Direct mp4 download or play: Lists 59, 23, 72, 42, 31, 32, 33, 30 and 57
While tuning my Airspy software defined radio (SDR) at my location in Seattle, I stumbled onto this broadcast on a band meant for two-way radio communications such as police, fire departments, taxis, Family Radio Service (FRS), General Mobile Radio Service(GMRS), both analog and digital. I listened closely to the poor sound quality and managed to type in a Google search and came up with “Harvard Sentences.” After listening for awhile I noticed certain lists of sentences were playing in a certain order and then looping. At approximately 4 minutes and 43 seconds list 59 begins “Every word and phrase he speaks is true.” Then after list 57 “Prod the old mule with a crooked stick.” at about 11 minutes and 12 seconds, the groups of sentence lists repeat in the same order. I guess a beginning and ending could be anywhere in the groups of sentences, but to me, it seemed like “Every word and phrase he speaks is true.” is a logical starting point. Here’s an interesting article about the “Harvard Sentences.”
I don’t know why this is being broadcast, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I recall 454 to 455 and 152 to 153 megahertz being used by the telephone company for mobile phone calls. This, of course, would have been before cellular. Here is a full list of sentences. Any thoughts on this matter?
Direct mp3 download or play: Harvard Sentences April 20th, 2017 at 1:57 AM PDT on 454.650 Megahertz
The first recording was made on April 19, 2017, 2:39:11 PM and this last sample aaudio-only recording was made over 11 hours later. This recording shows the loop point where list 57 ends and list 59 begins. I think “085709Z” in the SDRSharp file name is the universal time. In other words, 8 hours, 57 minutes, 9 seconds is 1:57 AM and 9 seconds pacific daylight time. The “Z” is for Zulu, which is another name for universal time.
7 users commented on " Lists 59, 23, 72, 42, 31, 32, 33, 30 and 57 "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackIt is indeed most peculiar. Kind of like a textual version of numbers stations.
I decided to wait a day or so before answering, thinking maybe the station might be off or sending something different. As of writing this the same signal is still on the air.
Very interesting.
Oh, this is super neat. Seems like something worth looking into.
The Harvard Sentences stopped more than a week ago, and have been replaced with a continuous beeping data signal.
Interesting. I wonder if they were using the sentences to test their coverage area before going to data on that (presumably) same transmitter. You know, taking readings from various points around town.
Strangely the FCC database search on Intterceptradio doesn’t return anything for 454.650 in Seattle. Hmm.
And for reference I believe I found the source of the audio this mystery transmitter was using:
http://www.voiptroubleshooter.com/open_speech/
They probably fed it from a laptop or something playing these files.