to cease. It always amazed me how defensive people are when you tell them they are x-mitting an Interference signal on a licensed freq and violating the FCC laws.

[@ocsrc]

That tone sounds like a DMR or P25 digital Motorola signal I wonder if you could get the ID in that Usually they transmit the network and the talkgroup and channel

[@Darryl_Frost]

NI and LabVIEW and radio, I'm in heaven all the things I love. NI and LabVIEW can do so much and is an amazing development and programming system. It is perfect for this kind of thing.

[@manmachinemake3708]

I spent 25 years as an RF tech in the wireless industry. Interference hunting was my passion and as such, I was given all the tough ones to solve. That said, with a Yagi a map and a SpecAn, the x-mitter could have been located in 10 working minutes (not including drive time) using triangulation. Especially in the open desert. The "why and what for" is a different issue as is getting the offending signals to cease. It always amazed me how defensive people are when you tell them they are x-mitting an Interference signal on a licensed freq and violating the FCC laws

[@abelincoln7473]

Isn't that when the black van full of angry agents shows up?. Perhaps if you showed up with some aluminum foil and a roll of duct tape....

[@elguapo1507]

Our very own Poirot! 👍😁

[@winstonchurchill6506]

Now these are the vids i mostly enjoy nice one lewis..

[@MarkAppier]

Great work!

[@stratojet94]

I READ THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE WHEN THIS WAS EDITED BUT DID NOT BELIEVE IT WAS REAL.

[@thomasfriedmann8522]

Nice summary.

[@cyrilio]

OMG. Almost at 100k subscribers. Totally deserved

[@knoxieman]

Superb analysis, I wonder what kind of power they were putting out? LabVIEW and the associated hardware is incredible and very versatile, it's a shame more people don't use it to help improve their products and stop so many poor designs spewing out interference, surprised they would use copyrighted audio samples for test purposes in a professional scenario though 🤔

[@VirtualLunacy]

in the video there was a reference to power output stepping between 100 and 500 watts.

[@Robslondon]

Great video.

[@stanleybest8833]

Does England use the 26.965 - 27.405 AM +SSB class D CB radio service along with their FM band?

[@jplacido9999]

Yes. First it was pirate, but now it is legal.

[@thisandthat871]

Well there ya go who'd have thought it Great detective work Lewis Mystery solved 👍

[@ianmichael5768]

Thank you, James Clerk Maxwell and Heaviside for sending us down an infinite rabbit hole. Faraday deserves his due as well...amongst others.

[@raysoucie489]

Good Information --- Thanks

[@bac1111967]

Well done - it was always good for a giggle

[@jameyevans29]

Hey bud! Will you please do a video on the Stock Bros trading wanting to use a portion of the HF Ham bands? Thanks

[@RingwayManchester]

Working on it

[@bassangler73]

Very cool!

[@simonmason8582]

We used Agilent HPLCs in our chemical lab at BP Chemicals.

[@nicmcv6925]

Exhaustive! Superb!

[@MercyOnASinnerLikeMe]

That was a good video and really informative. But I don't know, man. One day, about eight or nine years ago, I saw a random KZbin video on abandoned missle silos around the U.S.A. that people were exploring and more than a few of them had painted pictures of Yosemite Sam on some of the walls and I have never been able to shake the annoying hunch that there might have been some connection between the silos and the Yosemite Sam numbers station mystery.

[@serioustoday]

Yosemite Sam and the Dragon. This wins the Nobel prize, the Oscar and the Olympic gold for cartoons.

[@Teknofobe]

Don't know if it's your live video. Or just your interesting content, but i really can't get enough of your wonderful stuff, Lewis. Gratitude from your Scottish fans. ❤

[@gowithgoldstraw]

If you listen to the recording as spoken in a Scots accent, Yosemite Sam seems to be suggesting he's going to do something far ruder!

[@Teknofobe]

@@gowithgoldstraw I am Scottish. And caught that myself. Had to rewind a few times. Just to make sure i wasn't having, "one of my turns." Lol.

[@jamminwrenches860]

It's sad that Wikipedia is not what it was intended to be. People who gatekeep wiki are highly political and often the truth is cast to the garbage bin.

[@trevormegson7583]

That's 3 thumbs up from me.

[@AB1Vampire]

I naively thought Yosemite Sam was a strictly American thing. Looney Toons forever!

[@emrilbennett8704]

This is really interesting, as a former programmer with a passing radio interest.

[@OxfordShortwaveLog]

Great story, Lewis! I didn't ever copy this signal but was aware of it of course! Mystery solved! 73

[@baronedipiemonte3990]

At least they didn't use "Porky Pig"...

[@KK-dv3wh]

I don't know which would have been worse to hear at that that time, this, or "that's all, folks!"

[@baronedipiemonte3990]

They could have used old Bugs Bunny since he was always taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque... "Eh, what's up Doc"

[@kwgm8578]

Engineer Ambitiously, Lewis!

[@edwardlittle9362]

I kept waiting to hear this part of the report. The [pentametric fan] consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzelvances, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that side fumbling was effectively prevented

[@jeffreybrunken556]

“System security and user monitoring are provided in two layers. Standard security measures such as a firewall to the Internet and ***Windows XP*** accounts provide the first layer”. 😳😳😳

[@MrWhite2222]

It was 20 years ago lol

[@jeffreybrunken556]

@@MrWhite2222 I know. I was using it in an enterprise environment back then. Hence my comment.

[@kh-ro5su]

i remember when i was first getting into shortwave listing in these days, i heard this broadcast at times. i totally forgot about it over the years. back when it first appeared, nobody knew how to make sense of it. the prevailing theory was that it was just a jammer or troll since it would appear on amateur radio (ham) bands but they also didn't make perfect sense since it wasn't really on frequencies commonly used. of course, we also made up all kinds of obviously nonsense conspiracy theories (back when those were fun...rather than schizo political insanity) about it being a numbers station, with the audio clip specifically chosen to imply the US might get nuked or all sorts of amusing ideas. once everyone kinda figured out that it was just from some sort of research, it lost its mystery although it always remained a fun memory for people who were into radio in those days. this update video about it makes it even funnier now that the guy said he didn't even bother to consider whether anyone would hear it or care. well, now he knows just how far radio hobbyists - especially the hams - will go to when it comes to radio, especially something that was so unusual at the time :'p

[@SocialistDistancing]

And he had no idea that the signal was even getting out or that anyone was listening.

[@nayanbarman2236]

this yosemite sound 🔥

[@Povilaz]

Very interesting!

[@Chuck8541]

I wonder what the customer used it for when it went into operation - and not doing mere test signals

[@MaxStax1]

Wouldn't have been quite as interesting if Yosemite Sam wasn't somehow involved. 😆

[@Superjet701]

Were they licensed to transmit in such a large frequency range?

[@PapaWheelie1]

Do you need a license on a reservation

[@Superjet701]

@@PapaWheelie1 it’s still in the USA

[@MrWhite2222]

Guys, it was the government/ military doing the testing, lol. They gave themselves a permission slip.

[@mikelouis9389]

Well done.

[@non-human3072]

12:37 my brain hurts 😂

[@4BlueDrummer]

I believe this indirectly solves the operation of modern numbers stations mystery, which might provide more insight on how to “decode” them. Just my own personal theory.

[@brandonha]

I watched the first video… i still don’t understand half of the words you’re saying in this. I’m probably just dumb, but i still enjoyed it. 🍿 I think the only initialism you used that i actually knew was gps…

[@oscodains]

What’s a real-world commercial reason for the scenario example described in the paper?

[@earlyadapter643]

right, the text is just pages of blabla. LabView and cost effective...

[@IrishTrains]

Wouldn't these kind of transmissions be illegal? Seems like if a ham tried this the FCC would ticket them.

[@sullivan912]

LabVIEW - where you truly can have spaghetti code. Nice find!

[@EdgyNumber1]

What was the application was this used for though??

[@Peter_S_]

They're test transmissions to see how well radios mounted on military vehicles are able to receive them. Слава Україні! 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

[@EdgyNumber1]

@@Peter_S_ 🇺🇦 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 💪

[@highlandoutsider]

I cant help but hear that first clip as " ama gonna blow your arse rhythm" 🤷😂

[@johannbretbautista2715]

I'm happy to live and see the day thsat this has finally been solved