How do I tune HF radios?
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@Randolf Thanks so much
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@Randolf And I tried tuning it to some of the frequencies by putting OPR to MAN and trying all the modes, but i dont hear anything.
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@Randolf And I tried tuning it to some of the frequencies by putting OPR to MAN and trying all the modes, but i dont hear anything.
@slipperfruit on the audio panel to the left of the pilot's yoke, make sure the HF switch is set to on
I've no idea which work where, but I tried tuning one and at least heard static so I assume it was working.
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@Randolf And I tried tuning it to some of the frequencies by putting OPR to MAN and trying all the modes, but i dont hear anything.
@slipperfruit said in How do I tune HF radios?:
@Randolf And I tried tuning it to some of the frequencies by putting OPR to MAN and trying all the modes, but i dont hear anything.
You must turn on the HF radio switch on ( radio panel switches next to yoke). You have to dial in MAN mode on the HF radio, then use the dial on the right of the HF radio to tune in the frequencies. It might take some tinkering to figure it out. I don't think most of the modes, like channel or SCN are operational. It's direct entry only, so use the right knob to put the cursor under the number you want to adjust to get it tuned. Squelch, volume, manual entry all seem to work. SSB, other modulation modes or buttons don't see to have any affect.
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Anyone figured out what the frequencies found on the disk are for? I've tried several of them, and all I hear is static--but perhaps the distance and atmospheric conditions weren't ideal...
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Anyone figured out what the frequencies found on the disk are for? I've tried several of them, and all I hear is static--but perhaps the distance and atmospheric conditions weren't ideal...
@skybornevisions said in How do I tune HF radios?:
Anyone figured out what the frequencies found on the disk are for? I've tried several of them, and all I hear is static--but perhaps the distance and atmospheric conditions weren't ideal...
Are you dialing them in correctly? I believe it has a channel mode that typically loads with a 1200 number. You have to change the radio to manual selection, MAN on the left display. UV or other modulation modes, next to MAN, don't seem to have any effect. Normally you would change to AM, upper or lower side band (SSB), CW, data, et cetera. I have toyed with them on a couple flights and they were always active. Some of them are SSTV, which is slow scan television. It was used by ham radio operators to transmit images for many years over HF, VHF and other bands. They were a low baud rate and took quite a while to load. I never tinkered with SSTV, but you can find some stations active today, and some of them might be maritime images as well. Apparently, you can play the tones through a SSTV decoder and it'll show Starship related images. Most of them seem to be from the factory from when the Starship was being built. Other modes are MultiPSK, which I believe are also used to transmit various data, usually free text, often by ham radio operators. There are several modes of digital transmission used for sending images, text, and other data over the radio. They are used by ham radio operators, ships at sea, aircraft, and so on. Some sounds over the years have never been elucidated, such as the UVB-76, known as the Russian Buzzer. It is found on 4625 kHz. There are a number of digital sounds sent from foreign countries and no one knows what they are for. Morse code stations are self-explanatory - used by hams, maritime and other people for communication. Last but not least are numbers stations. Numbers station were used for decades, likely after WWII, for secret transmission to spies within hostile territory. An agent in the German Stasi (1950-1990), located in England for example, could tune into a predetermined HF frequency and hear a series of numbers or letters and used a one-time pad to decode the message. That one time pad was then discarded and never used again. It would substitute a number or letter for a different number or letter. Lots of countries used this method during the Cold War, and you can still find them occasionally today, but their use has dropped off dramatically. Some of the more popular numbers stations are no longer active.
You should be able to hear these stations all the time in the Starship, regardless of time or location. In the real world, lower frequencies, usually below 7000 kHz are more active at night and higher frequencies 8000 kHz are more active during the day. Of course a lot of this relies on propagation and sun cycles. Some years are really bad for propagation, thus a band will be very dead and noisy. 10 meters 28.000-29.000 mHz can really open up at rare times and you can talk to people all over the world, but it doesn't work very often. This can even be seen on VHF or UHF, but it's not as apparent. I heard someone on a handheld walkie-talkie (HT) in Tucson from my location in Phoenix with a VHF antenna up at 30 feet on 146.540 simplex. Those occurrences are very rare. And with location, living in Phoenix, AZ, I would probably not be able to hear the Russian Buzzer with a 40 foot tower and expensive yagi antenna. At the very least it would be pretty weak and louder at night. I haven't toyed with ham radio since the 1990s. I really enjoy HF but it's a lot different than it used to be due to all the digital modes, internet, and other forms of communication. You can still hear pirates, hams, aviation traffic and more, but it has decreased a lot over the last 25 years.
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Thanks for the detailed explanation @Orlaam !
I grew up using a simple SSB transceiver, that had just a channel selector with crystals for a few different frequencies. It was the only way of having instant communication on 2840 Khz SSB that I had with my parents over 700 miles away across the ocean, while I was away in boarding school. It was always fun having other operators eavesdropping in, relay messages when atmospheric conditions limited our range and we couldn't hear each other directly--all our broadcasts were analog... no digital encryption back then (or at least with our units).Never heard of SSTV before... that's some pretty impressive tech for such a mode of long range communication.
Pretty interesting concept regarding the Numbers stations.
Regarding the sim, yeah, I had started off in channel mode but switched to manual, and tried entering in a few different frequencies. I tried different modes like the generic AM too but get nothing but static. I obviously am doing something wrong--nice to know it actually works though. In any case, the disk just lists available frequencies, correct? or am I supposed to punch some other buttons after reading the disk?
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@skybornevisions said in How do I tune HF radios?:
Anyone figured out what the frequencies found on the disk are for? I've tried several of them, and all I hear is static--but perhaps the distance and atmospheric conditions weren't ideal...
Are you dialing them in correctly? I believe it has a channel mode that typically loads with a 1200 number. You have to change the radio to manual selection, MAN on the left display. UV or other modulation modes, next to MAN, don't seem to have any effect. Normally you would change to AM, upper or lower side band (SSB), CW, data, et cetera. I have toyed with them on a couple flights and they were always active. Some of them are SSTV, which is slow scan television. It was used by ham radio operators to transmit images for many years over HF, VHF and other bands. They were a low baud rate and took quite a while to load. I never tinkered with SSTV, but you can find some stations active today, and some of them might be maritime images as well. Apparently, you can play the tones through a SSTV decoder and it'll show Starship related images. Most of them seem to be from the factory from when the Starship was being built. Other modes are MultiPSK, which I believe are also used to transmit various data, usually free text, often by ham radio operators. There are several modes of digital transmission used for sending images, text, and other data over the radio. They are used by ham radio operators, ships at sea, aircraft, and so on. Some sounds over the years have never been elucidated, such as the UVB-76, known as the Russian Buzzer. It is found on 4625 kHz. There are a number of digital sounds sent from foreign countries and no one knows what they are for. Morse code stations are self-explanatory - used by hams, maritime and other people for communication. Last but not least are numbers stations. Numbers station were used for decades, likely after WWII, for secret transmission to spies within hostile territory. An agent in the German Stasi (1950-1990), located in England for example, could tune into a predetermined HF frequency and hear a series of numbers or letters and used a one-time pad to decode the message. That one time pad was then discarded and never used again. It would substitute a number or letter for a different number or letter. Lots of countries used this method during the Cold War, and you can still find them occasionally today, but their use has dropped off dramatically. Some of the more popular numbers stations are no longer active.
You should be able to hear these stations all the time in the Starship, regardless of time or location. In the real world, lower frequencies, usually below 7000 kHz are more active at night and higher frequencies 8000 kHz are more active during the day. Of course a lot of this relies on propagation and sun cycles. Some years are really bad for propagation, thus a band will be very dead and noisy. 10 meters 28.000-29.000 mHz can really open up at rare times and you can talk to people all over the world, but it doesn't work very often. This can even be seen on VHF or UHF, but it's not as apparent. I heard someone on a handheld walkie-talkie (HT) in Tucson from my location in Phoenix with a VHF antenna up at 30 feet on 146.540 simplex. Those occurrences are very rare. And with location, living in Phoenix, AZ, I would probably not be able to hear the Russian Buzzer with a 40 foot tower and expensive yagi antenna. At the very least it would be pretty weak and louder at night. I haven't toyed with ham radio since the 1990s. I really enjoy HF but it's a lot different than it used to be due to all the digital modes, internet, and other forms of communication. You can still hear pirates, hams, aviation traffic and more, but it has decreased a lot over the last 25 years.
@Orlaam said in How do I tune HF radios?:
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I don't hear anything at all, not even static, volume and power are max for HF radio, I tuned into the the first SSTV frequency (3.635) and my radio is tuned into 3.6350, MAN UV, and knob by comms left of yoke is turned to HF.
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Actually I just figured it out and on the numbers frequencies people say random numbers... I have a feeling this may be some kind of easter egg that can be decoded and there's a puzzle or something
EDIT: Channel 17.550 has someone speaking in chinese in a very creepy voice
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I listened to the morse channels and decoded but it seems to be spitting out random letters
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The morse code could easily generated to spell out useful information, aka an easter egg. The numbers stations are very different. In the days that numbers stations were used to communicate with agents in the field, the process was highly complex. It is cryptography and usually never decrypted. Very few instances of one-time pad use was decoded by a different government, mostly due to sloppy handling. The concept is that an agent will drop a one-time pad to someone in a foreign country, It may be a small booklet that you can hide in your shoe or even on a postage stamp, requiring a magnifying glass to read. Some of them were easily destroyed without a trace. So you will know a drop will be set for a park bench in a park and you visit this spot later and find a innocuous looking item in a remote spot. That item will contain a one-time pad and you will know when to listen to the radio for a message.
A message on HF is sent over the air and you have to decipher the code using some math and skills along with the one-time pad. It's not usually just simple letter and number swapping. It's very convoluted and not easy to do, even for the agent receiving the information. Once that message is decoded, the one time pad is destroyed and never used again. You have created a cipher for one time use only, thus making code-breaking impossible.
The radio transmission Nick has included in the Starship are old recorded and valid numbers stations from decades ago. I heard a number of them and you can find a lot of real recordings online. Could Nick have "reverse engineered" an older recorded numbers station to somehow translate to a message? Sure. But you need a one time pad as a starting point. A good example of this is the Zodiac Killer. He sent coded ciphers to the newspaper and only one was ever decoded by a married couple who figured out the letters were substituted by an offset, such as A=C, C=E, et cetera. Even the FBI couldn't figure out that code and most Zodiac ciphers have never been decoded. Call me crazy, but I doubt Nick is putting us through all that, lmao
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Is modulation (AM/FM/SSB) having any effect? When tuning some of the numbers stations, the modulation selection doesn't seem to have any effect, the station is heard regardless. Some of the modulations may be "compatible" but for example AM/FM should make it impossible to receive the (correct) audio when set incorrectly.
But maybe I'm setting it wrong? -
No, it's just recordings with a fade effect as you tune off of them. Listening to SSB in AM will have an annoying carrier and sound very muffled, but if strong enough signal it'll be legible. You can listen to AM with SSB and it sounds fine usually, just more empty and with a tiny echo. FM will often sound very constricted or if on SSB, FM will mostly just be static and not legible. FM is never used on HF that I'm aware of. Literally the only HF use that is FM is 10 meters, and it's a small portion of the ham band with repeaters and some simplex. That is in the 29 mHz region. Below that, it's all SSB, AM, CW, and digital modes. Most numbers stations were SSB and a few were AM. SSB is just the superior method of communicating on HF.
