Do you get bored in retirement?

[AJay]

Hobbies are important to keep the mind agile. If anyone is interested in an exciting new hobby then keep reading:
My hobby is shortwave radio listening and basically what this hobby is about is quite simply with a decent radio and antenna I can tune into stations all around the world. Now those stations can be anything from Radio New Zealand to Radio Turkey to BBC to American stations and any where else in the world. Plus i can tune into all sorts of other signals like digital weather maps, ship to shore transmissions, aircraft transmissions, International Space station transmissions, the list goes on and the hobby can be free or you can spend anything from 200 pounds up to thousands of pounds the choice is yours. If anyone is interested then PM me or send me an e-mail at cyprusdavegurr@gmail.com and I will be more than happy to pass on my 50 years of accumulated experience and maybe if there is enough interest we could all get together on a regular basis and I can show you some of the outstanding technology that is available at this moment in time. By the way this is not "ham radio".
Thank you for reading.

[benjaminbutton]

Is that legal in this country i.e. ship to shore and aircraft transmissions.

[AJay]

Yes where transmissions are un-encrypted it is legal around the world.

[waddo]

Ajay, have you checked that with the Turkish Military here please? They can be a bit on the strange side when dealing with communications.

[AJay]

Waddo, how can they stop anyone from listening on the radio? I heard a transmission (non encrypted) from a control station just recently when there was an exercise with the mainland Turkish Army and the local TC army and if they do not want to encrypt their transmissions then not only i can hear what is going on then the South can also tune in and almost every other country close to the TRNC.

[AJay]

Also the radio I used had to go through mainland Turkish customs before it arrived here and was vetted by TRNC customs.

[benjaminbutton]

You can't say fairer than that. Did customs know what they were looking at.? This is the customs who once chucked away boxes and boxes of Danish Blue and Stilton because they thought it rotten and unfit to eat.

[AJay]

well they certainly asked some pertinent questions but i will say something now that after I received that one (which covers just shortwave frequencies} I ordered 2 more radios that cover the whole frequency spectrum and they got held up in Turkish customs and when the shipping company enquired as to why they were being held they replied that i needed a license to own them. Now these two radios were receive only and Turkish customs thought that they could be used to transmit and I do not now have a ham transmitting license. So they got sent back to the UK and resent to the south and there was no problem with that. I have a collection of various radios that I have purchased both in the UK and over here but my main everyday working radios are 1: Belka DX 2: SDRplay RSPdx and 3: Lowe HF-150 if you want to look them up on the internet it will give you some idea of the technology being used today.

[manyworlds]

As a licensed radio amateur since 1984, I hope one day the politics will allow me to operate from the country (as I legally can from the South and Turkey).

[AJay]

manyworlds, I know what the situation is and that the government have not got the finance to set up a department to regulate radio amateur licenses although they have a department to regulate frequency allocations this is just an extension of the Turkish frequency allocation set up and as such severely limited in what it can do. Did you know that there only 13 licensed Turkish Cypriot amateurs in the TRNC?

[ginge]

Listenning to the radio is not a novel idea for retirees.

[nigel]

As a licensed and qualified radio ham to get a reciprocal license you have to visit the equivalent of the post office in Nicosia where you will be issued a new call sign the problem then is that new call sign is only recognized by Turkey

[AJay]

Listenning to the radio is not a novel idea for retirees.

No you are right but it is what you listen to that makes it novel.

[benjaminbutton]

About yonks of years ago, I accidently tuned into a frequency dedicated to a woman who for about two hours every night read out endless numbers with short breaks between them. Sometimes they were difficult to understand because of static, but some nights they were extremely clear. This was at the height of the cold war and what I believe I was listening to was communications to spies.

[Keithcaley]

About yonks of years ago, I accidently tuned into a frequency dedicated to a woman who for about two hours every night read out endless numbers with short breaks between them. Sometimes they were difficult to understand because of static, but some nights they were extremely clear. This was at the height of the cold war and what I believe I was listening to was communications to spies.

Ah! - the 'Numbers Stations'!

I remember those - they were still transmitting the last time that I did a bit of DX'ing, probably 9 or 10 years ago, and there never was a definitive answer as to what it was all about.

I think that you are probably right about the spy thing though...

https://www.numbers-stations.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

[kerry 6138]

About yonks of years ago, I accidently tuned into a frequency dedicated to a woman who for about two hours every night read out endless numbers with short breaks between them. Sometimes they were difficult to understand because of static, but some nights they were extremely clear. This was at the height of the cold war and what I believe I was listening to was communications to spies.

Numbers stations are often given nicknames by enthusiasts, often reflecting some distinctive element of the station such as the interval signal. For example, the "Lincolnshire Poacher", formerly one of the best-known numbers stations (generally thought to be run by the Secret Intelligence Service, because its transmissions have been traced to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, played the first two bars of the folk song "The Lincolnshire Poacher" before each string of numbers.

[Kanonier]

About yonks of years ago, I accidently tuned into a frequency dedicated to a woman who for about two hours every night read out endless numbers with short breaks between them. Sometimes they were difficult to understand because of static, but some nights they were extremely clear. This was at the height of the cold war and what I believe I was listening to was communications to spies.

Aka Magdeburg Annie.

[AJay]

Number stations are still active today with a newer twist being EAM transmissions EAM being emergency action message being transmitted by American forces to each other with each participant have names like Black Bear or Lightning and they talk to each other by using groups of numbers.

[benjaminbutton]

Well whatever it was very interesting to me and probably boring to some. When I wasn't listening to that, I was listening to Norfolk police but they weren't as clear as the numbers. Bearing in mind this wasn't on any special equipment other than what appeared to be a normal (but large) portable radio with a short wave band and was 95% static.

[ginge]

There's a live version of these numbers channels every Thursday in my local village.

It's very intense & I think it goes under the codename Bingo.

[AJay]

Well whatever it was very interesting to me and probably boring to some. When I wasn't listening to that, I was listening to Norfolk police but they weren't as clear as the numbers. Bearing in mind this wasn't on any special equipment other than what appeared to be a normal (but large) portable radio with a short wave band and was 95% static.

Well there you go you do not need anything special to enjoy the hobby in fact you can do it online without spending a Turkish lira. Have a look at this site: websdr.ewi.utwente.no:8902
This online sdr is based in Holland. If you need any help in using just let me know.

[benjaminbutton]

Ajay, will do. Trouble is, if I pick up an locals it will be in Turkish and it won't mean a thing.

[AJay]

Ajay, will do. Trouble is, if I pick up an locals it will be in Turkish and it won't mean a thing.

Benjamin button don’t worry their are loads of English broadcasts from different countries including Turkey, you just have to know where to find them and at what time. By the way the way conditions are at the moment the best time to listen is after it gets dark and early morning before 7am.

[AJay]

If you have an android phone or tablet download the Skywave Schedules app from google play store. It is easy to use but if you have any problems just contact me.

[AJay]

Keithcaley
Ah! - the 'Numbers Stations'!

I remember those - they were still transmitting the last time that I did a bit of DX'ing, probably 9 or 10 years ago, and there never was a definitive answer as to what it was all about.

I think that you are probably right about the spy thing though...

https://www.numbers-stations.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
Top
Keith can I ask you where you were 9 or 10 years ago and what setup you had?

[benjaminbutton]

Fascinating, especially the Wicky article. It dawned on me yesterday that the property where I lived in at the time was within a 25 mile radius of three USAF bases. Certainly one and possibly two of which are still active.

[AJay]

benjaminbutton Thats the magic of radio and if you would of had the right equipment you could have listened to all sorts of interesting transmissions from the USAF bases.

[Keithcaley]

Keith can I ask you where you were 9 or 10 years ago and what setup you had?

Hi Dave,

Looking back, it may have been a little longer ago !

I mainly used a Roberts/Sangean 'World Band' receiver hooked up to a long wire aerial (laid up a drainpipe and in the gutter on two sides of the house in an 'L') via an impedance matching transformer clamped to a copper earth rod and then 50 ohm coax into the house. Can't remember the model number of the radio!

I also had a quite versatile and sensitive scanner that went up into the Gigahertz range which would also accept the 50 ohm feed - although the feed from the long wire aerial was only useful in the SW bands and below. Can't remember make and model of that either

I've been here in Alsancak since 2006 - I remember you from the Cyprus 44 days, and remember talking to you once at a Public meeting about something or other.

I was a Radio/TV repairman in the UK for nearly 30 years until 1990, and then I moved more into the digital area until I retired.

[AJay]

Hi Keith, well Sangean are still manufacturing shortwave radios but Roberts are not any longer (not that Roberts ever did manufacture any radios because they used Sangean to manufacture and rebadge their radios for their purposes). The Chinese firm called Tecsun have taken over the market with a range of good radios. In my collection I have about 4 Sangean radios rebadged as Roberts and in their day they were good radios. Cyprus 44 they were crazy days but I am not disappointed that they are over. Have you ever thought about reviving you radio listening hobby because Cyprus is right bang in the middle of all transmissions and it is amazing what you can receive. Plus there are some amazing technically capable radios that are purely digital that make the hobby a lot more interesting.

[gates]

I woke up this morning with only 8in under the sheets i thought shall go get a radio. Must of tuned the wife in as 20 mins later she said don’t get a radio. Unfortunately i got a bit bored an hour later. Then dell boy came on with some more great ideas about brief cases. Unfortunately the racing came on can’t see me fitting it in. Until the morning that is. Unfortunately dell boys not on in the week. Perhaps pay few more visits to the bed see if the sheets rise again. Hard old world sticky tough but some one has to do it. Near bed time again wife not watching rest racing. Do think she having one of her own