Bandit Operators on CAP HF Frequencies!!!!

[Jerry]

There are unauthorized operators engaging is "chicken band" type chatter and also using VERY salty language. This is occuring at night and the frequency is Sierra Alpha. It has been reported thru channels. If you have frequency-agile equipment, their center frequency is .25 above our frequency.  Give a listen and see if you happen to hear any clues as to their whereabouts!  They are, from what I can tell, American and may be either land-based (chicken band "freebanders" or HF pirates?) or American fishing boats.  They are awfully strong to be maritime mobile, however.


Jerry

[Hammer]

I have no knowledge of this, but what's going on?  It sounds like a prank.

[thefischNX01]

I remember seeing a CAP radio up for auction on ebay once...don't know if that has anything to do with it tho...

[BillB]

There is (or was) two HW-18's listed on eBay. They were there as late as Sunday. They listed what CAP frequency crystals were installed. Power supply was not included.

[Al Sayre]

Back in the old days, when CB radio's had crystals, you could take a set of channel 10 crystals and reverse them to get on the CAP 26 MHz frequency...  I just recently came back into CAP, and I'm not sure if we still use that frequency or not, but there used to be a regular problem with CB nuts who wanted a "private frequency" doing things like that and interfering with CAP Nets etc..

[SarDragon]

The freq still belongs to CAP, but its use appears to have been pretty much abandoned, particularly because it's almost impossible to find NTIA compliant equipment in that band.

WIWAC, and early in my SM days, we used it for those needs that ISRs are used for now. I used to have a couple of HTs with headsets and remote PTT switches that I used out on the flight line.

[Jerry]

The frequency under discussion is Alpha Hotel and Alpha India. And for those who are not familiar, (not trying to be a hardnose), please do not refer to ANY CAP frequencies by their numeric numbers. If you have not obtained a copy of the official HF frequency designators (VHF has them as well), go to the NHQ Comm site and download them.

Those frequencies are now "sleepers" that are unfortunately ignored but have some surprising effectiveness if used enterprisingly.  Your Micom HF radio will have those frequencies and, member-owned equipment (like the Icom 706 with TCXO).  Here is an effective use of Alpha Hotel!  Bear in mind that this frequency is SSB with up to 150 watts of power!

I was on a very busy practice SAR last year where the VHF circuits were fairly hopping with traffic.  Due to the fact that the mission base had ONE VHF radio, and ONE HF radio, the base comm ops were being worked to death. However, HF was basically idle. I realized what was happening by listening to VHF and judging from the fact that our ground team I was on was having to wait for long periods for answers to our calls.  Without telling the base ops guys what I was doing, I simply told them to switch to HF channel 19 (AH).  From 55 miles out from the mission base, we were able to quickly expedite traffic back to mission base, report requested info to the IC, and rapidly complete assignments. I didn't TELL the mission base guys the FREQUENCY  I wanted to use, just to switch to HF CH 19 because I knew that if there was any hint of the actual freq., I would get this old song and dance about, "IT WON'T WORK CUZ I REMEMBER BACK IN 1969, YOU COULD SPIT FARTHER THAN THAT CHANNEL WOULD TALK!  YADA! YADA!  I didn't WANT the old heads to KNOW what I was doing!! But it DID work and work WELL!  This Frequency IS A GOOD frequency to use; don't let what the old guys  tell you stop you from making use of it! A bunch of us hams routinely have 40-50 mile roundtable QSO's (conversations) on the nearby 10 meter band with NO trouble.

Ever have newshounds mysteriously show up in a 'hot' grid, and you wondered how they knew---even if you used coded messages and ciphers?  Simple. Scanners!  Pretty GOOD ones, too!  BUT!  Many of them can't decode SSB!  SO such frequencies as AH and AG can thwart these annoying people that get in the way of prosecuting your mission.  A good screwdriver (agile) antenna makes it sooo NICE to fully utilize ALL the capabilities of your HF radio!    TRY the higher HF frequencies and you will be surprised what you can do.


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Back to the interference on SA.

I will assure you it is NO prank!!! This is SERIOUS interference that has been showing up during Florida and SER nets in recent weeks. They are pirates with no call signs and they use very salty language. They show no fear, and they do not seem to care that there are legitimate users nearby. I am sure that if one were bold enough to try to chase them off them would tell you exactly what you could do to yourself.  The matter has been reported thru channels to my own chain of command, and, I am sure, thru the chain of command of SER. (I am in MER) as we are required as CAP operators to report such interference to higher authority.  I regard this as a serious matter and I am not amused by their presence. Truly, I hope that this will dealt with severely.


Jerry