I'm listening on 5744 kHz again this evening (local). I had hoped to hear
the chiming bells again and record them this time.

No luck. No chiming bells.

However, the frequency has been active with phone patch traffic this evening
(local). I've seen mention of phone patch traffic on this frequency, in a
WUN archive search. But the archive mentioned only Russian phone patches.
This was either Australian or New Zealand accents.

Specifically, at 11:11 July 8 UTC, 5744 USB, I heard a telephone ringing
sound. I could hear one side of the conversation but the other station was
just barely audible. And the one I could hear was very weak.

There was male speaking. He took two phone calls within ten minutes. He
seemed to be experiencing propagation problems too: "Yeah, receiving, over."
"Could you repeat that?, over"

I believe he said, at one point "Great to hear you're enjoying the
yabbies!". (A yabby is a fresh-water shell fish, much like a miniature
lobster, I suppose. Quite a delicacy.) This is what makes me think the
stations are in Australia, with such talk of "yabbies".

I then heard a series of five tones, all the same pitch. Then a short series
of multi-tones. The phone line is quite at the moment (11:31 July 8 UTC).

Has anybody else ever managed to tap this phone line?

Mark.

Auckland

New Zealand.