Weak Signal Communication

Hams operate with a maximum power level of 1.5 kW. While you can do a lot with 1,500 watts... it's far weaker than even an average Class A commercial broadcaster. Many hams have turned this on it's ear and operate QRP... 5 watts or less. Squeezing signal from the noise in that arena requires favorable conditions and some serious technical know-how. There are three primary way to approach this largely self-imposed impediment. More here.

1. Coherent CQ
2. QRSS
3. Specialized Digital Signal Modes

Coherent CQ is technique centered around a bit rate often called a "clock rate."  This uses precisely calibrated transmitters which key at a very stable and specific rate. This consistency allows receivers to use extremely narrow-band filtering.  While the transmission rate is very slow, the super narrow-band filtering improves  the signal to noise ratio making the technique workable.  This can also be used with DSP. 

QRSS is another slow speed QRS CW mode used with narrow-band filtering. But this is not based on signal coherence. This uses extremely long time intervals with element lengths of 10 to 30 seconds or longer. FSCW, DFCW, BPSK and  WOLF are digital modes that can be used within the QRSS arena.
A number software programs can aid implementation, see below. More here.

• Argo http://www.sdradio.eu/weaksignals/argo/index.html 
• Spectran http://www.sdradio.eu/weaksignals/spectran.html 
• Spectrum Lab http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/spectra1.html 

 Specialized Digital Signal Modes are an even bigger area to get into because there are numerous digital solutions of varying efficacy. Open Source types of Weak Signal Communication Software inclulde WSJT, MAP65, WSPR, and WSJT-X. All of them require SDR hardware, a SSB transceiver and a PC.Most of them can run on Linux, OSX, and FreeBSD. More here and here.

Radio Vs. Wolves

This is the sort of quackery that keeps me interested in radio history. In North America we spent that last two centuries killing off the wolves. Wolves do not carry off children in the night, they rarely raid chicken coops, and they do not carry off prize turkeys. It's a safer world, and one that is equally boring. But abroad that was not the case. Wolves continued to be perceived as a threat into the 1930s in some regions. that is what led us to this apparently.

"Howls of wolves running in packs are often audible for several miles over the silent Siberian plains, and as there are scarcely any interfering noises the radiophone system will have no difficulty in revealing the whereabouts of wolf pests."

In Siberia a plan was hatched to use microphones and short wave transmitters to monitor the whereabouts of wolf packs. The idea isn't that wacky. In Brooklyn New York, a similar system of microphones is used to triangulate the origin of gunshots. In Oregon today a nearly identical concept is used not to hunt wolves but to estimate their populations.

While this rudimentary system wasn't 3-dimensional it was pretty ambitious for 1931 when the article ran. The diagram clearly shows a simple carbon mic, and a short wave antenna. It does not spell out the power source but at the time battery power would have been not just inferred but assumed, as much of the world was off the grid.

From KAAA to WZZZ

All radio stations in the U.S. have call letters that begin with either a K or a W. Some grandfathered stations have three letters of course while others have four letters.

There are 676, (26 x 26) possible ways to combine any two letters. Since there are only two possibilities for the first letter (K or W), the number of possibilities for three letter call letters is (676 x 2), or 1352. But that forth position is tricky. It has another 26 possibilities all on it's own or (1352 x 26) = 35,152 [someone please check my math!] There are only about 14,000 stations so we have plenty of room left.

So even knowing the FCC won't let us spell out naughty words, or racial slurs etc. There are at least 15,000 remaining unused possbilities. I note this because both the first and last possibile stations have already been used. Thought only one is active.

107.5 WZZZ Portsmouth, Ohio is a small Classic Rocker serving The boonies along the West Virginia border near to Huntington, WV. But the calls are new, They flipped from WNPM on 12/16/2002 as a still new CP. Prior to that the calls lived in Syracuse on 1300 AM out of Fulton. But when Donald Derosa bought the station and weent country he dropped the oddball calls for WAMF-AM to simulcast WOLF... more radio disney.

1490 KZZZ-AM is a talker in Bullhead City, Arizona. Their ID "1490 K Triple Z" Is a one-of-a-kind branding. Wildly more exciting than KKJG "The jug", just for example. KZZZ simulcasts on that magical set of calls KAAA-AM 12230, Kingman, AZ. They also use the letter "A" there in a way that normally will get you sued.

...and if it interests you:
980 WAAA-AM was a ballsy station in Winston-Salem NC with a format aimed at the African American community. The station went on air on October 29, 1950. They dropped their long standing Black Gospel format in 2005 for Adult Standards they in turn dropped six months laterfor country oldies. In 2/1/2006, a mere four months later they went silent and returned as a simulcast of 98.3 WIST-FM. My how the mighty have fallen.