[Spooks] My first time with XP the strange polytone station

[Mike]

I hope this is of general interest, if not please excuse the post.



XP observations 25/2/2005 (my first Polytone station)

Thanks to Enigma 2000 for schedules.

When I switched on my radio at 06:52 a very strong carrier was already up on
10831 kHz AM S+20, twice there was a short high pitched pip lasting maybe two
seconds. At 07:00 exactly XP started its procedural call, very melodic in its
own way, then at 07:02 there was a brief pause then the full message? started
with a short preamble then into a much more up tempo tonal message.
This lasted until 07:06 when the carrier dropped, at around 07:10 there was a
very short burst of ALE maybe the receiving station confirming???

Anyway, I tuned to the next scheduled frequency of 12131 kHz AM and waited.
At 07:12 the carrier was up again S+20, while I waited for the tones to
start I
tried moving my ALA1530 loop and was very surprised to be able to null and
peak
the carrier signal (does not usually work with frequencies above 5mhz unless
very close)
The difference was maybe 3 'S' points! my loop confirms that XP is on a
North/South heading from my QTH here in West Sussex.
No short pips were noted unlike on 10831 and later 13831.
Right on time 07:20 XP started in the same format as for the 07:00 show on
10831.

The next appearance was to be on 13831 and as expected went thus:-
07:32 strong S+20 carrier one short pip, 07:40 call, 07:42 full message, 07:46
signal drops.

An abridged recording showing all the features of the three transmissions will
be on my web site for download in mp3 later.
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/thesecretsiteofmike/mikes.htm

Recording detail, shortened for file size.
Name XP polytone 25.2.05.mp3 393kb (reduced from 2mb wav file so some
distortion due to compression is present)

Short pip from 13831 at 07:32.
Procedural call from 12131 at 07:20.
Start up and then main message from 10831 at 07:02.
End of message and carrier drop from 12131 at 07:26.



Kind regards

Mike