New Farsi Numbers Station Reported on 7910 kHz

A new shortwave numbers station believed to be broadcasting in Farsi. Numbers stations–mysterious broadcasts that read sequences of numbers–have long been associated with intelligence agencies communicating with field operatives using unbreakable one-time pad encryption. According to the report, this new signal first appeared around the time of the recent military strikes involving Iran and has been heard on 7910 kHz. One listener reported hearing it around 0215 UTC recently.

A new version of the popular VOACAP HF propagation forecasting tool has been released, featuring significant changes to the interface. In addition, there have been some stability and performance upgrades.   (This is the application on which HamClock's VOACAP routine is based.)

VOACAP Online for SWL is a free shortwave propagation prediction service designed specifically for shortwave listeners. Hams and short wave listeners have professional-grade tools previously reserved for broadcasters and engineers. Whether you’re planning your listening schedule or exploring propagation science, VOACAP Online for SWL delivers clarity, precision, and flexibility.

The video below highlights eleven changes that you need to know about. You can find the VOACAP web app at:

https://www.voacap.com/swl/

You can access the latest version of the help manual at:

https://www.voacap.com/2023/documents/VOACAP_Manual.pdf

And if you're a non-ham (or new ham for that matter) wondering what this radio "propagation thing" is all about, check out the following:

Rydberg Atoms Detect Clear Signals From a Handheld Radio

For the first time, a team of US researchers has used sensors containing highly excited Rydberg atoms to detect signals from an ordinary handheld radio. Through a careful approach to demodulating the incoming signals, Noah Schlossberger and colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were able to recover audio encoded in multiple public radio channels, with promising implications for everyday uses in consumer electronics. The research has been published in Physical Review Applied.

In a Rydberg atom, a single electron is excited to an extremely high energy level, pushing it far from its host atom's nucleus. From a distance, these atoms resemble a single electron orbiting a positively charged ion.

When any atom is exposed to an external electric field, the positions of its electrons' energy levels shift through a process called the Stark effect. Yet in a Rydberg atom, the shift becomes far more pronounced, causing particularly striking changes in the spectral patterns produced when the atom is probed by a laser.

Untapped potential

This effect ultimately means that Rydberg atoms are ideally suited as electric-field sensors: a possibility the Rydberg Sensor project's group leader, Christopher Holloway, began to explore in 2009. After embarking on the project, Holloway's team soon realized that the possibilities were far more wide-ranging than they first anticipated.

"One of the more intriguing applications is atom-based receivers, where these Rydberg-atom sensors act like an antenna to detect the signal, and perform the demodulation and down conversion automatically," Holloway describes.

"In principle, these Rydberg receivers could eliminate a lot of the front-end devices and electronics when compared to conventional receivers."

So far, however, the possibilities of these atomic sensors have largely been explored within the confines of the lab—leaving the full scope of their potential real-world applications largely unexplored.

 

Five Two Simplex Challenge!

 

The Holy Cluster: Next-Gen Ham Radio DX Spotting Tool

The Holy Cluster is a modern web-based DX cluster for amateur radio operators. It plots live worldwide spots on an interactive map, making DX (long-distance contact) hunting more intuitive than traditional text-based clusters.

I've been using The Holy Cluster for a little while now in conjunction with a VSPE comm port splitter which enables me to have two programs (The Holy Cluster and my N3FJP Log share the same virtual comm port so that they can both independently read and write to  my radio (frequency and mode).  The result?  Fantastic!

Developed by a team of Israeli hams and supported by the Israeli Association of Radio Communication (IARC), additionally it shows active stations as map pins that include callsign, frequency, mode and other details in real time.

Key Features:

Interactive Global Map: A live world map shows incoming DX spots as pins. Each pin reveals the station’s callsign, frequency, mode (SSB, CW, FT8, etc.), timestamp and notes, giving a visual “snapshot” of current activity.

Color-Coded Band Overview: Bands are color-coded on the map and band bar, so you instantly see which HF bands are open and where stations are active. This makes it easy to spot DXpeditions or contest activity at a glance.

Advanced Spot Filtering: Robust filters let you narrow spots by band, mode, continent/country, or even callsign prefix/suffix. You can isolate rare regions or modes, hide self-spots (portable stations), and toggle filters on/off without reconfiguring.

Custom Alerts: Set up alerts for specific DXCC entities or callsigns so you never miss a rare station. The Holy Cluster can notify you when a target appears, ensuring you catch fleeting openings.

Intuitive UI: The site uses a clean, responsive design that works on desktop and mobile. It offers features like dark mode and a “band bar” frequency display for each band. Auto-zoom keeps all spots in view as they appear, and you can sort the spot table by any column for easier reading.

Live Logging/CAT Support: Integration with a lightweight “CAT Server” means you can click a spot to tune your radio (via compatible software). This bridges The Holy Cluster with your transceiver, streamlining your workflow.

Open Source & Community-Driven: The Holy Cluster is fully open-source and free. Its code is on GitHub and developers actively incorporate user feedback into updates. Because it’s maintained by radio amateurs for radio amateurs, new features roll out quickly to meet hams’ needs.

Benefits for Operators: