JS2SA / JB2XH

Original: Ryota / JJ1WTL — 500304565 · Original Japanese HTML

Published: 2023-08-09T20:13:00+09:00

English translation of the archived article text. The author’s first-person observations, uncertainty and later additions are preserved; this is not the research summary. Image contents are preserved as images, not silently incorporated into the translated prose.

In addition to the previously reported JS2RA and JS2RB, licences have been issued to two more experimental stations for digital fixed services in the HF band. Besides the one named in the title, the other station's callsign was unknown. [Added August 28] It is now disclosed: JS2SA.

[Added September 14, 2024] Please also see the follow-up, ‘The new JB2XH’:

https://jj1wtl.seesaa.net/article/504743515.html (English translation)

This must be the place!

From photographs taken while investigating microwave routes.

Both are in Minamiboso City.

Callsign unknown JS2SA — 4HF

The left side of the photograph above.

Could it be this antenna piggybacking on JOSADA TELECOM's tower?

What follows is written on the basis of that assumption ↑.

SRI if I have got it wrong.

If you know another possible location, please contact the ‘I saw a suspicious HF antenna in Minamiboso City’ department.

It is the eastern of the two towers inside Cosmo Classic Club.

Google Maps satellite imagery also shows a beam antenna aligned northeast–southwest:

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1114822,139.9555643,53m/data=!3m1!1e3

Click to enlarge (1.2 / 1.3 MB).

JB2XH — High Bar Communications (HBC)

The right side of the photograph at the beginning.

It is probably the company's Gotenyama station, with an HF antenna on top.

The HF antenna is not yet visible in Google Maps satellite imagery:

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.0819152,139.9447268,53m/data=!3m1!1e3

But when you visit the site… Click to enlarge (1.1 / 1.2 MB).

Locations, together

JS2RA / JS2RB (https://www.google.com/maps/@35.4465176,140.019764,53m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu) are included in this overview.

Click to enlarge (640 KB).

Comparison table

Here is a comparison including JS2RA and JS2RB.

Twelve frequencies in all.

Links to the Radio Station Information Search

(1a) JS2RA

DATACOM SERVICES GK

To Chicago, W (USA)

https://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/musen/SearchServlet?pageID=4&IT=A&DFCD=0004295380&DD=1&styleNumber=21

(1b) JS2RB

DATACOM SERVICES GK

To DU (Philippines)

https://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/musen/SearchServlet?pageID=4&IT=A&DFCD=0004448132&DD=1&styleNumber=21

(2) ***** (identification signal withheld) JS2SA

4HF K.K.

https://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/musen/SearchServlet?pageID=4&IT=A&DFCD=0004464656&DD=1&styleNumber=21

(3) JB2XH

High Bar Communications GK

https://www.tele.soumu.go.jp/musen/SearchServlet?pageID=4&IT=A&DFCD=0004474981&DD=1&styleNumber=21

Other operators expressing interest

According to the ‘Draft Minutes of the First Meeting of the HF Digital Fixed Station Working Group, Land Radiocommunication Committee, Information and Communications Technology Subcommittee, Information and Communications Council’:

https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000862432.pdf

That is the source.

(4) NuVo Networks

Already provides microwave services between cable landing stations and data centres in central Tokyo.

(5) GT Technologies Japan GK

Already provides microwave services between cable landing stations and data centres in central Tokyo.

(6) Sora Communications

The companies' capital relationships below (from registers, reporting and LinkedIn)

JOSADA TELECOM's parent, McKay Brothers International, describes itself precisely as ‘a proven provider of ultra-low-latency private wireless bandwidth and microwave market data.’

Sora Communications' parent, Tower Research Capital, describes itself precisely as ‘a trading and technology company that has built some of the fastest, most sophisticated electronic trading platforms in the world.’

In order of establishment.

The fact that JOSADA TELECOM is a subsidiary of McKay Brothers International comes from the following press material, rather than the company register:

‘McKay Brothers provides ultra-low-latency microwave bandwidth for data transmission between Tokyo and Singapore’

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/release/201611166323

‘Purposes’ from each company's register

How JB and JS are distinguished

Experimental stations in Kanto

The treatment is:

• Telecommunications operators: JB2XA–XZ, JB2WA–WZ and JB2ZA–ZZ.

• Others: JS2RA–YZ.

That is how they are assigned [Identification Signal Assignment Standards].

Why ‘2’ even though this is Kanto?

To revisit an old point…

For experimental stations—including Japan's ‘experimental test stations’—the digits 1 and 0 cannot be used [RR, Radio Regulations].

Consequently, Kanto and Shinetsu both use ‘2’, unlike amateur stations.

Good examples are JG2XA and the former JG2AS.

Once commercial service arrives

This is looking ahead, but for ‘fixed stations’ operated by ‘telecommunications operators’,

the treatment of ‘digital’ here would be:

• If treated as telegraphy: three letters beginning JA, followed by two digits.

• If treated as telephony: the same pattern beginning JB.

And:

The third letter depends on the band:

• 4–6 MHz: JAA##–JAD##, JBA##–JBD##.

• 7–10 MHz: JAE##–JAK##, JBE##–JBK##.

• 11–15 MHz: JAL##–JAP##, JBL##–JBP##.

• 16–17 MHz: JAQ##–JAS##, JBQ##–JBS##.

• 18–24 MHz: JAT##–JAZ##, JBT##–JBZ##.

And:

The digits are:

• First digit: order of use.

• Second digit: ‘the operating frequency in MHz’.

That is the arrangement [Identification Signal Assignment Standards].

Thoughts

All of them are foreign-owned, aren't they?

Perhaps Japan's leading financial newspaper should have a go at Nagara too… (no, that's not it).

This requires a certain amount of bandwidth

Even at ‘12 kHz per company’, six companies would require 72 kHz in total.

Furthermore,

over six bands—6, 9, 10, 12, 14 and 16 MHz—that is 72 kHz × 6 = 432 kHz of bandwidth.

Earlier posts

‘JA2RA / JA2RB’

https://jj1wtl.seesaa.net/article/499204144.html (English translation)

‘JA/CB-004’ (visiting the 4HF and HBC stations)

https://jj1wtl.seesaa.net/article/499505940.html (English translation)