ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter - Issue 24

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

Voice stations | Oddities | Polytones
German branch | Numbers predictions
The Smokey Dragon (1/4) | News Items | Web sites | Stop press | Contribution deadlines
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Voice stations

Following our UNID report Issue 23 page 4 we received the following from Hans-Friedrich Dumrese, he wrote via group,

“Once more: This isn't a Portuguese station, but the the Greek Olympia Radio. This isn't a number station, but a coastal station. The "numbers" aren't numbers or frequencies, but channel designators.”

H-FD is correct in what he states. In message 3180 Jochen Schaefer was the first to identify the station :

“the station is identified. I just heard it on 13170 in USB. This is a Greek coast station: "Olympia Radio". So the other language is not Portuguese, but Greek. The 4 digit numbers may be coordinates. So it's not a numbers station.”

In Message to Group 3189 H-FD wrote, of the already fully identified station:

“It's an ordinary maritime station with an English and Greek identification loop. The 4 digit numbers are channel designators like 1601 (1. channel on 16 MHz: ship 16360, shore: 17242). No beacon, no number station, no mysteries at all.”

The point of the short piece written concerning the UNID on 13170kHz was not to identify the station correctly but to make others aware that hearing numbers on the Short Wave does not necessarily indicate a Numbers Station. It also illustrated that PLondon’s cleaner has other skills – in fact another cleaner, also a Portuguese national, regularly speaks with PLondon in Arabic.

It would appear that author and ex-GCHQ employee Jock Kane was in fact right about unseen skills.

So thanks for letting us know again about Radio Olympia H-FD – but note the first line context, ‘An email from DK suggested a Portuguese UNID…..’ We left the answer to those who had followed the saga online or who cared to follow up identification with further listening or a visit to the mid-May messages on Group.

Number station observations from PoSW

Recent developments include continued high levels of activity from the S06 Russian Man. His German YL relative, G06, continues with the long - standing first Monday in the month and (usually) alternate Thursday and Friday schedules. Also the "Weekend", i.e Saturday and Sunday schedule seems to have settled down to appearing on the second and third weekends in the month on either 12,210 kHz at 2020z or 10,875 kHz when, for some reason which we can only guess at, the start-up time is five minutes later. Also the E06 English Man is somewhat more lively than some of us thought, but there still doesn't seem to be any activity on Saturday afternoons, UK time.

There has been a sudden drop in activity from the V02 Spanish speaking YL over the last couple of weeks; very few of the long-standing schedules have been showing up, for example, the Thursday 0500z and 0600z and Saturday 0600z and 0700 transmissions which always gave the best reception both in terms of signal strength and audio quality.

[Tnx PoSW]

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

Nil Reports.

E06

Before we move to the logs RNGB writes: At 1530z this afternoon (Weds 04/08) I was tuning for expected S06 in 12MHz and found it had changed to E06 and was on 12170 kHz

It was same transmitter as yesterdays S06, as it had a loud buzzing sound to it.

The ID was 158 DK 934 only 2 groups, 11111 and 00011 (quite bizarre)

This would have been the repeat, as the first would have been at 1430z on around 14MHz (but I wasn’t at home to find it). [Tnx RNGB]. RNGB also mentioned that he was experiencing some problems accessing Yahoo Groups – this is the same with PLondon but his is with the email which seems to be unavailable around H+35 daily.

Minimal reports for E06 for July, initially by IW rapidly followed by RNGB [Tnx chaps]!

For August we start with PoSW’s logs:

[Tnx PoSW]

Onto the logs:

Charts are in the S06 section, both reference E06 whilst one shows the station references in BLUE

Finally, Gert sent some other logs:

E06 logs July and August

Gert also intercepted these August transmissions:

[Tnx Gert]

E07

For July:

Via Gert, August Sun/Wed freqs:

AnonUK has tried to locate the Thursday 2050z frequency and writes

“The Thursday E07 at 2050 which has been very elusive, is, I am almost certain on 9930kHz. Right under Radio Sweden. There was a heterodyne there from 2050 for the same length of time as the 2030 E07 transmission. There was no trace of it anywhere else. The ID is 233. The first frequency 12225 uses the third figure as the frequency indicator, and the second, 11137 uses the fourth. This would tie in with the 2050 frequency of 9930, using the third figure of the four figure frequency, if you see what I mean. The other E07 and V07 still on same frequencies.”

However, AnonUK continued his search for the elusive Thursday frequency and on 19/08 was rewarded with:

For August:

Gert adds,

‘Another interesting find, not in the list:

Normally these are on Monday so perhaps the Tuesday transmissions are repeats?'

PoSW writes,

Sunday and Wednesday Schedule starting at 1700 UTC;-

Thursday Schedule Staring at 2010 UTC;-

[Tnx PoSW]

[E07a]

E10

Before we move on to the analysis by our E10 desk; KT in Kent saw that Bob’s list was deficient in ABC sendings. He took great pleasure in phoning E2k with the following:

E2k E10 desk run by Bob Meech in Dartford provides his chart and illustrates some of the movements, message structures and repetitions heard in Europe.

For July04:

E10 Comments

A sudden spate of 1hr transmissions from CIO2 and SYN2, was capped by a 3hr + from VLB2 on the 12/7, it commenced at 2045hrs and was still going at 0100 hrs on the 13/7 (Freq 5230) when I closed down

• 13/7 CIO2 commenced at 2245 on Freq 6912 and at 0015 (14/7) was joined by KPA2 on the same freq. KPA2 ended its call at 0020 and CIO2 was still transmitting at 0055hrs.
• 14/7 CIO2 & VLB2 have been transmitting for over 3hrs again this evening and at 2245hrs approx VLB2 changed to VLB22 on 5.230 It ending at 2336 hrs. At 0015hrs (15/7) CIO2 who was still transmitting was joined on freq by KPA2 same as 13/7 above. CIO2 continues to call.
• 15/7 at 0045hrs VLB with a G46 Message on 5230. Repeated at 0103hrs, at 0119hrs, at 0134hrs and then back to VLB2 at 0145hrs. 0200hrs CIO2 still transmitting its call.
• 15/7 2250hrs CIO2, VLB2 & SYN2 Plus MIW2 & KPA2 at 2320hrs all seem to be back to the standard times & procedures, though MIW2 & KPA2 were both on freq 5170 at the same time
• Looking back through my records over the last three years, it would appear that CIO2, VLB2, SYN2, KPA2 & MIW2 are the most active sending nothing but their c/s for the standard 5mins to anything over 3hrs or longer and should there be any special strings ie KPA34D55 indicating something big might be in the offering then according to my records its the same group of stations that feature here as well. I have no record of any others involved, though I feel this may not be the case. Perhaps someone could let me know.
• Other station callsigns like ART, EZI, FTJ, JSR, PCD, ULX, all seem to send group messages with the occasional null message at the arranged times with no extended call periods. (My Records) . The more rarer ABC, FDU & HNC etc appear out of the blue but do not seem to send a message but on occasion add a letter or number i.e. HNC-1 and FDU-M. As to what this may convey I'm not to sure.
• Though on the 14th of July there was this slight variation to what I had said :-
• 2245 14/7 VLB22 (ended 2336 hrs) * 2345 14/7 VLB2 * 0045 15/7 VLB G46 BJCDL
• 0103 15/7 repeated *0119 15/7 repeated * 0134 15/7 repeated * 0145 15/7 VLB2 * 2245 15/7 VLB2.
• 19/7 from 2355hrs to 2359hrs I caught the last five mins of HNC-S then at 0002hrs 20/7 it gave two calls only and then started again at 0010hrs (See log on Freq 6575)

Bold lettering denotes repeated message Frequency in ( ) Denotes slight variation in transmitted frequency used on some occcasons. All timings are GMT

©BMDartford E10 Desk July, 2004

Now onto Aug 04, from our E10 Desk:

E10 Comments

• I do hope that someone heard this besides me ?. MPA2 on 4360, 5170 & 6912 at 2215hrs 7th Aug. and again at 2315hrs 0n 6912 & 5170. KPA2 was on 4360 this time
  This may have been a slip up at the station end, unfortunately I was unable to record it.

• 8/8 Both CIO" & SYN2 are in extended call mode, well over an hour at 2323hrs and still going strong

• 9/8 CIO2 & SYN2 were still calling at 2115hrs and eventually ended 2150hrs.

• 10/8 Picked up the following on 4360 & 5170 at 2156hrs KPAK93Z33E28Z12Z1645 and is still transmitting at 0030hrs 11/8

• An email from Ary Boender who also heard this on 6912 & 6370 at 1850hrs UTC on the 10th.

©BMDartford, E10 Desk [Tnx Bob – lovely jubbly!]

E11

Ell schedule. Note all times zulu, freqs in kHz. [note Friday 1200/1230z updates shown as stop press in Issue 23, page 10]

[Tnx to AnonUK for info rx’d inc].

E11b

Note: message make up 28/04 started with stutter grps 77777 77777 rptd 2; then 5F grps x 32; 77777 77777 rptd 2 ‘attention’ 77777 rptd 2; 5f grps x 32; 77777 rptd 2 ‘Out’! Message time 10mins 58secs. [Tnx JoA]

E15

We print the known schedule [as issue 22]:

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.

For July we open AF’s log:

AnonUK reported at the close of July that he had only heard the week 4 transmission. He also stated that *Week two was never E23, being instead M04 which has not been heard for years.

Gert heard:

The interception of this third week sending and AnonUK’s finding of the week 4 sending reinforce AnonUK’s theory that only the week 3 & 4 sendings remain and that E23 is only heard Monday; seemingly on weeks 3 and 4, on Mondays, only. [Tnx AnonUK], however AF reported a Monday sending:

E25

Following our release of Manolis' interception as a STOP PRESS and seen on Page 11 of Issue 23. Crete appears to be an ideal location for the interception of this station [although there maybe better antennae on Cyprus].

Manolis in Crete again copies E25:

and writes,

"A new message today from E25. Again the 3rd and last group are the same, even if it was difficult to copy today due to (local) QRM and fading. So I am not sure about some of the digits.

• 9450 kHz AM E25 13/07
  1247 UTC Music intro.
  1250 UTC Arab OM calls "222"
  1254 UTC "Message" x3
  
  3?3?44 8?141 8580 8?4?96 801?6 576(4 or 1) 78?44 5067 4387 8?4?48
  6438 8349 0140 8580
  
  1256 UTC "Repeat" x3
  
  1257 UTC "End of message, end of transmission."

I took a quick look in my logbook and I found 2 other messages with the same 1st-last group."

[Excellent Manolis, Tnx]

[Re. Yr remarks on a tidy log book – you can see mine in a scan in July Short Wave Mag].

And later in the month of July:

• 9450 kHz AM [27/07]
  1243UTC Carrier
  1244UTC Music intro.
  1246UTC Music stops, arab OM starts calling "222" several times.
  1247UTC "Message" x3
  
  9150 3141 9010 3541 9801
  9121 5273 7257 9037 8208
  8398 9273 9170 9010
  
  1248UTC "Repeat" x3
  
  1250UTC "End of message, end of transmission".

Again the 3rd and last group are the same. Also, there is no "6".

This message was repeated on 28/07 at 1243z and heard by Manolis who also sent:

• 9450 kHz AM [29/07]
  1058UTC Carrier, then the familiar music.
  1102UTC Arab OM calling "555" many times.
  1105UTC "Message" x3
  
  1519 9111 8210 1763 2838
  3079 6637 8294 7356 8589
  8210
  
  1107UTC "Repeat" x3
  
  1109UTC "End of message, end of transmission."

No other transmission today.

Manolis stated that the station appears not to have a strict schedule:

Two msgs from E25 on 30/07. The second was a repeat of Tue 27 & Wed 28 1245UTC message.

• 9450 kHz AM 30/07
  1146UTC Arab OM calls "730" many times.
  1149UTC "Message" x3
  5495 9501 2310 4455 0101
  6656 8860 6207 4287 6057
  
  (The 3rd and the last group now not the same.)
  
  1150UTC "Repeat" x3
  1150UTC "End of message, end of transmission" in a hurry! There was a background noise while the mic was open.

• 9450 kHz AM 30/07
  1243UTC Carrier.
  1245UTC Music.
  1248UTC Arab OM calls "222"
  1250UTC "Message" x3
  
  The same as 27/07 & 28/07
  
  1253UTC "End of message, end of transmission". Carrier still stays there.
  1255UTC Carrier down.

[Tnx Manolis]

G06

We open with PoSW’s comment and logs:

First Monday in the month 1900z + 2000z, alternate - usually - Thursday 1830z and following Friday 1930z schedules continue; and the "Weekend", i.e. Saturday and Sunday 2020z - or 2025z - schedule is still around but does not show up every week. AnonUK also advises us that, "The Saturday/Sunday 2020 is only on the second and third weekend each month."

First Monday in the Month Schedule;-

Thursday 1830 UTC Schedule;-

Friday 1930 UTC Schedule;-

“Weekend", i.e. Saturday and Sunday Schedule;-

[Tnx PoSW].

Moving onto the other logs:

A suggestion was made by both AnonUK and Gert that weekend transmissions may occur. As a result like both AnonUK and Gert, PLondon also listened, but to no avail.

AnonUK later posted an historical and interesting piece:

“Regarding the G06 I reported to you at the weekend, looking back through all the NLs, I have found some other G06 logs which may be the same.

I have also looked in the old Enigma, but information in them is very sparse and not much use.

These are the ones I found:

Sunday marked, others on Saturday. So it does not seem to have any frequency pattern, except keeping the same frequency for several months, just worth a look round each Saturday and Sunday.”

[Tnx AnonUK]

G22

Slavic Stations

Once again DoK offers his definitive chart with updates:

Chart 14
M10, S10d and S17c Listings as at 31^st August 2004 [Includes M10e]
Compiled by Slavic Desk

• All frequencies stated ± 2kHz
• Times prefixed ‘S’ designate S10d

Chart 14 supersedes and replaces Chart 13. Although only slight changes, the finding of the 1855z schedules by AnonUK and the Thursday sending of M10e are reflected within this chart.

Readers who follow this chart will know that I attempt to be as accurate as possible although I allow some tolerance, hence ± 2kHz. With this in mind it will be noticed that from time to time, lists of freqs appear in the newsletter. These should be checked against the current chart. Some of these frequencies are what can be termed archival and are not currently used, as well as being outside my ± 2kHz tolerance, checked against three digital and two calibrated analogue receivers.

A major change is expected from 1^st September 2004, in keeping with that of 2003. [ Newsletter 19 Page 17].

Several alternate week schedules have been active week ending 28/08 and may be informing of the expected forthcoming changes.

Early indications are that Chart 7, as amended, illustrates the schedules in operation from 01/09. However it should be borne in mind that a number of current schedules do not appear on that chart. We hope to post an amended chart to group by the end of the month.

*From 1^st September: Freqs 5301//8190kHz

[Tnx DoK]

©ENIGMA 2000 28^th August 2004

S06

A chart, compiled by Gert and utilising results and tabulations offered by AnonUK and RNGB illustrates S06 yearly useage.

[Thanks to all involved]

Gert reminds us to Note that the Monday 08.00/08.10 schedule has moved to Tuesday. Another interesting note is S06 Wednesday 21.00, which changed to E06.

S06 Regular skeds.

©Gert 24^th August 2004

Now onto the logs:

After lots of message activity it appears that S06 may be returning to some Null schedules [TnxAnonUK].

We start with RNGB’s July S06 log, suggesting the change to null message format.

[TnxRNGB]

Followed by AnonUK, Gert and HFD’s July logs:

August logs:

S06 Schedules from AnonUK

AnonUK credits Gert and HFD for their input

E06 in BLUE

©AnonUK August 2004

S06c

NIL REPORT

S10d

RNGB’s logs prove DoK’s chart works:

As do HFD’s

PoSW writes in depth on S10d,

S10d schedules, at least those to which I am able to listen, have remained unchanged throughout June, July and August although if the pattern of activity noted last year is followed there will be a move to (mostly) lower frequencies in September. So nothing much new to report, current schedules listed below with a few observations;-

[Tnx PoSW]

S11a Cherta

S17C

From 1^st September: Freqs 5301//8190kHz

Majority from AF, rest HFD for the 5 number group heard on 6758kHz at 1250z to 1257z

[last confirmed by DoK]

Conditions for S17c have been reported as difficult – mainly weak with TTY interference. The tty is particularly bad in Great Britain as it is thought to originate from our shores.

S21

Spanish Number stations

Before we move onto the logs proper, PoSW writes

'The V02 Spanish YL remains much as usual during July; one new transmission was noted on Sundays at 0700z, 0700z on 8132kHz. This was a short format variant starting with a single 5F, or rather 3+2 because there was a distinct pause between the 3^rd and 4^th figures. There used to be several transmissions of this type on Sunday mornings UK time but this was the first I had logged for many months.'

PoSW’s 31^st July log, leading into August V02a log. [Bear in mind Peter’s earlier words concerning the apparent loss of sendings from our Cuban Senorita, then read Ary’s in ‘Hurricane effect?]:

Hurricane effect?

However in Group message number 3643 Ary made reference to information received by him that Hurricane Charley may have downed some of Cuba’s equipment and caused a noticeable reduction in transmissions. American monitors confirmed that reduction but DoK heard a weak but readable V02a transmission prior to the 0600z sending on 9236kHz.. DoK did not have time to effect a bearing due to his system being pre-booked for XP, AnonUK agreed with the general view concerning the reduction in monitored transmissions.

V02

V02a

V07

Gert confirmed the August V07, “I would also like to confirm the V07 freqs, which are the same as last month: Tue/Thu 0600 /06 20z on 13837 & 14937kHz The third freq not heard yet.” [Tnx Gert].

In his weekly report, dated 21/08, to E2k AnonUK remarked that with all these null messages from V07 their agents cannot be busy! [Probably on a sabbatical somewhere]!

From AF:

Voice stations | Oddities | Polytones
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The Smokey Dragon (1/4) | News Items | Web sites | Stop press | Contribution deadlines
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