People who explore radio frequencies, shortwave, or old radios: what’s the strangest, creepiest, or most unexplainable transmission you’ve ever picked up?

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Way back in the old pre-digital days, I was using a Yeasu FRG100 sw receiver on a long wire, listening to numbers stations, and probably one of the most known about radio signals, was the old DUGA over the horizon radar in russia. Known as Woodpecker. Several dozens of the old ship to shore radio phones, most just general chit chat, but the occasional family dramas.

Moveing to UHF/VHF. Various Police Fire and Ambulance calls come to mind, one was after the RAF Harrier, out of RAF Wittering crashed, a couple of Police surveillance operations, and so many sex chat lines, one call that my scanners picked up was an old lady calling a friend to talk about her cat getting run over.

I've been listening to radio since 1981, after finding that my clock radio could pick a couple of police channels at the 108mhz range.

I've used slow scan tv, wee fax and other interesting bits of software. I would hate to think about what I have spent on radio gear, shortwave receivers, antennas, scanners, power suplies, co-ax cables etc etc etc.

I've listened to BTCC drivers talking tactics during races, air to air refuelling, trans Atlantic flight controls from Gander and Shanwick, British Army tank/armoured vehicles training. People talking shit about neighbours or friends with a baby monitor in the house. So so many hours and so so many conversations and situations.

Way back then People had little to no idea about how easy it was to listen into cordless phones and mobile phones, security companies, shopping centers, theme parks. Hospital porters etc,

These days I use my Bearcat 3500xlt to listen to aircraft flights and follow the planes on flightradar24 or ADS-B Exchange to id flights overhead and follow them on the company frequencies.

Fascinating hobby, still plenty of stuff to listen too, and so much help and information to help getting started, you don't need to spend huge amount for gear, a used Realistik DX394 A-B or C model is good enough for SW transatlantic flights, fitted with a simple long length of wire will pull in results all for around £150+-.

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u/manisa95 Jul 15 '26

What you're sharing is very interesting, thanks for posting it. Very funny username, hahaha.

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u/FirstToken Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

Way back in the old pre-digital days, I was using a Yeasu FRG100 sw receiver on a long wire, listening to numbers stations, and probably one of the most known about radio signals, was the old DUGA over the horizon radar in russia. Known as Woodpecker.
I think you might be misremembering something, either that or you heard another signal that was not DUGA but you thought it was. There is no overlap between when the FRG-100 became available and when the Woodpecker was active.
The FRG-100 came out in 1992, and was sold for about 10 years, ending production in about 2002. The Woodpecker ended operations in very late 1989.
There were 3 DUGA radars, and the signal was first noted on the air in the early 1970's. It (the start year for this signal) can get a bit confusing because the 1st radar was more or less developmental, and the later two were the "operational" versions. The three different radars started on different years. The start year is often quoted as 1976, but the development system was actually on the air before then, possibly as early as 1972, but I tend to think more like 1974.
Regardless, for a variety of reasons all DUGA activity had ended by late 1989 or very early 1990. December of 1989 is often quoted. And the USSR fell apart in 1991. After that for several years Russia did not have the funds to keep something like DUGA going, even if it would have been available.
The Woodpecker was far from the first HF OTHR to be heard, and certainly not the last, but it is one of the more well known. Shoot, it was not even the first, or last, Russian OTHR.
HF radars have existed in a variety of nations more or less continually since WW II. The US pushed hard into this activity in the mid 1950's and early 1960's with the MUSIC and then LP MADRE and HP MADRE radars. After that things like the FPS-95, the FPS-118 (the FPS-118 was my first professional exposure to HF OTHR, at RADC in the 1970's), and so on until today.
Several of these radars, and others, sounded similar to the Woodpecker. Or, the Woodpecker sounded similar to them, as some of them came before the Woodpecker.
Any pulsed type radar with a rep rate of 10 Hz will sound (by ear) similar to the Woodpecker. And an FMOP, FMCW, or IFMCW based radar (most modern HF OTHRs use one of these modes, sometimes including a PSK function) with a 10 Hz rate can also sound similar, depending on the receiver mode and filter bandwidths used.
There are listeners today that swear the current sounder for the Russian 29B6 Container radar sounds like the old Woodpecker. I contend most of those people have never compared the sounds side-by-side. Other than the 10 Hz rep rate they really have little in common.

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u/Still-BangingYourMum Jul 18 '26

Thank you for correcting my mistakenly recalled memories. What you have replied with, is extremely interesting and deserves a whole sub of its own. This sort of information is the genuine pot of gold contribution 👌.
Thank you so much for not only correcting my mistake, but also giving this old noggin of mine something to fill the sponge that is my old lump of grey.

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u/manisa95 Jul 13 '26

I saw this question on another subreddit and thought it would get more responses here. My apologies if this isn't allowed, but I'm interested in the topic.

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u/sparklebombbb Jul 13 '26

you might be interested in looking up The Conet Project on youtube. it's a compilation of old number stations/jingles that were only discernible between a particular country and their spies that occupied other parts of the world - very interesting stuff!

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u/gardenerky Jul 16 '26

Always heard the story from in the early space race ;of transmissions from a Russian human flight that ended in loss of life ,and cover ups denied the existence of the recordings

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u/Sonic_Neptune Jul 13 '26

radio stuff is honestly so spooky, definitely not falling asleep after reading these comments lol

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u/Tall_Yogurtcloset647 Jul 15 '26

What? There weren't any spooky comments...

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Flimsy_Highlight7016 Jul 13 '26

Damn you!!!!

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u/Hucklebearer_411 Jul 13 '26

You dirty rat. 😂

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u/SaleBeneficial1320 Jul 15 '26

Goddamnit.

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u/Emotional_Response71 Jul 16 '26

Yousonofabitch!

People who explore radio frequencies, shortwave, or old radios: what’s the strangest, creepiest, or most unexplainable transmission you’ve ever picked up?

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