So, last night I sat out on the front porch (yard actually) to enjoy a well earned cigar and do some bare-bones, primitive AMBCB DXing with a tunable Grundig AM loop antenna and a pocket sized Sony ICF-P26. These are items I've had for years and years. Matter of fact, the Grundig tunable loop is almost 26 years old as I bought it at Radio Shack back in the day. You can buy one today under other names, Tecsun is one example.
At around 680 on the dial I hear this pecking noise at exactly 4 beats per second. I timed it on my watch several times and it was always exactly 4 beats or, pecks if you will, per second. The first thing I thought of was over the horizon jamming. Is it? Could it be? If so who? If not, what would cause such interference so precisely metered at exactly, four, beats per second?
The circumference of the loop was aligned with magnetic North/South and the radio alone was not picking up the signal. It only received it when near the loop and with the loop tuned to 680. I started about 8:30 PM EDT so it was still light outside. I found the signal just as darkness settled in. Atmospheric weather conditions included rain type clouds that had started to move in as the evening progressed but it was not raining. I was not near any engines of any type. I was far away from interference caused by LED lighting. If I brought my cellphone near the radio the hash from the display would interfere with the whole AM band.
I listened to it for a few minutes while I looked stuff up on my phone to identify it but all the results came back as something wrong with the radio, switching power supplies and birdies. I would go to other parts of the band and cycle through the whole tuning range again and again but only when I landed on 680 would I hear this pecking, ticking at exactly, 4 beats per second. before posting this I repeated the my actions of the previous evening as it is exactly 24 hours later. Nothing. to noise, no interference anywhere on the band.
So, having now shared my story with all of you, what do you think was going on?
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