“If you manage to make a contact with them, that would be your most rare QSO, dream of it, some times the dreams might come real, just keep dreaming and pay a great attentions to the signals you receive on your radio, do not ignore a strange signal, that might be it !!!!!” From Rashid, A71AN, a HAM operator in Qatar. He has posted some interesting videos on the dxqsl.net site (see URL below).

Though his English may not be perfect (many HAMs speak English as a second language), he certainly expressed the dream of many HAM operators, including myself. Since the lower frequency radio waves can travel around the planet, HAMs are always contacting their counterparts in other countries. Many great international friendships got started with a chat on the radio. HAMs realize that we are all in this together, they routinely put aside political, religious and other differences to accomplish bigger and better things. Most HAMs are the friendliest people you’ll encounter, regardless of the country they live in. They self-organize nets on a given frequency at a set time for many purposes or subjects of discussion.

Seems to me that radio contact with the occupants of a UFO will naturally happen with a HAM operator. Let’s say that you are a HAM operator who wants to contact a UFO. What frequency would you use to call (transmit) on? That depends on what frequency the UFO’s radio receivers are listening on. We don’t know if they even have a radio receiver. Chances are they do, but we have no way to know the proper frequency.

HAMs have the use of many bands spread over the entire radio spectrum. Some of the bands are narrow, others are wide with room for many conversations. (See the band plan on the arrl Web site link below.) When a HAM wants to find another HAM to talk (QSO) with, he or she would tune their transceiver to the “Calling Frequency” of the band they are on. For example, on the 80 Meter band, 3.885 MHz is the AM calling frequency, 3.985 MHz is the SSB calling frequency. There are also calling frequencies for FM and the numerous digital modes. Once you have established contact, you will move (QSY) to a nearby vacant frequency to continue the conversation so the calling frequency is again available for others to use.

What we need is a UFO calling frequency!

Several weeks ago, I wrote to four people whom I thought might have some information about contacts between HAM operators and UFOs. The first was Art Bell, W06BB. He has been a HAM operator since the age of 13 and currently holds an Extra class license granting all privileges on all the HAM bands. Currently, he uses a Philippine call, 4F1AB. So far, there has been no reply from Mr. Bell. Next, was Brian Vike, who manages the sightings.com Web site for Jeff Rense. So far, no reply from Brian. George Filer of Filer’s Files also received my message, but so far, no reply from George. They either had no information to pass on, or were too busy. You can hear them both monthly on Rense Radio.

The only reply I received was from Peter Davenport (KE7JUR) of the National UFO Reporting Center. He wrote, “I have no idea whether HAMs may have communicated with the occupants of UFOs, but if they have, I am not aware of it. However, what I do suspect is that they have bounced radio signals off of them.” I’ll bet he is right about that. Peter is a regular guest on both the Jeff Rense radio program and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. I always look forward to his next appearance, just can’t miss them. Peter has devoted many decades to the UFO enigma, building up a huge database of sighting reports, including one from yours truly.

During last month’s interview with Jeff Rense, Peter talked about his “Passive Radar” paper, presented at the MUFON Symposium in Denver last July. Having had some experience with radar in the US Navy, I had to go read it. Peter has a wonderful idea here, just use the link below to download the paper in PDF format.

Most people are familiar with radar. Every major airport, both military and civilian, has one. To track airplanes, the radar antenna rotates while sending out pulses of microwaves. The narrowly focused beams travel out at C, the speed of light. When the energy hits an aircraft (or other object) a small portion of it reflects back toward the airport antenna, which is listening during the time between the transmitted pulses. Electronic circuits and computers then analyze the returned signal, computing the speed, altitude, course and distance of the airplane which is displayed on screens in the control tower. This is called “Active Radar.”

UFOs have a spotty record on active radar. Some are easily picked up, while others seem to have a “cloaking device” rendering them invisible to radar. Peter Davenport’s idea is to make use of the RF energy emitted all the time by commercial FM radio stations. Unlike active radar, this energy is not pulsed or directed in a narrow beam. It is present all the time and radiates from the station’s transmitter antenna in all directions. Commercial FM stations are usually quite powerful, 50,000 to 100,000 watt transmitters are commonly used.

All that is needed to implement “Passive Radar” is a group of receivers that are shielded (such as by mountains) from the direct transmitted signal. No HAM or other FCC license is needed for operating receivers. If a UFO (or airplane) flies by, some of the energy from the FM station is reflected down towards the ground and picked up by the receivers. Signals from the receivers can be fed into a fast computer for analysis. The end result will be detection of UFOs in the atmosphere or as far out as 27,000 km. It looks to me like all we are waiting for to make this a reality is software. I hope a genius coder will soon volunteer to write the software. Once implemented, anyone with the equipment and software will be able to track UFOs (un-cloaked) in real time! Peter’s paper explains this very clearly, including diagrams, so please download and read it.

When meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere, traveling at very fast speeds, they leave trails of ionized gas which reflect radio waves. The HAM term is “Meteor Scatter” and it is an “extreme sport” for some HAMs. Using VHF (2 meters, 144MHz) and 440 MHz (short range bands) on up to the microwave (GHz), HAMs take advantage of this, trying to bounce their signal to another HAM thousands of miles away. Unfortunately, the trails fade after a few minutes. In his message, Peter stated, “If HAMs can bounce gigaHertz signals off aircraft for communication (please see articles in QST magazine), we certainly should be able to do the same with UFOs.” Yes, some UFOs produce ionized air in their vicinity, which serves to increase the reflection of a signal. It is possible that many such HAM contacts are the result of bouncing off a UFO instead of a meteor trail!

HAMs who do this kind of work generally use 5 to several hundred watts into a directional antenna pointed at the potential UFO. If the UFOs are detecting this, perhaps sending messages on VHF, UHF and microwave frequency bands to get their attention would be worth a try. This may eventually lead to the “Calling Frequency” we are looking for.

I have found YouTube.com to be a valuable resource for viewing UFO footage taken by witnesses, so I wondered if there would be any videos of UFOs taken by HAMs. If you visit YouTube, type in “ham radio ufo contact” and click SEARCH. Next, you’ll see a list of videos; try “Alien Contact (2/10) FRIENDSHIP”. This one was posted by Jaime Maussan and is worth watching. While it is playing, a list of similar videos appears on the right, including several more by Jaime.

HAMs occasionally hold “Field Day,” an excercise in communication from remote, often wilderness locations. The video “UFO Seen Over Pocklington From Garrowby Hill” was taken by a group of HAMs out on a “Field Day.”
Try typing in “ham radio alien contact,” then SEARCH. “Alien Radio signal receieved by Amateur Radio Operator?” is a good result to click on. Don’t waste your time on “UFO Radio Contact.” Watching “Strange signal on 14.250 MHz” reminds us of Rashid’s (dream come true) statement at the beginning of this column! There is much more to explore on YouTube, so try some searches using your own terms.

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