[Scan-DC] ALE?

[ka3jjz at netscape.com]

  Since this is a scanners forum, this is slightly OT, so I'll be brief; Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) is a multitone signalling mode that is used by a large number (and constantly growing) of military, diplomatic and commercial users (such as Washington Gas)on HF.  It has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years due, in part, to the availablility of free software, and the cataloging of more and more users of this mode.
  
  It is often used for determining the viability of signal strengths on HF between 2 or more control points before shifting to other modes. This is known as 'sounding'. It has other uses as well; once in every great while, operators are known to slip short messages into the stream.

  Much of the attention has focused on identifying these networks; who uses them, the frequencies involved and the networks they form. If that sort of thing interests you, there's a couple of places to sign up...

- The Worldwide Utility News server (WUN) which is found right here on qth.net  There are copious amounts of logs devoted to ALE decoding most every day. 

- There's a ham forum called HFLink on Yahoo which also has been quietly developing techniques using ALE.

  Oh yes, before I forget...where you can go to check out these 'networks' and what we know of them so far, along with numerous digital links.... 

  http://www.chace-ortiz.org/umc/

  And for free ALE soundcard software....

  http://www.chbrain.dircon.co.uk/pcale.html

  There are a couple of other packages - notably Skysweeper - that include ALE decoding as one of their available modes. More up to date versions of PCALE are under development in the HFLink Yahoo forum noted earlier.

  Hope that helps some folks out....73s Mike
links editor,Capitol Hill Monitors
Utility Monitoring Central
editor, Strong Signals software page


--- b_thom at juno.com wrote:
On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 10:57:55 EST Rapbep at aol.com writes:
> All,
> 
> Just passing on some info in case some of you like to play around in 
> the HF 
> world. I've been "playing" with the HF ALE for about 2 years now. I 
> have to 
> admit to having become an ALE addict. 


You have my condolences.
OR
That's great.

What's ALE?
 

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