[time-nuts] Italian Time Station on 10 MHz ?

[EB4APL]

Hi Iain
It is operating from mid 2012 at least, I started a thread about it on 
06/29/2012  when I noticed it and several members responded with their 
opinions.
It seems to be more a "pirate station" than an "experimental station", I 
have serious doubts that they may have a license for it.
For starting their announced web page www.italcable.it redirects to 
www.associazioneitalcable.it (Italcable was a historic 
telecommunications company now merged into Telecom Italia).
The site has just a page without any explanation about the association 
and his goals and only announces their "Open Source Sensors" and the 
Time Signals stations on 10 MHz and 15 MHz both defined as "amateur and 
experimental station". They also include an email address, a postal 
address and under "License" they say "Authorized by the Ministry of 
Economic Development".  I suppose that is the license for operating the 
association, not the radio stations.
The 10 MHz station frequency is almost 4 Hz down since the beginning, 
the 15 MHz transmission, new for me, is much more on frequency, less 
than 1 Hz high.
The pips are at 1110 Hz above the carrier, I did not made any effort for 
reading the code, even it could be fake, neither how good is its time .
And their use of music for filling the idle time severely interferes 
with legitimate time signals in these frequencies.
Also, according to some local hams, the stated transmission site is faked.

Best regards,
Ignacio EB4APL


On 28/04/2013 14:43, Iain Young wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> A friend of mine sent me a You Tube recording of an unidentified Time
> Station on 10MHz, possibly from Italy or Brazil. Further work seems to
> suggest it is indeed an experimental time station from Italy.
>
> Below is a (modified for context) version of the email I sent him:
>
> --BEGIN INCLUDE MESSAGE---
>
> At first look, I tend to agree with others that it's a new
> experimental Italian Time Signal. It is also shown on this
> You Tube link:
>
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSQyKh694RU
>
> Video claims to be: Experimental Time Signal from the italian private
> socitey Italcable transmitting at 10000KHz
>
> Three observations from this recording:
>
> a) The "pips" are about ~1k up from the main carrier on 10MHz.
> Probably a little higher, maybe 1.1k
>
> b) Right at the beginning, there is a burst of digital comms, that
> to my ear sounded similar to 300 baud packet. Checking the Frequency
> vs Amplitude display in the bottom left again, it appears that that
> burst is up at ~2k+ from the 10MHz centre
>
> Now...a PK232 running 300 baud uses the following frequencies:
>
> 2110 Mark, and 2310 space tones as a PK-232, with the center of the
> tones being 2210 Hz, and going fullscreen on the video suggests that
> the spikes during that burst are smack where we would see them for
> 300 baud packet when using a PK-232.
>
> (With the resolution of the youtube video and the screen, thats as
> accurate as I can get)
>
> c) The burst does appear to repeat later in the recording, which
> suggests it may be part of the time code, rather than some
> Italian APRS station being a tad off frequency
>
>
> I would suggest that the next step would be to put a 300 baud
> PK232 MODEM on 10 MHz, and record anything that gets decoded.
>
> If its ASCII (highly unlikely to be KISS Frames unless it is someone
> way off frequency, and c) above would seem to suggest that's less
> likely, then it may well be the time of day.
>
> In that case, in order to use it, we need to work out the reference
> point. There seems to be six pips 1 second apart, a gap of a two
> seconds, followed by a final seventh pip.
>
> While different to Radio 4's longer final pip, this is similar
> to DCF where the final second of the minute is not modulated (MSF
> does something similar with a 500mS "carrier off" at the beginning
> of the minute.
>
> My guess is the seventh pip identifies the start of the minute,
> with the 6 pips beforehand being used for receivers to lock on,
> and identify the 2 second gap, with the 300 baud packet being
> used to carry the time information itself for the next minute.
>
> Now, do you have the ability to listen on 10MHz with a PK232
> tones sound MODEM ? :)
>
> ---END INCLUDE MESSAGE---
>
> I am hoping to get a recording or two of it (I don't have HF
> RF capability right now, but do have replay and 300 baud decode
> capability), to see if it really is 300 baud packet, but have any
> (Probably European) time-nuts hear this signal ?
>
> Anyone have any details on the time code ? I'm going to hope it
> might be possible to decode the time from the packet burst, but
> if anyone has any prior knowledge, then a head start is never a
> bad thing when trying to decode these things :)
>
> (BTW, the station seems to play music most of the minute, which
> quietens during the packet burst and pips)
>
>
> All the Best
>
> Iain