Canada’s CHU time station to close

[Mediafrog+]

As planned CHU signed off at 1410 UTC today. Audio dropped, then carrier gone a few seconds later. Nothing further heard on the three frequencies.

No direct reception on 14670 for me in Houston so I was monitoring 3330 and 7850 via an SDR in Vermont. Those had solid levels on the SDR but there was no reception of 14670, perhaps that transmitter signed off early?

RIP to CHU.

 

[CTListener]

Unauthorized garbage continues on 7850 on the K1VL SDR. Heard a breaker jump in with "Get off the air,idiot!" a few minutes ago.

 

[kevtronics]

Gone at 1410. Looney Tunes "that's all folks" sound effects being heard now. From where??? CHU? The ticking is continuing, but there's audio weirdness, English, French, sound effects, accompanying it. Signal also seems weaker. What the heck is this? A pirate protest?

Hams/pirates congregate on WWV's frequencies (especially 10 MHz), too. I call it "the party on WWV":

 

[IM42A]

I remember CHU from my boyhood, it was one of the first shortwave stations I could get with the cheap multiband radio I got at Heck's (kind of like a 1970's Appalachian Walmart). I know that back then, they read the time as "Eastern Standard Time", or in French, "heure normale d'est". I don't know when they switched to Coordinated Universal Time.

 

[yeoldeschool]

Hams/pirates congregate on WWV's frequencies (especially 10 MHz), too. I call it "the party on WWV":

The sound of that reminds me of something from Evan Doorbell's telephone network hacking (phreaking) memoirs. You know those phone company trunk circuits that endlessly repeat pre-recorded messages like "would you please check the number and try your call again?" When the phone network was still analog in the '60s and '70s, kids would find examples of those circuits with serious crosstalk problems. The crosstalk allowed everyone who happened to simultaneously dial into them to hear one another. You can just imagine the results. The numbers leading into them became instant stealth party lines, with countless voices calling out into the ether, "pirating" off-limits segments of the phone system to socialize without being billed or traceable. The most cherished numbers were crosstalk-stricken test numbers and pre-recorded message circuit trunks whose loop tapes (drums) were broken. Those were special because they rewarded their inhabitants with pure and unbroken silence from the telephone company's end, making interference-free conferences among their callers possible for hours at a time. An entire underground culture developed around them, one predating CB but sounding quite like it (and like your WWV recording) -- complete with the occasional loony tunes clip, music, and noise jamming. Whole clubs were formed, and lasting friendships were made.

Listen from 10:30 to 13:32, and again from 20:02 to 28:12 in this video if you want to hear what the very first internet sounded like:

Apropos of nothing, the final cassette clip the narrator plays at the 25 minute mark is of a phone phreakers-only crosstalk number. They're showing each other the best ways to route into England for free, to hear a talking clock number with a British accent.

By the way, in the rec.radio.shortwave thread you linked in your video's description, get a load of @davideduardo replying to you in 2002. Small world.

 

[yeoldeschool]

Unauthorized garbage continues on 7850 on the K1VL SDR. Heard a breaker jump in with "Get off the air,idiot!" a few minutes ago.

I love the logic of illegally broadcasting on 7850 to tell someone else to stop illegally broadcasting on 7850.

This appeared yesterday in my Youtube recommendations. It includes audio of the pirates following CHU's shutdown from the very SDR you mention.

 

[gar hi]

I've honestly never heard CHU until I saw this thread.

I found a video someone made and the time voice sounds a lot like the one on WWV.

I hope WWV and WWVH don't have the same fate as CHU, as WWV still reminds me of when I was a child listening to shortwave with my older brother on his tabletop radio that had tubes inside.

It looked a lot like this with the AM band as well and he also had a big S meter attached.

I remember the time he was able to hear the woman's voice from WWVH in the background of WWV.

One station on shortwave at the time that I heard a lot coming from his room was something that sounded like Bagpipes which he said was from Cuba.

This is a modern day recreation of what it sounded like.

 

[CTListener]

I've honestly never heard CHU until I saw this thread.

I found a video someone made and the time voice sounds a lot like the one on WWV.

I hope WWV and WWVH don't have the same fate as CHU, as WWV still reminds me of when I was a child listening to shortwave with my older brother on his tabletop radio that had tubes inside.

It looked a lot like this with the AM band as well and he also had a big S meter attached.

I remember the time he was able to hear the woman's voice from WWVH in the background of WWV.

One station on shortwave at the time that I heard a lot coming from his room was something that sounded like Bagpipes which he said was from Cuba.

This is a modern day recreation of what it sounded like.

That "bagpipe" tune was of the first signals I heard when my SWLing adventure began, twiddling the dial on an old Magnavox AM/SW/phonograph console at my grandparents' place when I was 11 years old. It must have been May of 1966, because I also heard the Indianapolis 500 on AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio). And yes, I heard CHU and WWV (which was still in Maryland at the time). Any idea whether the bagpipe transmission was actually from Cuba, and what its purpose was? A tuning signal preceding a "numbers" message, perhaps?

Another time station that put a decent signal into New England during the early daylight hours when Asia and the Pacific were at their strongest was Japan's JJY. If I could hear WWVH underneath WWV (after WWV's move to Colorado), then I'd usually be able to receive JJY.

 

[gar hi]

I don't know how my brother knew it was from Cuba or if it actually was and the transmission was probably information coded in the sounds that was not meant for public knowledge and could only be decoded by those who were intended to hear the transmissions.

Here In Hilo, I can hear WWVH on 10,000 khz and 15,000 khz during the day and sometimes WWV behind WWVH on 10,000 khz at night.

 

[gar hi]

I did an AI search to see if it may know what those old bagpipe sounds were on shortwave and got conflicting information.

One source said it was cold war communications between communist nations while another source said it originated in the US and was being used as a test for future telephone communications.

However, both sources said their info was only based on speculation and not concrete evidence.

 

[CTListener]

I did an AI search to see if it may know what those old bagpipe sounds were on shortwave and got conflicting information.

One source said it was cold war communications between communist nations while another source said it originated in the US and was being used as a test for future telephone communications.

However, both sources said their info was only based on speculation and not concrete evidence.

There were several telephone-related transmissions on shortwave during those years. They all had similar wording: "This is a transmission for circuit adjustment purposes," preceded or followed by the identity of the entity operating it. The two I remember best were the one in White Plains, NY, which ended its looped message with "This station is located near New York City," and, from abroad, an Italian station with a message beginning "This is Roma Radio, Italian radio-telephone service."

 

[KeithE4]

There were several telephone-related transmissions on shortwave during those years. They all had similar wording: "This is a transmission for circuit adjustment purposes," preceded or followed by the identity of the entity operating it. The two I remember best were the one in White Plains, NY, which ended its looped message with "This station is located near New York City," and, from abroad, an Italian station with a message beginning "This is Roma Radio, Italian radio-telephone service."

I remember the AT&T transmissions back in the 1960s and '70s. They were from NYC. They used reduced-carrier AM or SSB. They sounded distorted but audible on SW receivers without a BFO.

 

[CTListener]

I remember the AT&T transmissions back in the 1960s and '70s. They were from NYC. They used reduced-carrier AM or SSB. They sounded distorted but audible on SW receivers without a BFO.

Must have been reduced-carrier AM, because they were much easier to understand using a receiver without a BFO than the hams on SSB were. Although I admit thinking that the AT&T station was saying "certain adjustment purposes" and the Italian station was saying "Burma Radio" when I first heard them!

 

[gr8oldies]

In the dark recesses of my mind, I seem to remember sometimes hearing actual overseas phone calls on the "test" frequencies

 

[Mediafrog+]

In the dark recesses of my mind, I seem to remember sometimes hearing actual overseas phone calls on the "test" frequencies

That’s what those transmissions were for…long distance phone calls via shortwave radio. Commonplace 50+ years ago. The ”circuit adjustment purposes” announcements were just audio placeholders.

Ship to shore phone calls on shortwave were also quite abundant in that era. No privacy for your call, but anyone with half a brain knew that and avoided talking about anything private or sensitive. Made for interesting listening on the maritime bands back in the day.

 

[KeithE4]

Ship to shore phone calls on shortwave were also quite abundant in that era. No privacy for your call, but anyone with half a brain knew that and avoided talking about anything private or sensitive. Made for interesting listening on the maritime bands back in the day.

You'd be surprised how many people had non-functioning brain cells. Not only those who used shortwave international telephone services, but early FM-based cellphones and early air-to-ground telephone services like GTE Airphone, who took over TV channels 70-83. Anyone who had a TV that tuned those channels could hear at least part of those conversations, at least until they went full digital later in the 1990s.

 

[Mediafrog+]

You'd be surprised how many people had non-functioning brain cells. Not only those who used shortwave international telephone services, but early FM-based cellphones and early air-to-ground telephone services like GTE Airphone, who took over TV channels 70-83. Anyone who had a TV that tuned those channels could hear at least part of those conversations, at least until they went full digital later in the 1990s.

You are right about analog cell phone reception on the former Channels 70-83. Scanners capable of tuning 806-890 MHz were banned in the 1980s, but there were still millions of TVs that tuned those frequencies, with plenty of calls to be heard in the original AMPS days.

Pre-cellular mobile phones operated on the VHF-high and UHF public service bands, easily receivable on radios that tuned those ranges. No privacy there either, and those services were usually the domain of upscale people who often forgot they were talking on an unsecure platform.

 

[cc333]

Well, landlines weren't especially private either, but they were more resistant to casual listening by outside parties because one had to physically tap into them, which the casual eavesdropper would not even want to try.

c

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Very early mobile phones used the 1600-1700 kHz band, and transmitted like carrier current stations. The handset used 49 MHz channels. Later mobile phones used 46 and 49 MHz channels. Peter Cavanaugh had a chapter online or in his book "Local DJ" about listening into executives discussing risqué topics. It caused quite a stir when the executives found out and threatened Peter's job. Not sure if it was cell phones using TV Channels 70-83, or some earlier mobile phones on other bands. Mobile phones moved up to UHF and above and went scrambled or digital. When people couldn't figure out how to change the batteries, most just threw them out.

 

[yeoldeschool]

That’s what those transmissions were for…long distance phone calls via shortwave radio. Commonplace 50+ years ago. The ”circuit adjustment purposes” announcements were just audio placeholders.

Every international voice call placed into or out of the Americas before the laying of the TAT-1 undersea cable in 1956 went via shortwave radio. If you're so inclined, here's a fantastic animation of the history of undersea cables (telegraph, telephone, and then fiber optic). It shows the laying of TAT-1 and its successors starting at around 38 seconds in.

early air-to-ground telephone services like GTE Airphone

I remember those. If memory serves, their base station transmitters idled with fast busy tones when not in use.

You are right about analog cell phone reception on the former Channels 70-83. Scanners capable of tuning 806-890 MHz were banned in the 1980s, but there were still millions of TVs that tuned those frequencies, with plenty of calls to be heard in the original AMPS days.

Most scanners sold well into the 1990s were easily modified to defeat their mandated internal blocking of the AMPS frequency bands. So the prohibition did zip to eliminate the risks of being eavesdropped upon.

Pre-cellular mobile phones operated on the VHF-high and UHF public service bands, easily receivable on radios that tuned those ranges. No privacy there either, and those services were usually the domain of upscale people who often forgot they were talking on an unsecure platform.

In deed. And there were never any bans on scanners capable of tuning the GTE Airfone service or the old analog cordless phone frequencies either. Somehow the authors of the AMPS reception prohibition legislation forgot about the old mobile telephone service (MTS) and those other two services. (I believe the AMPS reception ban was only introduced after some sleazy politician had his cellular call recorded by a ham radio operator.)

You're also spot on about most everyone back then having been blissfully unaware of how unsecure those analog standards were. Unfortunately, people are still that way now. Most have forgotten that their digital 3G/4G/5G cellular traffic's encryption was rendered useless by the GCHQ's and NSA's hacking of international SIM card manufacturers to steal their private signing keys. Once those keys got kicked down to companies like Harris under NDAs, Stingrays magically become a thing. (And everyone knows data breaches resulting in booty troves like Vault 7 never happen to large government agencies or their corporate contractors.) Bottom line, I would not trust a modern cellular device for privacy any more than an AMPS phone sitting beside a Pro-2006.

Here incidentally is an interesting piece of ephemera about the transition from MTS to AMPS filmed in 1978 by AT&T:

Chilling vision of things to come at 03:45.