ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter - Issue 20

January 2004
Articles, newsreports and Items of interest :enigma2000-owner@yahoogroups.com

Morse stations | Voice stations | Oddities
Numbers predictions | Notes for beginners
E2K phones General Yatom | News Items
Web sites | Stop press | Contribution deadlines
Index | E2K NL Home

Selected voice stations

Russian UNID:

Gert describes an UNID Russian station as:

Heard a very strange Russian man this morning [fri 5 dec 2003] a voice I never heard before in the same format as S06.

Time was 0555z and freq 5365 kHz and it was a strong signal S9 plus 10 dB

I heard only the finish and was too late to make a recording. Guess it started at 0540z.

I heard "266 266 24 24 00000".

I suggest you try this freq now and then...

[Thanks Gert]

E03/E03a

Apart from the regulations concerning the reception of wireless stations within Great Britain advice on reporting intelligence matters also exists in the form of DA notices.

Whoever the messages, from E03/E03a, are aimed at ENIGMA 2000 has no wish to 'advertise' the existence of these stations to those who may not support the best interests of Great Britain, or its representatives abroad. Although we are unable to stop discussion of E03/E03a, ENIGMA 2000 will remain aloof from any such discussion and will not be including reports or analysis on E03/E03a.

E05

Although activity has once again diminished from this station it is still active as these 8110kHz logs from AnonUK illustrate:

Others sendings were heard by AF:

These logs from AnonUK and AF illustrate that E05 has been active and not as suggested recently, ‘none heard since last May’.

PoSW continued to monitor E05 freqs and writes: No activity from E05 that I know of: however three known E05 frequencies have been noted with fixed audio tones during late November and December, these being 11,564, 12,197, 13,450 and on one occasion only, another frequency which was running the same tone, 14,425 KHz. 12,197 was one of Cynthia's most widely used frequencies at one time and has been the most active during the recent audio tone transmissions;-

It seems as if someone is still making sure that Cynthia's transmitters remain serviceable.

[Tnx AnonUK, AF and PoSW]

E06

Before we move on to current logs we add a higher freq E06 heard by ‘E’ at end of October.

Jochen Schäfer heard E6 on 13888 and 14910 kHz 1417z 09/11 [his Marburg local time of 1517z]. No other details.

16343/17440 and 13880/14910 transmit the same msg, but aren't synchronized.[tnx hfd] – note time differences.

PoSW’s log;

On Saturday 27/12 at 1412z RN GB noticed E06 going out on 18190 and 13893kHz stating that it started at 1400z with 128 groups.

Same msg on both freqs but not synchronised. The ID of 13893 is '419'. The ID of 18190 not known (probably different). Look for repeats at 1500z lower down ! At 1502z RN GB posted, 'E06 on 11418 ID419 and on 15840 ID579 at 1500z, should be repeat of msg 579 128 32146 etc'. Thanks RN GB

E07

STOP PRESS!! December's schedule found this very evening, 18-December, even while this was being typed;-

Finally for E07, a different prospect from TomH in US

I was listening to a reciever based in Sweden on the net, using a past Numbers and Oddities newsletter I plugged in 5102, sure enough at 2140 I hear a man with an accent go 5274 19874 50999 71118 at the end he kept saying 0 over and over.

For me a great E07 logging on the internet :) Unfortunately I should of had my recording equipment ready. Hopefully I will hear it again to get a good recording.

E10

From our E10 desk : November 2003

From JC Malta another fine contribution:

E10 LogComments

Reception for the month of Nov has been poor to say the least, a great deal to do with the Sun's activity I do believe. However this did not stop the following being heard by g0rgv on the 19 Nov "Rare E10"

( Many thanks to him ) Unfortunately I missed out again.

Note Bold print denotes repeated messages <> Denotes From-To, no change to schedule heard.

©BMDartford Nov 2003

E10 Desk Dec 03

Bold Lettering denotes repeated message <> Denotes No changes to schedule heard.

Frequency in ( ) Denotes slight variation in transmitted frequency at times.

E10 Comments

8/12: VLB2 & MIW2 extended their calls for approximatly 1hr, no message was given. (See Log)

Once again reception conditions have been pretty asbismal resulting in poor month so here's wishing all a cheerful Christmas and better listening New Year.

The following log was sent in by JC Malta for which many thanks

Thanks to CS and RN GB and all others who sent their logs to contribute to the above.

©BMDartford Dec03

To round up a years’ successful documentation of E10 activity Bob has derived the following chart:

E10 Monitored Networks & Callsigns Commencing Jan 03 to Dec 03

As at 25 Dec 03

©BMDartford 26/12/03

Thanks as ever, Bob!

E11

Note the new freq *discovered by RN GB

[Perusal of these logs suggests that agents 232 and 312 will be made redundant].

E15

We print the known schedule [as prev issue 6]:

E17

As predicted by Gert in his useful December prediction list:

Exactly as predicted – excellent Gert!

E17Z

AnonUK noted on 18/12:

E17Z is on each Thursday at 0800z on 11170kHz.   674 Null message.

He noted that it was interesting that it was on at the same times last year on the same dates.

Thanks AnonUK and Gert.

E23

Best frequency is usually 8188kHz. 4 weekly cycle starting on the first Monday of the Month.

Transmits Monday Wednesday and Thursday:

Week 4 in AM only.

E25

Nil Reports

G04

Nil Reports

G06

Gert in Hollanf heard the initial second sending of December:

Whilst PoSW writes: The G06 German YL continues with the established Thursday, Friday and first Monday in the month schedules and there was a Sunday transmission on the 14th of December.

PoSW’s logs reflect his findings:

Thurday 1830z Schedule;-

Friday 1930z Schedule;-

First Monday in the Month Schedule;-

The November signals were reported by AF, Gert, HFD and RN GB [Thanks all].

The December signals were also reported by HFD [Tnx]

G22

Slavic stations

Before we move onto the Slavic Stations logs DoK, our Slavic Desk offers his latest charts and updates, covering M10, S10D, S17C and M10E.

CHART 9
M10, S10D and S17C Listings at 31^st December,2003, All times GMT/UTC

[Compiled by ENIGMA 2000 Slavic Desk]

All frequencies stated +/- 2kHz

M10E is included in this chart [Last entry in italics] and was last heard on Wednesday 24^th December, 2003.

A brief run down on the chart; the 0840 schedule of alternate week’s lines up with 1840 and the same message is repeated. The 1140 schedule is still being observed, either M10 or S10D can come up.

The Wednesday/Thursday 11417kHz schedule first came up at 1440z and subsequently at 1430z with repeats at 1530z. Over Christmas one or two schedules went silent but 1720z came up on Christmas day as well as Boxing Day, perhaps sending ‘Season’s Greetings’, however, a different message on each day was heard. It has been noticed that the 1720z signal has increased its schedules. It should be noted that the transmissions on Mon and Tues will only operate on 4958kHz as the parallel 7605kHz will be transmitting the carrier for S10D following at 1740z.

As is usual on these occasions a number of other frequencies, schedules, etc are under review.

M10E continues on Wednesdays and was last heard by the Slavic Desk on Wednesday 24^th December, 2003 with no separation between groups etcetera. AnonUK also reported the same.

At this point, my thanks to AnonUK , RN GB and others for their input.

I believe some changes will occur from the 1^st January, 2004; certain indicators suggest this to be so but as to the extent of which, we must wait and see.

STOP PRESS: Schedules copied since 01/01/04 whilst a few have remained silent, so far only one minor change has occurred. As this has been at the end of the week when there are fewer transmissions we will have to wait for the next week to fully comprehend further change. What this suggests is that the next major change will occur at the end of January as happened Jan/Feb 2003

A Stastny Novy Rok 2004

©DoK28/12/2003

S04

In a joint operation AnonUK and Gert have worked on S04.

S04 will transmit on the Second Monday and Tuesday of the month at 2245z, the frequency, until March 2004, will be 3373kHz.

Like E18 the call for long messages will be 342, whilst 537 will be used for short messages.

[Many Thanks AnonUK and Gert]

S06

From October from af we have:

The chart compiled by Gert in Holland and AnonUK of S06 scheds over the last months is updated.

S06 Regular skeds

Note: some are probably 14 day cycle

Thanks Gert and AnonUK

©ENIGMA2000 12/2003

December freqs:

A summary from PoSW’s S06 log provides further interesting comment:

S06C

Nil Reports

S10D

Following the update to DoK’s chart RN GB found some schedules that were not covered. Thanks RN, DoK appreciates all help.

PoSW’s log supports the findings from our Slavic Desk:

All the loggings listed below had the usual "555 555 555" call-up.

Saturday 1520 UTC Schedule, 8,175 // 9,985kHz;-

Sunday and Tuesday 2050 UTC Schedule, 5,272kHz, // later found on 5,904kHz;-

Saturday and Thursday 2130 UTC Schedule, 4,446kHz, // later found on 5,904kHz;-

Wednesday 1820 UTC Schedule, 5,904 // 6,945kHz

I made a point of listening for this schedule on Wednesday 17-Dec but found no trace, so either all down to poor propagation or perhaps only appears on alternate Wednesdays.[DoK remarks this transmission still open as to routine].

S10E

Nil Reports

S11 Kreska

Nil Reports

S11A

Nil Reports

S13

The entry for this family 1C station states, “S13 OM Russian Counting & announcements, UPT76 etc (only 2mins duration).”

RN GB heard S13 on 30^th November at 1700z on 4130kHz. The station counted from 1 – 10 along with phrases.

His find was confirmed by Gert and the sound sample is now uploaded to the Sound Samples on the Group site.

S17C

October five figs as per AF’s log 5301//8190kHz:

AF notified us via group that S17C had reverted to its 9MHz freq:

And later sent:

The same information was received from our Slavic Desk, who, like AF, was unable to find a //freq.

[hfd also sent his logs in for S17C]

December S17C [via RN GB and HFD]:

S21

For October we print af’s logs:

Into November:

And Gert’s report for December:

Cuban Stations

Mark Slaten [US] kindly offered this via group:

The Cuban V2a/M8a network and the V2 network do keep a schedule. This schedule does not seem to have a definite length of time that it will remain in effect.

V2a and M8a will do this periodically and use each others assigned freqs. The V2 network does not seem to exchange freqs with V2a or M8a.

V2a and M8a will keep a weekly schedule for a few months or in some cases for a year or more, and then change the schedule and frequency. The past few months have seen some of the schedules and freqs changed. Keep a log of the freq and time and chances are very good that the same time next week will be a repeat.

Remember, if you hear a V2a or M8a sked, look for it to be repeated the next hour. It could be up or down frequency from where you heard the first sked.

Sometimes the repeat sked is not as strong as the initial sked, or sometimes it is stronger. I have yet not come up with an explanation why this is so.

Possibly just propagation, or maybe sending the repeat in a different direction?

V2 will keep a schedule for a while, but does not keep it for as long as her sister network V2a/M8a. V2 does seem to be much better technically than her sister networks. Less mistakes are made.

One other curiosity about V2a/M8a: The messages always repeat the first two groups of traffic at the end of the message.

Normally V2a and M8a call up three addressees for approximately 3 minutes on the hour. After the 3 minutes, the networks then call the first addressee and then send the 150 group message designated for that addressee. Then the second and the third addressees are called up in turn, and the 150 group message for each of them is also sent in turn.

The same phenomenon with the first two/last two groups is also present in these messages. This probably is some sort of indicator concerning the encryption method.

Another interesting factor with the V2a/M8a networks, is that if you keep a detailed call up record of schedules throughout the broadcast day, you will see a repeat in one or more of the call up addresses on other schedules.

Also, if you catch the next schedule for the following day(s), you will see the last numeral in the call up advance by one. This usually happens for three days, but it has been known to repeat for a longer period of time.

I have noticed that you see this happen more toward the end of a month. Maybe there are no more scheduled messages that month, and the messages are just repeated to fill in broadcast time.

Mark’s advice extended to ‘Go to the "Spy Numbers" or the "Enigma" databases and download previous frequencies and schedules. You can then search these, as the Cubans do reuse them.’

[TnxMark]

V02

TomH wrote in to say he had possibly heard a V02 transmitter test at 0700z 12/21/03 [real late in the US].

He accounts for this as

“I was scanning through the band and on 6768 heard a blank carrier for several minutes, followed by some brief activity by M08 on the same frequency... then more blank carrier... then "attencion 945-76" over and over untill it ended at 0708z. Basically this entire thing lasted 0655-0708z.”

Thanks Tom!

V02A

V07

and for December:

V08

PoSW observed, 'It has been almost a year since I have heard anything from the V08 Arabic YL which used to appear on the first - or sometimes the second - Saturday of the month; however I was reminded of V08 a few weeks ago while listening to a transmission from Radio Cairo in German at the HF end of the 31 metre band; there was a programme of news items on the Middle East and each item was followed by half a minute or so of music typical of that part of the world ; and one of these pieces of music was the very same as that used by V08 so presumably a commercial recording well known in Arabic speaking countries'.[Tnx PoSW]

Polytones

RN GB contacted E2k on Friday 05/12 with news of a new find. He heard higher polytones [not XPH] at 1710z 8192kHz and 1750z 6913kHz.

JoA followed up with:

*8192kHz 1710:02-1712:40 09/12 (E) S3 QRN, QRM-noise. Preamble consisting of a two tone seuence changing @ 1711:05 to varying fast polytones.

6913kHz 1750z 09/12 (Monitored from 1750:20z) - 1752:46 (E) S9+25dB QRN - very good audio. (Description as 1710z tx.) SEE BELOW:
It was noted that E10 was on this frequency 6913kHz @ 1720z, ending @ 1722:30 "KPA2" "KPA2" "KPA2"

For 11/12 JoA observed:

Th.11/12 Carrier wave momentarily up @ 1705:30z 8192kHz AM 1710:05-1713:35 (E) S3/S1 v.poor (muffled).

Changed to USB for last part of tx. - Good clear signal.

7346kHz BC station. Series of pips ......... detected twice ~1732z
similar to that heard within the 09/11 UNID txs on 8192 & 6913kHz. This was fairly faint in the background. Possible 1730z sending? - Not really sure.

6913kHz USB ~1750-1753:32z S1 QRM-noise, poor. E2k notes that this use of a sideband is the same as RNGB’s experience.

RN GB later wrote in to state that he had made some headway with these UNID sigs to the point that he was able to state the dk/gc for the sending of 17/12 as 00351/00336. As a check the groups were counted and found to be 336 in number. Well done RN GB.

On 18/12 following the reception ofd signals on both freqs as above PLondon successfully predicted a dk/gc 01889/00303, matching RN GB’s findings.

ENIGMA 2000 has placed details to file and analytical work is being carried out on this new and interesting polytone. [Tnx RNGB and JoA]. The expected transmissions over Christmas 23/24/25 December did not appear. Previously RN GB reported an UNID polytone like transmission as:

The message length appears to be roughly the same as the above discussed UNID and this could be the Nov freq.

Returning to the usual XP transmissions, as expected the times of transmission reverted to their winter slots, an hour later than the summer slots. With that some frequency changes appeared more radical than usual. The monitors of these sendings have been troubled by the effects of high solar activity, particularly noticeable in the records for October, when compared against September and November. In the September Chart it can be seen that daily sendings were evident on the XP AM, Sch1 and Sch2 which carried on into the October Chart. This apparent flurry of continual daily message seemed to cease on 17/10 although it may have continued undetected in Great Britain thanks to the solar activity. This trend of daily sendings has not been seen in November by our monitors.

XP Daily Log [Insert M for message, N for Null message, add ‘o’ if from other source. Underscore indicates 50^th tally mark].

MONTH: November 2003

XP Daily Log [Insert M for message, N for Null message, add ‘o’ if from other source. Underscore indicates 50^th tally mark].

MONTH: December, 2003

In keeping with previous sendings as shown in our cribs the Sch2 and XPH freqs were not found.