[Spooks] Spoon signals in HF Ham bands

[EI0DB]

Although the ham community make a great effort to keep them out, there 
are a number of legitimate government/spook stations within in the HF 
ham bands. and as we move towards the bottom of the sunspot cycle the 
pressure from so called "intruders" will grow, a everyone migrates LF. 
reactivating dormant frequencies vacated on the rising edge of the last 
sunspot cycle. Some like the Russians have been there since before the 
post-WWII Atlantic City ham allocations were made.

One spook spot is around 3700 Kcs and another just above the upper edge 
of 80 meters, 3900 to 4000 with a lot of fleeting activity around 
3910-3920 . The whole 60 meter segment from 5200 to 5450 is another 
sector worth watching. And the lower edge of 40 meters between 6900 and 
7000 Kcs is another place in common use by spooks and special forces 
types often using un-encrypted USB.

I would also suggest the following spot frequencies are worth 
watching:(all in Kcs) 16710.0,  12709.5, 8354.5, 6355.2,  6391.0,  
4364.0, 3810.0  the best time is around local sunset  for whatever 
group  is using them, and this may vary  and be mixed with other users 
(registered with the ITU). The interesting stuff is the non registered 
users who may be using fast burst-mode  CW at 40 wpm or more, with the 
signal lasting under a minute.  So catching such transmissions is pure 
luck without very sophisticated gear. The effort to learn CW (Morse) is 
well rewarded when chasing the very rare spook signal that no app can 
resolve.

Hope that helps as a pointer and best of luck,  Dave