How Radio Detectives Solved One Of Short Waves Biggest Mysteries!

foreign just before Christmas of 2004 a signal appeared on the shortwave bands that caused perhaps more mystery than many of The Oddities that have appeared from and then disappeared Into The Ether over the past several decades the reason for the mystery gave the station its name why would you hear the Warner Brothers character Yosemite Sam on the Bands Yosemite Sam was the name given by shortwave listeners to what was believed to be some sort of number station although it never sent any numbers the signal was rumored to be some sort of command or secret messaging system it started making intermittent broadcasts between December the 19th 2004 and February the 16th 2005 so short-lived when you compare it to stations like the Lincolnshire poacher and the buzzer it transmitted on 3700 4300 6500 and 10 500 kilohertz and the voice of Yosemite Sam could always be heard the Transmissions would start on 3 700 kilohertz and then 10 seconds later it was repeated on 4300 it would then move to 6 500 kilohertz followed by a final transmission on 10 500 and the whole series of transmissions and frequency changes took exactly two minutes the broadcasts appeared just before one minute past the hour and started with a 0.8 second data burst followed by friends never the audio segment for Yosemite Sam's voice is taken from Bunker Hill bunny a Looney Tunes books Bunny cartoon from 1950. you better say your prayers your favorite environment I'm gonna lawyer a smithereenis theories suggest that the data burst was designed to send the first part of a message and their numbers would have followed they'd go on to suggest that due to no numbers being sent the Yosemite Sam segment was just filler but I find that hard to believe naturally this caught the attention of shortwave listeners who began to compile reception reports that seemed to indicate that the transmitter site was located somewhere in the desert around Albuquerque New Mexico the initial broadcast started or were first heard on December the 19th 2004 and only lasted until December the 23rd 2004. they later returned almost one month later on January the 14th 2005 on the original frequencies plus the same frequencies as the time signals vvw and vvwh of 10 and 15 megahertz so here's where things get interesting the use of 3700 kilohertz was probably not the wisest choice for transmissions of this nature since it falls in the middle of the 80 meter amateur band and its use attracted the attention of two licensed hams living in New Mexico Mike Stark wa5 OIP and Mike langner K5 MGR interestingly the FCC monitoring station did provide an approximate area that the Yosemite some signal was coming from and the local official observers and section manager were notified on Wednesday the 16th of February 2005 the two U.S amateur radio operators decided it was time to track down the signal they quickly realized that the signal began to go stronger as they headed west listening on a mobile Radio setup then they shifted to a Potomac field intensity meter with a shielded loop antenna using this they quite easily and quickly located the offending transmitter at the Matic facility on the Laguna Indian reservation in New Mexico part of Laguna Industries a Native American Business the Matic Center is an acronym for the mobility assessment test and integration Center a military facility used to develop Advanced Battlefield communication systems and not at that time generally known to the public the facility sits just north of Laguna New Mexico on Vietnam Veterans Road and although there appears to be either a VHF UHF Tower or a stripped cell phone mast at the front what's just up the road is what's interesting they drove up to the building set just off the desert road and began to take photographs of the various Towers antennas and the building itself a short way further up the road still in the fenced compound is what looks like the transmission site and likely the source of Yosemite Sam almost immediately A man was spotted walking towards their truck shouting and gesturing them to stop taking pictures and leave which they quickly did interestingly the two mics found the Yosemite Sam transmitter at about 2 30 in the afternoon and the signal went off the air at around 5 30 that same day and was never heard again Langer stated that about five minutes before he and wa5 OIP located the exact source of the interference a pickup truck had passed them as they were parked and taking a bearing he seems to think that the driver must have told somebody at the facility that they were being hunted although Laguna industry still exists albeit now specializing in car wash technology by the looks of the website there were references to the Matic Center on the website back in 2004 and 2005 which later disappeared so the mystery of Yosemite Sam was solved well not really we still don't know the reason for the transmissions and why such a distinctive voice was used that would attract listeners immediately 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Channel: Ringway Manchester

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Length: 6min 31sec (391 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 28 2022