THE WOBBLER

A Mystery Radio Signal

By: W. Curt Deegan
Boca Raton, Florida

This page last updated March 22, 2006

Introduction
Listening on the AM Broadcast Band provides a wide range of attractions to the enthusiast.  Receiving distant stations, hearing anomalous operations, listening to unique content, these are some of the reasons radio hobbyists enjoy their avocation.  For some...a few of us, there is the strange.  And so it is that I have created this web site, to present the strange.  Not everything that might be strange on the BCB, but something that is strange.  Something that has caught my attention and interest, and compels me to try to learn more, maybe even find out what it is.

When I first heard the strange signal it was on a simple table radio - a Tivoli Audio PAL - while tuning around for no particular reason.  It was just after Hurricane Frances provided me eight days to enjoy battery and wind-up powered radio, and some rather bazaar radio noises from ailing and dying broadcast transmitters.  It was then that I made first contact...so to speak. 

My first impression was that it was some sort of atmospheric artifact, signals intertwingling and bouncing about.  I thought nothing more of it until I saw mention on the BCB radio hobby forums of similar signals heard.  That prompted me to play around further and led me to decide the signal may be caused by my use of a proximity coupled antenna - the C.Crane Justice AM Antenna.  I had seen this antenna mentioned on the forums - maybe even by those making reports - and thought the signal might well be some artifact of the antenna coupling with the radio.  I leapt to the challenge to answer this mystery for everyone, and the next time I heard the signal I went to my big radio - a JRC NRD-535D - sure I would find no trace of the signal.  Of course, it was loud and clear on that set too.

Now I did have a mystery.  One that demanded my attention.  Reading various attempts to describe the signal, I struck upon my choice of Wobbler as a good, one word description and practical name.  What has happened since then is documented in what follows.


Acknowledgments

My activities have been greatly assisted by the members of two prominent radio hobby clubs.  Members of the IRCA - International Radio Club of America - and the NRC - National Radio Club - have contributed immeasurably with their reception reports and by offering comments and opinions based on their accumulated wealth of experience. 

More recently, members of the DXFlorida radio group have joined the Wobbler hunt.  Extremely aware of radio activities in Cuba, these folks have been instrumental in this quest.
...Back to Contents page     On to Procedures page...

Preface   Procedures   Investigations   Observations   Comments  Reference

© W. Curt Deegan, 2005-2006