[GreenKeys] Press frequencies

[John Vendely]

I remember many of these HF press stations from the late 1960s through 
mid 1970s, including also Agence France, whose frequencies escape me 
now.  There was much to be heard "in the clear" on RTTY back then.  Most 
press transmissions were 50 baud 850 or 425 shift, which I copied on a 
model 14 and a model 26 at the time. There were numerous military and 
civil aero WX transmissions on 75/850 shift.  I remember copying 
telegrams, including some out of Havana which, interestingly,  were 
identified as coming from an RCA station.  And there were many 60LPM FM 
radiofax stations transmitting newspaper photos.

One of the more interesting press stations was the (north) Korean 
Central News Agency (KCNA), which I think was on 13508 or 13510 kc.  
They could be heard at my then QTH in the midwest from over the pole at 
an azimuth of about 340 degrees virtually every evening, with excellent 
signals.  They transmitted laughably propagandistic press stories in 
English on 850 shift RTTY, followed by groups of related press photos on 
60 LPM FM FAX.  I still have many reels of low speed multichannel 
logging recorder tapes I made of many interesting and now-extinct HF 
signals, including these press RTTY and FAX transmissions.  They could 
be fed into the appropriate demodulating apparatus and copied in 
real-time just as in the old daze, a kind of time-machine for us HF 
radio-listening weirdos.

On a somewhat related subject, in the late 60s/early70s, there were also 
a few stations still transmitting audio from foreign news correspondents 
reporting news stories in to their networks. Many were obviously called 
in to the station by telephone or HF radio, others delivered live by the 
correspondent in the station's studio.  These were typically in AM, and 
must have originated from some fairly high power transmitters. There was 
one station with an announcer who coordinated the relay of the various 
news stories, announcing each correspondent and a report number in a 
hilariously stentorian, drill sergeant voice.

All this was virtually gone by 1980, with the exception of KCNA, which 
remained on into the early 90s, no doubt the very last HF press 
holdout.  The true heyday of HF radio communications was really from the 
mid 50s through the late 60s, before so many services migrated to 
satcom, and there were many unusual signals to be heard by those 
suitably equipped.  Does anyone remember "The Bagpipes" signal?

73,

John K9WT

On 6/2/2022 2:58 PM, Lawrence Godek wrote:
> I used to monitor some of these back in the 70's.  Did anyone else 
> know of them?
>
> UPI: 10.808, 16.372, 16.159
>
> AFP: 10.941, 15.908, 16.184
>
> Prensa Latina: 14.566, 14.928, 16.348, 17.453, 17.530, 18.195
>
> USICA: 9854 Europe, 10.880 Africa, 12.222 Asia, 14.640 South America, 
> 15.875
>
> Reuters: 10.959, 9.887
>
> XINHUA Bejing: 16.415.
>
> I don't remember the speeds of these transmissions but i would suspect 
> that the Prensa Latina were 50 baud.
>
> Some of the US may have been 100WPM
>
> WBR70 was a major weather reporting station out of Miami and they had 
> a really strong signal into W0 land.  They ran 100WPM.  I used to take 
> one of my 100WPM printers home after i had done a routine on it and 
> let it set there on my ASR with Speed set for 100 wpm and let it run 
> for a day or two copying their continuous weather transmissions.  Gave 
> me a spare 100 WPM machine for the plant that i knew was up to the task.
>
> Somewhere i have the freq that they used to operate on.
>
> Larry W0OGH
>
>
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