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July 2004
Articles, newsreports and Items of interest :enigma2000-owner@yahoogroups.com
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E sent in an interesting oddity which he describes as, “Two-tone electronic dripping noise.” He also asks if anyone has any ideas.
Originally heard on
| 20512kHz | 0353z | 06/06. |
Also appeared on 20436/20464kHz.
7512kHz is worthy of some attention too. To hear an apparent Time Signal – thanks E. In his travels around the spectrum E also heard a continuous tone between 1900 to 2211 and still up when he closed down: 10281kHz 15/06.
E also mentions a train of rapid dashes being sent to be immediately followed by dots – no message sent on:
| 5620kHz | 1827z | 23/05. |
From reports received XM has again come to the fore after a rather uneventful period. Suggestions have once again been suggested as to its origins.
| 5689kHz | 1905z | 12/05 | E |
| 7632kHz | 1755z | 24/05 | RNGB |
| 10372kHz | 1434z | 13/05 | strong sigs Manolis Crete |
| 0713Z | 25/05 | with 10512 – not in phase RNGB | |
| 10512kHz | 1434z | 13/05 | strong sigs Manolis Crete |
| 2028z | 13/05 | very distorted Gert Holand | |
| 0930z | 16/05 | with 11363 – not in phase RNGB | |
| 0345z | 18/05 | ZWUS 9/20dBs | |
| 1618z | 22/05 | E | |
| 0713Z | 25/05 | with 10372 – not in phase RNGB | |
| 2054z | 26/05 | S4/8 HJH | |
| 1812z | 29/05 | E | |
| 11363kHz | 2028z | 13/05 | Gert |
| 0930z | 16/05 | with 10512 not in phase RNGB |
Following an enquiry from Zack, Ary offered
“Sigonella has been transmitting these signals during the past few years, so it may be them again. It seems to be a faulty landline/HF connection or something like that.”
But read on:
Concerning HJH's monitoring of XM from South Wales GB Zack Widup US offered,
"I don't have a 30 meter beam but I asked several other hams who do if they could get a bearing on the "Whales" station. One person in Denmark had it almost directly south of him and three radio amateurs scattered around the USA all had it from the northeast." Zack suggested that, "It's a good bet the transmissions are originating from Sigonella." In answer to that Tom Norris US offers,"There is a fellow in the middle of Warsaw that says he can get it nearly S5 with the coax disconnected from his radio...."
whilst Jochen also mentioned he had the wailing Whale at his Marburg QTH at good strength too. PLondon was able to monitor it at good strength on his knackered Eddystone EC10!
For those of us who are not American [!] the following info appeared on the website <http://www.military.com/HomePage/UnitPageFullText/1,13476,702235,00.html>:
"Tactical Support Center Sigonella operates as CTU 67.1.2 (National) and CTG 431.3 (NATO) supporting Maritime Patrol Aviation (MPA) throughout the European Southern Region. The TSC's mission is to provide optimum Command, Control, Communication, Computer and Intelligence (C4I) services to U.S. and Allied forces in support of national theater objectives. During CY95-98, the TSC provided Brief/Debrief, Communication, and Safety of Flight following support for Operations SHARP GUARD, DENY FLIGHT, DECISIVE EDGE, DECISIVE ENHANCEMENT, SUPPORT HOPE, JOINT ENDEAVOR and many others. TSC Sigonella was awarded its fourth consecutive CINCUSNAVEUR Golden Anchor for excellence in retention and personnel programs. The TSC was awarded a NUC for the period of June 1993 to May 1995. All personnel attached CY95-98 were also awarded the NATO Medal."
Quite why the XM signal is allowed to continue is unknown. That it apparently comes from a Maritime station is very interesting. PLondon is aware of producing holographic representation using FFT [Fast Fourier Transform] techniques. It has been suggested in the past that mapping of sea beds and reproduction of an immediate 'map' system against which any clutter detected is compared may well have military uses. This signal might have something to do with that [?] Might not as well! There is still the matter of Chaos as an encryption medium though. ENIGMA 2000 was treated to a demonstration of this technique in 'The Rubbing House Pub' Epsom in the full view of two persons who took a very morbid interest in our activities.
The six megs portion comes to the fore once again, "6370kHz has been churning out a carrier wave from when I switched on at 1820z tonight until now [1904z]" RodUK
| 6370kHz | 1820z | 06/05 | RodUK |
Still within the 6MHz region E offers6752.5 and 6818kHz. He also noted XWP in 6818. In addition to the 6MHz carriers E also offers: 5177 and 7880.4kHz .[Tnx E]
Nil Reports
Not had a mention for a few issues, but still obviously about.
| 10456kHz | 0245z | 16/05 | S5 to 6 South London - PLondon |
These can be heard with some regularity on: 5320, 5600, 6420, 6880, 7040, 7050, 7070, 8320, 8340, 8515, 9360, 10280, 10470 and 13410, 16176kHz.
PoSW was able to comment of X06 activity this time around; like our regulars he too noticed the apparent decline in its activity.
| 24-Apr-04 | Saturday | 1731 UTC | 11,411 KHz | X06 at signal strength S8, vanished just after 1734z, nothing further heard. |
| 18-June-04 | Friday | I was beginning to think that X06 had gone; I did not find a single transmission during May but this evening there was something of a frenzy of "Mazeilka" activity. | ||
| 2007 UTC | 11,093 KHz | signal strength S9 with deep QSB, tones stopped just after 2012z, carrier went off a few seconds afterwards, nothing further heard. There had also been a strong X06 operating a few minutes earlier, a bit after 2000z; suddenly realising that this was the third Friday in the month I tuned the receiver to the expected 2000z M14 MCW which was on 9,055 KHz and on the way down I came across an S9 X06 just above the M14's frequency but when I tuned back up after logging the M14 it had gone. | ||
| 2016 UTC | 10,205 KHz | X06 again, went off complete with carrier a few seconds after being tuned in. | ||
| 2019 UTC | 9,080 KHz | stopped and went off 2020z, nothing further heard. | ||
| 2023 UTC | 9,197 KHz | a very strong, S9+ signal, tones stopped about a minute after being tuned in, carrier went off a few seconds later. | ||
| 2107 UTC | 9,174 KHz | X06 really busy this evening, but nothing found from 2023z to 2107z, strong signal, tones stopped after 2108z, carrier stayed on - unusually - for a further two minutes or so. | ||
“If this is some kind of alert system I reckon at least half a dozen agents got the wake up call this evening!”
[Thanks PoSW]
We received an anonymous report from somewhere north of Italy:
| 9197kHz | 2013z | 15/05 | as much stronger than GB. |
Whilst RNGB offers:
| 12224kHz | 1250z | 30/06 |
| 17463kHz | 1255z | 30/06 |
| 18321kHz | 0630z | 24/06 |
It buzzes away on 4625kHz.
Continues to dominate 3757kHz in the 80M band.
Also heard by E:
| 5403.9kHz | 2221z | 10/05 |
XSL is heard on 4152.5, 4231, 4290.5, 6249.5, 6416.5, 6444.5, 8312.5, 8587.5 and 8703.5kHz. USB mode
Still being heard in US, Oceania and like areas. E2k would like to receive details of any observations made in Great Britain, Eire and Europe please.
XSL general transmission times [freqs of 8588.0//8703.5]
| Sun | 1500z | 1600z | 1900z |
| Mon | 0900z | 1700z | 2215z |
| Tue | 1510z | 1530z | 1600z |
| Wed | 1400z | 1500z | 1545z |
| Thu | 1600z | ||
| Fri | 1450z | 1600z | 2140z |
| Sat | 1400z | 1600z | 1700z |
The text via <http://www.geocities.com/hfasia/files/Japanese-PSK.html> describes the Slot Machine as Japanese PSK with a Vertical bandwidth of 3kHz. It states frequencies in use as:
4152.5, 4231, 4290.5, 6249.5, 6416.5, 6444.5, 8312.5, 8587.5, 8703.5kHz
Looking backE2k did not mention AF’s March and April finds:
| 07/03 | 1600z: | 8313.5 and 8588kHz |
| 08/03 | 2125z | 6417, 6445, 8313.5, 8588.5, 8703kHz |
| 21/04 | 2020z | 8313 and 8588kHz |
Followed by Zack’s listing via Spooks
| 6250kHz | 1100z | 14/05 |
| 6417kHz | 1100z | 14/05 |
| 8313kHz | 1100z | 14/05 |
| 8588kHz | 1100z | 14/05 |
| 8588kHz | 1130z | 18/05 |
| 8703.5kHz | 1100z | 14/05 |
| 3829kHz | 2100z | 01/04 | AF |
This particular sound can be heard doing its stuff around the 6 and 8MHz bands. Note that the signal changes frequency every 20 mins and takes the odd break too. Believed to be Coastal Radar, samples exist in our sound samples file in group.
Reported by E
| 9240kHz | 1707z | 29/05 | and also on 20436 and 20464kHz |
Can be heard on the usual frequencies of 4710, 6702, 9000kHz, 11122kHz [daytimes] and 15020kHz [evenings].
More Info on 'oddities' can be found on Brian of Sussex excellent web pages:
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/brogers/page2.html
Frequency information and trends can be downloaded from:
http://www.cvni.net/radio/
Thanks to AB, AF, Anon UK, AnonNI, Anon Scandinavia, AR, BMDartford, CD, D of Kent, 'E', GallusGallus, Gert of Holland, HFD, IB, IW, J of Aylesbury , JM, JMM, K of Kent, LP, LW Ben Mesander, Mike of Kent, Mark Slaten, MLF, PLondon, Peter of Saffron Walden, RNGB, selco, US', Spy Numbers Robot, and all others for their contributions to the Morse, Voice and Oddities columns. As ever we acknowledge information from the Spooks site.E
Morse stations | Voice stations | Oddities | Polytones
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