# Music to Our Ears !!



## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

I saw this link in 'Popular Communications' an American comms mag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q936mBiArZQ

Weird stuff but strangely compelling.

David
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## Moulder (Aug 19, 2006)

Lovely .......... thanks for posting that David.

(Thumb)


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## Paul Braxton (Jul 21, 2005)

Can anyone remember what QST means?


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## djmorton (Apr 10, 2006)

QST = Here is a broadcast message to all amateurs.


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## ninabaker (May 4, 2012)

Many thanks for sharing this. Right up my street. I had never heard of this chap but will now chase up some of his other stuff.

A longheld ambition of mine is o play a proper theremin. Not likely to ever be achieved as it is probably about the hardest instrument there is to play and I have no musical aptitude at all.

I am now trying to recall that call sign often heard at night that was just a few notes repeated over and over, in a slightly bell-like tone. I dont know that it still exists but I always assumed it was something eastern bloc. Does anyone recognise it from this terrible description?


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## Jacko123 (Apr 28, 2009)

Ninabaker. possibly UVB-76 (google it) though It's nickname was "The Buzzer", nothing bell-like. Here it is live
http://uk3-pn.mixstream.net/8370.m3u


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## ben27 (Dec 27, 2012)

good day david.hopcroft.sm.today 04:30.re:music to our ears??I agree weird stuff is right.regards ben27


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

_posted by djmorton_


> QST = Here is a broadcast message to all amateurs.


The ITU would never, and didn't, designate a Q-code specifically for the use of amateurs.

The original meaning of QST was:
"Adjust your spark-gap"

and, in the interrogative:
"Shall I adjust my spark-gap?"

Naturally when damped-wave ("spark") emissions were banned, the code fell into disuse until some American amateurs latched onto it and invented a new meaning.


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## Ancient-Mariner (Mar 30, 2009)

ninabaker said:


> I am now trying to recall that call sign often heard at night that was just a few notes repeated over and over, in a slightly bell-like tone. I don't know that it still exists but I always assumed it was something eastern bloc. Does anyone recognise it from this terrible description?


In the back of my mind I seem to remember that station, anyway to speed things up I posted your query on the Yahoo Groups UDXF forum. Their members replies as follows:-

1)Do you mean this guy is looking for some old interval signal of a station from the former Eastern bloc? It may be R.Sofia, R.Tirana, R.Prague, R.Polonia, R.Minsk. R.Moscow, Radiostation Peace and Progress, R.Yugoslavia.

2)Depending on frequency, there was a STASI operated number station known as the "Gong" station that may fit the bill. Language was German.

3)Yeah! Also known as the "Sinister Bells" station, it used to have one of the most xxxxxx creepy interval signals I have ever heard. Imagine yourself listening to this in the dark of the night, sometime in the 70s. Don't know why the secret agencies used such interval signals, maybe to keep away the regular shortwave listeners.

Googling "Sinister Bells Station" took me to: 

http://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/coldwarsignals.htm

where I found:

http://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/gongstation.mp3

Which may well be the station you are referring to?

Edited to add another possible station? http://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/czechlady.mp3

Cheers!

Clive


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Have a look at/listen to this site

http://radiosoundsfamiliar.com/interval-signals.php

and then scroll down to hear several radio interval signals used by short-wave radio broadcasting stations back in the good old days. Many of them, including the BBC and Radio Moscow, transmitted a simple sequence of tones when they were not broadcasting programmes on a frequency. This discouraged other stations from appropriating the frequency at times when not in use by the 'official' user.

I remember so many of the stations, having spent so many hours at sea tuning across the broadcast bands, either looking for the BBC or trying to find something worth listening to.


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## ninabaker (May 4, 2012)

Ancient-Mariner said:


> In the back of my mind I seem to remember that station, anyway to speed things up I posted your query on the Yahoo Groups UDXF forum. Their members replies as follows:-
> 
> 1)Do you mean this guy is looking for some old interval signal of a station from the former Eastern bloc? It may be R.Sofia, R.Tirana, R.Prague, R.Polonia, R.Minsk. R.Moscow, Radiostation Peace and Progress, R.Yugoslavia.
> 
> ...


Clive,
That was exceptionally kind but sadly not the one. I listened to all the mp3 on that very interesting page though. I think there were 7 notes in the signal.


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## ninabaker (May 4, 2012)

Ron Stringer said:


> Have a look at/listen to this site
> 
> http://radiosoundsfamiliar.com/interval-signals.php
> 
> ...


Ron,

Thanks for that link.

I cannot find the exact one, even at this unbelievably extensive site: http://www.intervalsignals.net/ but am fairly sure it will have been the English service of Radio Moscow as there is a recording of their japanese service which is strikingly similar although using a different musical phrase.

Thanks everyone for helping me cure an earworm that has bothered me for ages.


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Nina,

Did you scroll to the very bottom of the page and pick up the link to another site, Interval Signals on Line? I didn't but there seemed to be far more examples there.

http://www.intervalsignals.net/


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