ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter - Issue 27

March 2005
Articles, newsreports and Items of interest :enigma2000-owner@yahoogroups.com

Morse stations | Voice stations | Oddities | Polytones
Chirpsounders | Overall view | German branch | Numbers predictions
Jamming | Recycled AGI
Poor conditions | The Smokey Dragon (4/4)
News Items | Web sites | Stop press | Contribution deadlines
Index | E2K NL Home

Voice stations

Now onto the logs:

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.

Whilst on the subject of E03/E03a, HJH wrote a splendid reminder as to why some of us are as we are [Message 4286 - Group]:

"There is another reason which you may wish to consider. All you say is true, regarding the almost total security of the enciphering system, which we are considering. Equally true is that we are by no means certain about the identity and national origins of many. About E03 we can be fairly sure, and for some others.

I know for a fact that one of our editors/moderators, along with some others, myself included, have seen service with the Armed forces of UK. That alone stops us from wishing to discuss these stations. It's a case of old soldiers never die, they always smell like that!"

remember the ‘squaddie wash?’ A can of deodorant applied to all the offensive parts: ‘You smell like a tart’s k******s! And your soap’s filthy - how did that happen you dirty specimen? That was an invention of my Sgt Brett, he claims].

E06

PoSW offers some insight into this stations transmissions:

Onto others logs:

RNGB's E06 log illustrates some January and Februray activity:

Other February logs show more activity:

E07

Schedules known to be operating are the usual Monday + Wednesday starting at 2100z and Thursday starting at 2110z which use the same frequencies as in the same month in previous years, see Gert's prediction lists. Also, the Sunday + Wednesday schedule starting at 1800z which does not follow this routine. The low mod. problem making for difficult copy despite a strong carrier is still noted quite frequently. Has anyone logged the Wednesday + Friday starting at 0610z recently? I have listened for the second sending after 0630z on a few occasions but failed to find it, although a two -minute "000" is easily missed if one is a bit late up in the morning!

[Tnx PoSW]

Now onto logs of this station, supporting Peter’s analysis:

E07 in time order heard Monday [January 2005]:

Other logs:

Of the 10^th intercepts MoK remarks, "Has anyone remarked on the voice ?. This was a deep voiced YL, or somewhat effeminate OM !!. Quite good mod, for a change."

Noting that propagation has been very bad this month for E07 RNGB offers:

The Monday night February schedule was [in time order]:

and RNGB offer for February:

E offers a Sunday sending:

E10

From Bob our E10 operative we present:

Jan 05

Jan 05

Comments

• Ref SYN66. I was listening to SYN2 on 6930 & 4015 at 2245hrs on the 2 Jan and the call was still ongoing at 0025hrs on the 3 Jan when I packed up listening.However at 1945hrs later that evening SYN2 was on the air as expected and again extended its call to 2050hrs where it stopped or faded into the high noise background. It is possible that SYN2 had infact transmitted for over a 24hr period. and from previous experience when this happens there is a change of call at some stage ie your SYN66. Should this indicate some activity to happen in an area one can only guess. Many thanks Tom H

• In the main signal strengths have been weak, against a background of noise/static for the majority of letter/number stations being received at my location here in Kent. Except at 2245 hrs for SYN2 on frequency 6930 which is very clear and almost noise free infact booming through, compared to its sister frequency 4015 which is broadcating at that same time and is struggling to be heard. Infact SYN2 & VLB2 have been the strongest and clearest signals sofar this month at the times recorded. Conditions have made picking up KPA2 non-existant and only twice for MIW in all a pretty dismal record

• SYN has spoken. Yes indeed, this was heard and reported by Tom USA on the 22 Jan 05 at 0045hrs on the freq of 6930, a group 27 message. One of those rare occurances which has not come my way. The last time I heard SYN was on the 10th of Sept 02 but with no group message (Thanks to Tom USA)

• 25 Jan 05.
  SYN541B on freq 6930 at 1520hrs. Followed by VLB52A on 6370 at 1620hrs. (After 40 mins this changed to VLB2)

• After about 3hrs SYN541B changed to SYN75 and 1hr later to SYN2.
  At 2225hrs SYN2 & VLB2 changed their calls to SYN7 & VLB7. A Further change from VLB7 to VLB542X118X0115Z7 at apprx 2310hrs. and then back to VLB2 & SYN2 at 2336hrs SYN2 then again changed its call to SYN5425 at 0024hrs on the 26/1. Once again both changed to SYN59 & VLB59 at 0201hrs and ending transmission at 0310hrs on the 26/1 .....I hope you all can follow that if not try the log above.......And now to bed.

• 26 Jan to 31 Jan 05
  All calls now would appear to have reverted back to the standard transmissions SYN2 & VLB2 and both stations are booming through during the late evening, CIO2 is there but very weak and KPA2 & MIW2 are very spadmodic infact I have only heard KPA2 once this month

Feb 05

Feb 05

Comments

• It seemed appropriate that a special occassion was taking place (No not Charles & Camilla) but in the Middle East that VLB, SYN & CIO all should put in together a group 21 message a truely rare occassion for one to do never mind all three, then spend the next three hours repeating it. If you look at the January log you will note there was a fair amount of activity concerning the same three that month.

• SYN2Z58 & SYN2-Z55 were calls heard in the USA & Australia in the early hours, the signal strengths were fair so at this moment SYN is heard to be very active world wide. Many thanks to, Mike L, Simon Denneen, Tom H & Jared Ashburn

• 16 Feb 0535hrs.
  an early morning rise proved lucky with VLB2-Z58 and SYN2 booming through on their respective freq's.there seemed a to be a slight pause between the 2 and zulu. At approx 0600hrs the signal suddenly began to fade and a teleprinter type noise kept breaking in swamping the signal on VLB2-Z58 but both stations were still on air at 0653hrs but fading into the background noise.

• 21/02/05
  One of the lesser heard callsigns FDU2 on freq 6210 just about readable severe noise

• 23/02/05
  Looking at the log above you will notice that at 1945hrs SYN2 and/or VLB2 go into a extended call of 1hr or more

• and have done so for a number of days this month

©BMLongfield E10 Desk26Feb05

[Thanks Bob, excellent stuff!]

E11

At the time of writing the E11 schedule was:

Freqs change in March, see later:

In March the Ell schedule changes [Tnx AnonUK]:

E11b

No reports

E15

E15 following logs recently submitted for this elusive station, from a small group who regularly check on its activity, we republish the Phonetic Alphabet it uses as an aid to successful monitoring. Over the years minor phonetic variations have been heard and these are shown in ( ). The TX is in heavily accented English with a poor signal and often heard “live”, with the attendant problems.

The known original schedule was last printed in Issue 26, and is still believed to be substantially correct, although “early/late starts” recently logged. (Are these to avoid the b/c stations close to almost all its listed freqs ?, Ed)

As many of our regular monitors, and certainly most of our Newsletter readers, will be strangers to this most peculiar station your editors take this timely opportunity to bring you “up to speed” with our current information.

Owing to the great difficulty in receiving and understanding this station only a few dedicated monitors have attempted to keep track of it in recent years, as a continuation of some extensive monitoring they carried out in the late 90’s when there was a period of quite good reception in UK / Northern Europe.

It has been thought ever since this station was first discovered that its target area is small and relatively “local” to the TX site and it uses low power and directional antenna, hence the reception problems.

Nothing from the recent monitoring reports leads us to change this view.

Only a male voice is now being heard whereas originally it used OM & YL, sometimes in the same TX, and it uses a combination of some useful Morse Procedure Codes (NR, AR, GR) – but gives them in phonetics, and with somewhat unconventional usage.

The general formats have remained unchanged, (but variations now being noticed in the 3let ID’s which are differing from those given in Issue 26, Ed ) :-
QTC = mssg follows, QRU = no mssgs.

• With mssg.
  3 let ID/tuning sig for 5 mins ( more or less as shown in the Issue26 sked)
  Preamble :- QTC X 3, NR (as Nancy Robert ), num x 3, GC (as George Robert) num x 3, which is given in reverse ie 52 = 25 gps. (some recent, 2005, intercepts have not conformed to this)
  Mssg body.
  Ending “Robert Adam” x 2 (AR reversed)

• Null Mssg.
  3 let ID/tuning sig for 5 mins
  QRU for 5 mins.
  (Recently, 2005, some TX’s noted with variations to above times)

• Unknown
  3 let ID given x 5 only , then gone. Very short TX and easily missed.
  (not sufficient logs of this format for us to yet form an opinion, Ed)

Flash News, while this issue was being finalised for publication MoK had a very remarkable intercept on Feb 24^th, 11.00z, 18000kHz with a null messg of DEC QRU which was REPEATED 3 mins later.

MoK is one of the few who has consistently monitored the E15 known freqs for over 10 years and has never heard , or seen reported, a repeat null TX.

Another oddity was that the two TX’s had different timings of 4/3 and 3/2 mins for DEC & QRU.

One E15 intercept starts the E15 section:

We print the known schedule [as issue 22]:

ML then sent in a later observation on this station. It makes excellent reading indeed:

I also noticed a very strange one, pretuned to 14000KHz ready for possible E15 14.00z sked when at 13.40z an intermittent carrier came up with various noises and squeeks, at 13.47z a good strong sig (S7-9) :-

"YL, E10 type accent, called - End of Message, Message Message Repeat Repeat" a few more squeeks and sound of mike being dropped, then gone.

At 14.11z carrier back, but only for seconds at a time, not a Ham tuning up, with same background noises.

Station closed 14.16z with nothing further heard.

ML continued with his monitoring:

Due to Contest no E15 intercept possible through CW at 1400z

Are there any readers who care to try their hand at receiving this station? If so please send your results to E2k.

E17z

E23

Best frequency is usually 8188kHz. 3 weekly cycle starting on the first Monday of the Month. [See E23 entry in NL24].

Transmits Monday Wednesday and Thursday:

*Week 2 Used to be M04 but has not been heard for several years, so therefore no transmission on week 2. Recently heard on 2^nd Week by AnonUK.

MoK wrote in with a surprise E23 log:

[Tnx MoK]

Mike was not sure of the station ident and after a query, via Group, the first hint came from PLondon and was confirmed by AnonUK.

Asking for further information on E23 Mike received some input from TomH in America and a complex answer from Jochen in Europe.

"That is the former Swedish Rhapsody E23! Minus the ice-creme truck music and the European accent... uses the now defunct E05 Cynthia "American" accent," wrote TomH in Msg 4356. Jochen, our erstwhile 'kopf' of the German Branch of E2k wrote further information in Msg4357, "E23 uses the same frequencies as they was earlier used by G02, the "Swedish Rhapsody", which you might know from your first E2k time. It was played by a music box (we Germans call it a "Spieluhr"). This one is off air since 1997. Almost a year later, E23 appeared, by the way from the same location as G02 - somewhere in Poland which is very strange, but interesting. The used voice is the one from Cynthia, which we also know from E05, but this time Cynthia's voice is used by the British secret service, not by the CIA."

[Excellent stuff Jochen – tnx]. Jochen suggested a visit to Simon Mason's excellent site for further information <www.simonmason.karoo.net/page30.html>. A link exists in the 'Links' section of Group.

Regarding E23 transmissions AnonUK writes,

"Not sure what E23 is doing with regard to its skeds, seems to be not keeping to them. This week, which should be week 1 [although February is a difficult month] and if this was week 1 there would be no week 4.

Anyway, it was heard on Monday 7th February at 0955z on 8188 which is the sked for week 4, I did not intercept it for the rest of the week at any time."

[Tnx AnonUK]

E25

The ENIGMA Control List describes E25 as:

OM AM/USB,Arabic music intro (sometimes), 3f-2f call, 4f mssg daily 12.40/13.40, currently on 9450kHz, Apl 04, freq/time can vary slightly. 3f-2f call R5 = null mssg, can end with short databurst. Poor reception in Northern Europe, BC QRM. Noted with musical ending April 04

AnonUK reported

also heard by X who wrote in with:

• Tue 4 jan 2005 12.30 UTC, 9450kHz E25 with this message:

555 (for 5 min)
message (3x)
6092 7211 2110 8221
3936 1658 1818 0271
8521 7527 2110
eom / eot

Poor reception, mostly due to another bc station right on this freq. [Tnx X]

• Wednesday 5th January 2005: 12.30 UTC, 9450 kHz, music intro lasting 5 minutes.

No message (x3)
Than calling 557 7 for 5 minutes, ending without eom/eot.

Another observation came from Mike of Kent:

Spectrogram of “222” 1348z 11/01

©ENIGMA200011/01/2005

In addition to MoK's report 'X' [in the Benelux countries] writes:

Heard E25 again today, tue 11 jan 2005.

Heard it twice. The first one was very difficult due to the strong BC station on the same frequency. Not sure if I got all the numbers. The second one was crystal clear, signal strength S9.

The first one:

Starting 12.40 UTC, 9450 kHz.
No music
Calling 720 for 5 minutes
Message (x3)
90x8601x x2409xxx 8xxx
2198 6874 176729343xx0
eom / eot

The second one, one hour later at 13.40 UTC, 9450 kHz,

Music lasting 5 minutes
222 calling for 5 minutes
Message (x3)
2133 6190 5670 6244 4472
9227 8595 2237 5670
Repeat (x3)
--- rpt of message ---
end of message / end of transmission

E25 made more appearances on 17/01. DoK had already reported to E2k that an HF lift was on, no doubt as a result of the solar influences prior to the massive CME which was scheduled for 17/18 Jan.

MoK wrote,

Interestingly this was followed by a log by X in the Benelux regions:

Heard E25 today, mon 17 jan 2005.
Starting at 1327 UTC.
Calling 906 for 5 minutes.
Message (x3)
1480 4429 7333 5515
8970 6593 4421 6355
Eom / eot

X it appeared had better reception than MoK. He followed on with the next days E25 intercept which reads:

I heard the repeat of 17/01 on 18/01:
Todays repeated message:
(No music)
906 repeated for 5 minutes
message (x3)
1480 4429 7333 5515
8970 6593 4421 6355
repeat (x3)
--- rpt of message ---
end of message / end of transmission

The carrier did not go off and after a minute (at 13.34) the music started:
Arabic music, lasting till 13.45 UTC
Calling 222 for 5 minutes
message (x3)
5533 7120 3330 8241
0411 9286 8378 3330
repeat (x3)
--- rpt of msg ---
end of message / end of transmission.

X was not the only monitor to receive the second message and MoK also heard it. There was an HF lift on, no doubt coupled with the solar activity before the threatened CME

X appears to be in a particularly decent area for E25 as he sends in:

E25, 9450 kHz, 1342z fri 4 feb 2005.
Starting with the familiar eastern music, lasting for about 5 minutes.
Then, straight into the 'format 2' control message, calling "227 3" for 5 minutes.
No "message" X3 or "end of message, end of transmission".

The next time we heard from X it appeared that things were beginning to change in Arab Man’s procedure…………………….

X initially wrote,

“I heard E25 last Tuesday 8th Feb. It was a very busy day for him with two messages and a long time of music. I could not send this log earlier to you because I had to get a book from the library. Read on and it all becomes clear (or not...).”

Then follows ‘X’ intercept detail, and this is really good stuff: 

“Heard E25 again, Tuesday 8th february 2005.

Missed the start at 1155 UTC but heard the last part of the message at 1203 UTC:

7306  7088  9057  3910  0495
End of message / end of transmission.

Carrier stayed on air and after a minute Arabic music was played. Not the Arabic music that I hear normally with this station. Several different songs where played lasting till 1219 UTC.

Then, in English, the ID was called for 5 minutes:

835 835 835.

That is interesting because that is a new ID, not heard before, followed by

"message message message"

Then, at 1224 UTC the message was sent but not the usual English language offering; This time it was in Arabic

I got a book - Arabic for beginners - from the library and found this message after two days of struggling.

When two numbers are underlined it means it is not spoken as two different numbers but (for example, in English) spoken as "fourteen". That makes it a lot more difficult, but a challenge indeed.

The message read:

Then straight into a format 2 control message calling "830 6" for 2 minutes[and in English language].

At 12.26  "end of message"

Finishing with 5 minutes of the usual Arabic music normally heard with E25. Some years ago the same happened with E09 / V08.”

Tnx X, that’s really brilliant!

The V08 transmission used Arab numbers in the singular.

The first group sent by E25 as described by X would sound as: Khamsta shar tissa tamanya – being 15, 9, 8

The V08 transmission used Arab numbers in the singular, the same group would be heard as : wahid khamsa tissa tamanya – being 1,5,9,8.

PLondon heard V08 as a recording a few years ago and had remarked that he was surprised to be able to comprehend the Arabic numbers as easily as he did having learnt the numerals a long time before and with no usage since. [He admitted finding the numbers compounded by tens impossible to remember with the exception of 15 and was unable to work the system out from that. Having sought assistance PLondon turned to a book and has made the relevant page available – with credits].

The sin