Firedrake Jammer - Keeps You Safe

*Update*

A few of my recent recordings show that Firedrake has dramatically scaled back operations, and recently it is staying parked on 9MHz - they're just keeping it warm!

*****

Not many people in western nations regularly listen to shortwave radio. If you do, you have probably come across some operatic Chinese music. It never pauses to say what station it is, no news, no identification, or anything else. It's truly bizarre on first encounter.

What you are in fact listening to is a jamming station operated by China.

It can be found jamming foreign broadcast stations and even 'number stations' that are operated by the world's various intelligence agencies for coded one way communication with spies abroad.

A demonstration of the jammer, including a prime example of it targeting Voice of America's Mandarin service -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwJgM595p4w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1bxIKVurA

Up around the 19m & 16m bands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcM3GLWX11M

Recently found jamming the English version of Radio Singapore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqlsesOo4fY

A relatively rare recording of a Chinese spy number station (not that they'd jam their own intelligence communiqués of course) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKMmgTDvgx4

It's very sporadic, and in one sweep turned up on these frequencies on June 9@13.40 UTC in NSW Australia:

6030kHz, 7105kHz, 7445kHz, 9600kHz, 10350kHz, 11605kHz, 11665kHz, 11785khz, 12040kHz, 15250kHz.

There are other slots besides these, with one caught below 5000kHz on occasion.

Frequencies that have been regular for weeks can suddenly disappear only to show up in other areas of the shortwave band.

The music sampled in this clip was sourced from the Satdirectory website below, which itself was captured from the satellite used to feed Firedrake.

http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html

The audio quality of shortwave would not have done the music justice. It is unknown when or who it was composed by.

Other links of interest:

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL318681420080331

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2008/04/03/tibet-exile-radio-says-china...

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/02/europe/EU-GEN-Norway-Voice-of-Tibet...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Firedrake
• firedragon
• jammer
• shortwave
• radio
• Chinese
• opera
• music
• station
• jamming
• censorship
• China
• spy
• Tibet
• Falun
• Gong
• Chinasat
• 6B
• DXing
• ham
• goldenshield
• CRI
• VOA
• CPC
• PRC

[aurora990]

I had been listening to shortwave radio for almost 17 years and I always hear the firedrake mostly in the day. at first I thought it was a Chinese shortwave music station. it turns out to be a shortwave radio jammer. there is also other shortwave radio jammers that make bubbling and warbling sounds. I hear the shortwave radio jammers that make the bubbling and warbling sounds mostly in the night in the United States below 15 MHz.

[MattExzy]

@aurora990 I first thought it was a Chinese music station too! Then it went for an hour, and there was no news, or anything else, just a constant stream...

[minimaluhftv]

Fuck the chinks!! And why is it then everyone buys made in china crap!! We are supporting their agenda? What the fuck!!! People wake up

[MattExzy]

@minimaluhftv It's New World Order sorta stuff.. this is just radio, Australia wants to bring in an internet filter, powerful people want Wikileaks destroyed, they definitely need to fill their control gap.

[vroomski888]

Great video on the Firedrake. Firedrake is being heard in the Pacific Northwest on 8400 kHz around 1500-1800 utc, with a super strong signal. Off for around 4 minutes at the top of the hour then returns with the Chinese music. Never a word spoken, just music, Sound of Hope Radio International is listed in the World Radio TV Handbook as broadcasting on this channel. Have never heard the Sound of Hope transmission.

[MattExzy]

@vroomski888 Thanks for the update! I've been away from shortwave a bit, but I have still been hearing it occasionally on the dial.

[ebyard]

Quite simple; it's interfering with radio amateur communications (not to mention other stations) the world over.

Imagine if the US setup a 500kw transmitter somewhere and screwed all Chinese domestic transmissions. There would be a huge diplomatic protest.

Why can the Chinese do the same and get away with it? The music might be good but repeating it 24/7 on numerous frequencies is not!!

[dieselscience]

The Cold War never ended, it just moved to another communist regime, 1989 Tienanmen Square for example?

[Dontholdback747]

Is the Firedrake less active nowadays or am I just teh suck at shortwave? I've been looking for months and haven't heard it anywhere. Is it on SSB?

[pikuorguk]

No no you've all got it wrong, this isn't being broadcast to block transmissions.

It's simply a world-wide Chinese restaurant/takeaway PA system supplying constant background music while you eat.

[DrMotorDude]

@815Sox You can cheerlead for China all you want, Firedrake Jammer is ILLEGAL - PERIOD!

[dieselscience]

@815Sox To refer to "The Chinese people" as a homogenous group is wrong. Also, Marxism never defined an economic system, it is and always had been a political administrative system. "Communism" describes the economic system in any Marxist administered government. The Chinese GOVERNMENTAL model is TEXTBOOK Marxist as there has been no other models of government since Mao. I know you never lived in communism (based on your reply) that's OK, too but never argue with those who have.

[815Sox]

@dieselscience China is very different than the USSR, they never got along when both were Communist states. Both were totalitarian and both called themselves "Marxist". China's economical system today is far from being a marxist state. The Chinese people are not afforded the same personal freedoms that we are. However, at the same time the Chinese people are not as concerned about them as we are. They have a different perspective on life than the Western World and thats okay.

[vstman]

USA got the HAARP. So why not put it to good use?

[MattExzy]

@DanielChristy19 Thanks for the report! Happy listening, yes I've noticed Firedrake has been quite active recently compared to a year or so ago.

[GMSamuelRhine]

@peterpeterification i guess so they can control all the transmitters at once. they just stay on and they feed whatever audio they want through the orbiter

[peterpeterification]

Why the need for the satellite if they're using terrestrial repeaters?  Why not just broadcast from Earth?

[aurora990]

@MattExzy instead of the unusual sounds heard by jammers such as bubbling, warbling, running water or siren sounds, the Firedrake jammer uses music that has no end. in addition, the same music can be heard on frequencies that normally broadcast Sound of Hope, VOA and any shortwave radio broadcast the Chinese government does not want anybody to listen to. similar attempts are being done by Cuba and North Korea.