In a previous post, I outlined how some radio amateurs in the UK are obtaining special permits to operate and experiment on the 40 MHz band. As part of the feedback, someone mentioned the old G9 callsigns which were a Test & Development license in the UK.
Anyone familiar with old copies of the Practical Wireless magazine will remember antenna articles and designs by Fred Judd, G2BCX. He popularised antennas like the Slim Jim for 144 MHz and he used the callsign G9BTN for much of his work.
Lewis, M3HHY put together a nice video about the history of these G9 callsigns and it's embedded below.
As radio systems gradually migrate from analogue to digital technology, more and more unusual commercial and non-commercial signals can be heard on the VHF & UHF radio bands.
Lewis M3HHY in Manchester has a very popular YouTube channel where he puts up well scripted and presented videos about a wide range of radio related subjects. He recently put up two videos about some of the digital radio signals that can be heard on the VHF & UHF bands.
Video 1...
Signals...
1) POCSAG ...Wide area paging. 2) MPT-1327 ...Trunk radio communication networks. 3) Commercial DMR ...digital communications. 4) Car Key Transmitters 5) TETRA ...TErrestrial TRunked RAdio 6) Temporary Traffic Lights 7) Autocab ...Radio dispatch system 8) TPMS ...Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems 9) Multitone Paging 10) dPMR ...Digital Private Mobile Radio (446 MHz)
Video 2...
Signals...
1) FLEX ...Flexible Wide Area Paging Protocol 2) VOR ...Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (108-118 MHz) 3) DAB Radio ...Digital Audio Broadcast 4) DSTAR ...Digital Smart Technology for Amateur Radio 5) NXDN ...Next Generation Digital Narrowband 6) Motorola Type II ... Paging Control Channel 7) Wi-Fi ...802.11N 8) System Fusion ...Yaesu Amateur Radio Digital Mode 9) LTE ...Long Term Evolution Network (4GLT / E-UTRA - Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access). Mobile phone data. 10) AFSK ...Audio Frequency Shift Keying (Paging)
