Iranian Radars Showing Up on 10 Meters

While 10 meters has not been the hottest band in the Amateur Radio toolkit of late, Iran apparently has found it an ideal spot to operate various radars. The interference was audible in International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 (IARU R1) and perhaps elsewhere in the world.

“Iranian radars were very active on our 10-meter band every day [in May],” reported IARU Monitoring System (IARUMS) Coordinator for Region 1 Wolf Hadel, DK2OM, in the IARUMS newsletter. “On 28.860 MHz, we could daily receive the strong and long-lasting signals. Other frequencies were used in [frequency hopping] mode.”

The list of additional Amateur Radio intruders on 10 meters included — or in some cases, no longer included — some of the usual suspects. Hadel reported that FM signals from Russian taxi dispatchers, driftnet fishery buoys, and Citizens Band “abusers” in Brazil have been operating on various 10-meter frequencies, “as usual.”

Meanwhile, some chronic intruding signals have disappeared. Among the missing is the 14,295 kHz harmonic from Radio Tajik on 4,765 kHz. Radio Hargeysa in Somaliland on 7,120 kHz is said to have been off the air for several weeks due to a transmitter failure. “We did not miss the transmissions,” quipped Hadel, who also expressed the hope that the broadcast battle between Radio Eritrea and Radio Ethiopia on 40 meters may now be at an end. For some time now, Radio Eritrea contended with Ethiopian “white noise” interference on 7,140 and 7,180 kHz. This month, Ethiopia announced that it would accept a peace deal with Eritrea to end a bloody 20-year-old dispute.

Hadel reported a “hybrid modem” signal for a few days in May on 14.000 MHz from the Israeli Navy, consisting of six pre-carriers — PSK4 parallel and MIL-188-110A modified. Just below 20 meters, on 13.998.0 MHz, transmissions of MFSK-16 from Russia were observed on May 31. The signal was heard up to 14.001.165 MHz in the amateur band.

Source:ARRL