ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter - Issue 22

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

Non numbers stations

Something very different

Something very different, not numbers but interesting nonetheless:

HJ Hagerman intercepted some rather interesting signals [26/04] and notified ENIGMA 2000 at the time of intercept. HJH writes,

"Main frequency was apparently 4527 kHz mode upper side band. Control seems to have been the American accented YL we heard* Control call sign given initially as Alha Presidium or possibly Presidio (US Military Police have a big base in San Francisco called The Presidium) and later as Alpha 6 India. This was DEFINITELY the same control heard at my QTH and ENIGMA 2000 HQ.

Outstations monitored were----Oscar Victor, 3 Oscar Victor, 3 Quebec Hotel.

Messages monitored:

OUTSTATION(unid) Interogative ID on your trap 061.

A6I(cont)Roger. No ID as of right now.

Alpha 6 India;- My unit just went out. Request you come up on this freq.

Alpha 6 India (in reply to unid tx.) I have it on my screen. Assume friendly over.

Alpha 6 India:- Request you monitor my Papa Hotel on HF. Closing UHF and coming up on HF."

HJH guessed that it was a military aviation link stating that Control had, by far, the best signal; whilst some of the outstations had foreign accents, e.g. German and French. [This ties with two reports received on the same day. One was from an ENIGMA 2000 monitor in Norwich who reported much military air traffic - especially at night; and another monitor who reported seeing regular helicopter flights in towards the Colchester Area].

Further messages read:

OS (unid)
unident. outstation
CONT
Control station, call sign variously given as Alpha Presidio or Alpha 6 India(same YL operator, voice identical)

One more outstation identified as 1 Whiskey Mike.

CONT	My units are shifting to 601 Bravo.(New Freq?) Continue monitoring on 600 AlphaOver(presumably, 600Alpha is 4527 kHz, and is the control or guard freq. for this net.)
CONT	Are you receiving my unit on Sierra Mike 601 Bravo Over.
UNID	OS- Confirm(garbled) Currently on Sierra Mike 601 Bravo.
CONT	Maintaining my watch on this freq.
UNID	OS-Garbled am jumping on my headset.(This tx had a German accent)

*Our duty officer used a Sony ICF-7600 on a telescopic antenna. [Stand to attention in the presence of the duty officer!]. Tnx HJH

No recordings were made by either HJH or E2k – so don’t even ask, but please read on: “Reminds me of an exercise that once occurred when mention was made of ‘blowing up a jump-jet in-situ’ and heard by a very much younger ‘duty officer’ yonks before E2k had been dreamed up. This was at a time when IRA activity was high and the police were contacted. The blokes in blue were followed by 3 geezers in suits [working in a dept of which the last word is Branch] who confiscated the tapes of the intercepted traffic. A week later the aforesaid unauthorised intercept operator was taken into a public house of his choice, given his tapes back, which, he was informed, had been wiped by the blokes at Cheltenham. Made to swear allegiance to the Crown over a pint of Brown Ale our hapless operator was told his tapes had caused their Lordships a certain amount of embarrassment and he was lucky not to be in trouble for listening to things he should. A lot of ‘tellings off’ had apparently been carried out because the content should have been scrambled. The content was taken from an exercise that was happening 29 years ago.”

A follow on to ‘A Non-Number Station and a chilling observation' [NL21]

I recently had a conversation with Russell, who regularly receives the E2k NL, in connection with the piece in Newsletter 21 on page 5, 'A Non-Number Station and a chilling observation'. Russell assured me that the 5MHz experiment was just that, an experiment, and not as depicted in our published piece or as heard in rumours.

Historically the suggestion of a 5MHz allocation goes back to 1975 and a paper was put forward in the Spring of 1992 in front of the RA [Ofcom], MoD and RSGB. In August 2002 inter-UK working on 5MHz started allowing experimentation into Near Zenithal Radiation/Near Vertical Incidence Sky wave propagation [NZR/NVIS]. This experiment, using powers up to 23dBW [200W] will run until the end of July 2006.

The MoD is the primary user in the UK and it is envisaged that those who have received NoVs to their licence conditions will carry out experimentation with NZR/NVIS using different antenna and different modes.

Interestingly, Russell also asked for some assistance in locating a Morse station that regularly sends number groups around 5400kHz which may well be in parallel with 3609kHz, heard at 0830z. Between the characters there is a rise of noise that is reminiscent of a switch mode supply.

I was told that this signal is a pseudo MCW, sent on USB where the output of an Audio Oscillator is applied to a microphone. Presumably the audio input is up too high and swamps the input. The tone, I was told was circa 1500Hz. Speed is around 20wpm.

As a result, and in answer to a request via group ENIGMA 2000 was able to post the following reply [Tnx AnonUK]:

The station that has been heard around 5400kHz and which is feasibly paralleled on 3609kHz is more than likely M51 [as identified in the original ENIGMA Control List that ENIGMA 2000 now maintain]. M51 is believed to be of French origin - AnonUK, a respected Morse Monitor, stated that the transmissions come from just outside Paris. He has monitored M51 when able - it has no, as yet, known schedule; its signals sound very strange and it has been known to cease transmission on one frequency, hop to another and then commence at the group where it left off.

The Detailed Morse Station Profile List, kept by ENIGMA 2000 describes this station as: "M51 100 Letter group station. Can be on at any time on any frequency. We have yet to find the start of it so do not know the call. Sends messages of 100 x 5 letter groups, can be on air for up to 5 hours. A message sent one day for example NR 89 if sent the next day is a different message. Serial numbers run from 1 to 90 and then starts 1 again.

"Message header is Serial Number of message, First letter of the Month, Date,Time, which is always 1 hour ahead of UTC = NR 54 J 9 10:42:37 = Has been heard to end with 579 sent 60 times First logged 25/4/97." Until we receive a recorded sample we cannot be 100% sure.

Should anyone actually monitor this French based station please send any 'sightings' of this transmission via group or direct to G7VAK, via the usual methods, and please do try to check both 3609 and around 5400kHz to confirm that these are indeed parallel sendings. [Obviously since this has been penned the frequencies and/or time will have changed – but give it a go].

Thanks to Russell for the contact and the interesting insight into experimental amateur radio on 5MHz.

NOTE: Members who took an interest in the request to investigate the station that Russell pointed out – and was identified as M51 – in the absence of any gratitude, ENIGMA 2000 acknowledge your help.

PoSW also wrote in about Russell’s request and added:

“Many thanks for passing on Russell’s and others info on the 5MHz amateur N.o.V. - all most interesting!

I am intrigued by the description of the operators with military call-signs as "Cadet" stations; the word "Cadet" suggests a pimply youth at the microphone but judging by the tone of the voices all the military stations I have heard have been manned by operators of more advanced years, more Captain Mainwearing than Private Pike, more Major Bloodknock than Bluebottle! I did hear, a few months ago now, one of these military stations located in the West Midlands and using a "Racal" transceiver conducting an experiment in low power communication. He reduced his power to 250 milliwatts, i.e a quarter of a watt, the lowest power which would give a movement of the needle of his power output meter and he was still perfectly readable. Far less power than that consumed by the average bicycle lamp and he was still heard over a distance of 100 miles or so, now that was impressive!”

[Tnx PoSW]

Duncan Campbell, the investigative journalist once wrote of the ‘Cemetery Net’, which, as its name suggests, would herald the destruction of society as we know it, especially after a nuclear strike. In the words of the late Hughie Green, “Remember folks, it’s only for fun!”