WUN newsletter from March 1995 with a special 'Numbers & Oddities'

This is the WUN newsletter from March 1995, which was a N&O special. This special handles the Russian intelligence and diplo network that we first called 'the Brotherhood' and later 'SOUD', and which is now better known as 'FAPSI'. Many updates followed, the most relevant updates can be found in the N&O-00C file. A fully updated version of the FAPSI monitoring results was published in the WUN newsletter #9706 (file N&O-00D).

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WORLDWIDE UTE NEWS
An Electronic Club Dealing Exclusively in Utility Stations
Vol. 1, No.3 March, 1995

Edited by Richard Baker
WUN Electronic Edition Editor
COPYRIGHT 1995 WUN

This newsletter is from the first dedicated electronic utility club in the world; the Worldwide UTE News club. No part of this newsletter may be reprinted in any manner without prior written approval.

However, this newsletter may be freely distributed and posted so long as the file(s) remain(s) intact and unchanged. To become a WUN member, send e-mail to the WUN listserver at majordomo@phoque.info.uqam.ca and in the BODY of the message type: subscribe wun

That's all it takes. There are no dues. A paper copy of the WUN Club newsletter can be obtained via our WUN publisher, Tim Braun, at:

for the costs of printing & mailing at a rate of US$1.50 per issue.

=============================================================================

EXTRA EDITION
DIGITAL REVIEW
NUMBERS & ODDITIES

Monitoring the 'Brotherhood'

by Ary Boender

Copyright 1995 A.Boender

Hello WUNners, in this extra edition of the WUN Newsletter, I'd like to introduce you to the 'Brotherhood', a Russian related diplo network that fits in both the 'Digital Review' and 'Numbers & Oddities' columns.

• Chapter 1: The story so far (1979 - 1995)
• Chapter 2: Examples of chatter, preambles and messages
• Chapter 3: List of link-id's and Callsigns
• Chapter 4: Frequency lists

(=-a huge THANK YOU goes to my fellow Brotherhood-monitors-=)
(=-Leif Dehio, Dave Batcho, Paul Scalzo and Don Schimmel-=)
(=-and to those who sent logs, comments & suggestions-=)
(=-Thanks for the input and your time guys-=)

Chapter 1: The story so far

The first encounters in the USA with the 'Brotherhood' stations were in the late 70's when they still used high speed CW (ca 32 WPM). Most of the early CW stations (PSN, BPA, SPK, WNY, YBU) are still active today. 'ROL' however disappeared completely. In the mid 80's the RTTY transmissions started. The speed used was 50bd. Messages to YBU were the most common ones in those days. Also messages to PSN were monitored. The callup was slightly different from the system that is used nowadays:

 VVV PSN PSN PSN 2/245 VVV PSN PSN 2/245
 NW NW
 NR 271  GR 135
 + 5L or 5F groups

Then sometime in the mid-1980's they changed to the 5 group preamble they use now. But the original link designators were different then.

Traffic has always been the same group of cypher systems including the substitution group at the end.

By the late 1980's they were being reported in most of the UTE publications. Don Schimmel reported them in one of the earliest issues of Monitoring Times as UNID and Bob Margolis reported them in PoPComm.

The NDO link has always been a strange one. Not much activity. Only one sked a week (on Wednesdays) and even that is not granted. The WFO / MIG link is the only known 2-way link in the Americas. Although it still operates somewhat clandestinely - minimum amt of chatter, etc. The station sending WFO is definitley the Cuban end (by propagation and bearings). The other end has been pin pointed in the New York City area, probably the Russian UN delegacy.

In the late 80's an European network of RTTY stations popped up, similar to a network that was active in the America's. Both networks are still very active today.

The master station in Europe was 'RCF'. Several frequency guides listed RCF as Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Moscow. After the disintegration of the USSR, the 'RCF' callsign disappeared. The new master station is as powerful as RCF was and one thing is for sure: this station is located in or very near Moscow as well. The station was DFed various times and every time Moscow appeared to be the source of the signal. It is very likely that RCF is still alive and kicking, but doesn't use its old callsign anymore.

Whether the master station or RCF really is/was MFA Moscow will probably remain a mystery. There are many other suggestions though varying from a shipping network to possible connections with TASS, KGB or GRU.

I stick to the theory that this is a diplo network. Whenever something hot is happening, like the Chechenya actions, the stations of the Brotherhood are making overtime, even on Sundays, while there are normally no transmissions on Sundays. The only station that is often heard on Sundays is BFR, which may indicate that it is possibly located in an Islamic country.

The master station transmits crypted messages (5-letter or 5-figure groups) to the other stations. There are fixed schedules for a couple of stations while others are reported less frequently. During the time that RCF was still in place they didn't need to have fixed skeds, as the traffic list system was being used. Now that this system is no longer in use, each link has one or two fixed skeds on an assigned frequency pair. This system is probably much safer, as the sender knows that the recipient received the message correctly. The auto-broadcasts to a.o. KUL, VKX, RAU and RKD are probably just circulars or routine traffic sent to the specific networks (transmitted blind and therefore repeated throughout the day on a larger number of frequencies). It appears that almost all the callsigns that were on RCF's traffic list are still there.

So far we have found the following fixed two-way schedules for Europe:

The callups and messages can be divided into two groups: the most common for the America's and Europe goes as follows: ''4646464646464646 KUL KUL KUL KUL 1/226''. Note that 46's are transmitted instead of RY's, then the callsign of the recipient and the number of messages/number of 5-letter or 5-figure groups in this message.

The other one is yet only noted in Europe. The transmissions start with a selcal of 6-tones (the system is called Mazielka), followed by the callsign of the recipient sent in CW, then into RTTY where the preamble is handkeyed while the other system has an automated preamble. The Mazielka callup is fairly new, it has been reported since mid 1994.

The Mazielka is a selcal system that is used by the master station to wake up a station outside the normal fixed sked. It is only used to catch the operators attention, not to start the equipment remotely (just like the selcal used in aircraft). The fact that they switch to CW after the Mazielka is a sure sign that the operator has to prepare the equipment before they can start the transmission. The use of non-error correcting RTTY systems makes it practically impossible to establish a link automatically. The Mazielka has never been heard during the normal schedule times, so probably the Mazielka is used when there are very urgent messages that cannot wait 'till the regular schedule time. It seems that there are specific channels for rush traffic as well.

I think that a couple of the callsigns are not in use by only one station, but that KUL, VKX, RAU and RKD are in fact the callsigns of networks. This could mean that the automated transmissions to KUL etc include messages for all stations in such a network. This does not necessarily mean that there is only one callsign for every station in a network. As far as we know every station has a callsign of its own. However, the master station seems to use more than one callsign. VNB, KKK and RGA, which are believed to be transmitting from the same location are most probably callsigns of the master station. It seems that the master receives a different callsign on each specific two-way link.

What did we find so far ?

We have found several clues about the preambles and QSL system. Let's take a closer look at the preambles. Each message starts with a preamble consisting of 5 groups, followed by the message itself. A typical preamble looks like this: 11177 00142 23687 05012 01109.

After the messages have been sent, the operators sometimes have a little chat. In the America's the conversations are in often poor English while on the European side often cyrillic is used and also German words are used.

As I mentioned earlier, there are also QSL messages. The original messages can be transmitted on other frequencies and even on other days then the day the QSL messages gets out. The first group of the preamble is always 11199. The messages always seem to start with 55555 followed by 77011, while the last groups represent the QSLed messages.

A typical QSL preamble and message looks like this:
11199 00142 00000 18010 00069
55555 77011 00089 00090 00091

Five different cipher systems have been noted:

• The 3rd group of the preamble is 00000 and the message consists of 5L groups.
• The 3rd group of the preamble consists of random digits and the message consists of 5L groups.
• The 3rd group of the peramble consists of random digits and the message consists of 5F groups and the last group is NOT 11111.
• The 3rd group of the preamble is 00000 and the message consists of 5F groups and the last group is 11111.
• The 3rd group of the preamble is 00000 and the message consists of 5F groups and the last group is NOT 11111.

The Brotherhood uses various RTTY modes, the most common is Baudot 75bd. Sometimes 50 or 100bd is used. They also use a Russian version of Piccolo, better know as Crowd36 or CIS Piccolo, Other, yet unknown, exotic modes are used as well. Then there is ofcourse the Mazielka and CW is used as well, mostly for chatting and callups.

Who are the partners in this Brotherhood ? Well, it's all guesses of course. No-one steps forward and says 'he you guys, it's me you're looking for' :-) According to DF-research, the European master station must be located in the Moscow region, while the WFO / MIG link is a link between Cuba and the New York area, probably the Russian UN legation. Station GMN could be located in Mexico City.

In 'Soviet Signals Intelligence' by professor Desmond Ball, he listed Soviet Sigint Posts located in the Western Hemisphere. The sigint posts are in Mexico City, Washington 2x, New York City, San Francisco, Managua, San Jose, Buenos Aires, Montreal, Ottawa, Chicago and Lima.

So far, 13 transmission schedules have been noted for the Brotherhood in the America's. There are 12 listed sigint posts and 13 schedules, so if there is a connection between the schedules and the sigint posts, then there must be at least one more sigint post.

The European scene is a bit different; we have not yet determined where the out-stations are located. Most probably outside Russia and in the eastern part of the country.

Then there are the QSF messages: 1/1, 2/1, 3/1, 7/1, 8/1, 9/1 QSF3 The official meaning of the QSF-code is "I have effected rescue and am proceeding to base". We can safely assume that the Brotherhood-QSF's have nothing to do with the official meaning of the code. Intensive monitoring of the stations revealed that QSF2 means a normal schedule, QSF4 means no schedule and QSF3 is yet unknown but could mean that an alternative schedule will be used. On the days that QSF1 had been indicated a QRU was sent.

There is a very significant feature to the 5-letter traffic. The last group of every message is a simple substitution which indicates the date the message was composed and the group count which is always 3 less than the group count shown in the preamble. The substitution is:

For example:
11177 00148 57477 26811 00609
QKANG XOBJZ ..................... VEVXX UEORW

The last group translates to 26057 -- 26th of the month, 57 groups.

ETFNJX TKAGAS

On the American network the sequence 'ETFNJX TKAGAS' is frequently heard. It is always transmitted in sloppy FSK Morse for a couple of minutes and then the transmission stops or continues in RTTY. Because the sloppy way in which this message is keyed, it most probably should read 'E/NJX TKAGAS' but also E/NJX QAG AS is possible.

The station simply comes up without any callsign and begins broadcasting ETNJX TKAGAS over and over for a period of ca 10 minutes. On most occasions, approximately 30 minutes later, one of the regular stations comes up and sends normal traffic but out of the fixed schedule for that station. The 'ET' messages have never been observed on the regular daily scheduled frequencies. They are transmitted on the same frequencies as the QWK messages that are also on the air for the last 15 years. The QWK messages are sent several times a year on one of the regular schedules along with the regular traffic.

For example, on Dec. 3, 1994, the following was at the beginning of BPA's regular schedule:
 QWK  QDG  FM  5/12  TO  NEXT  QWK
 FM  00.00  TO  13.00  QSW 10698/7684/13532
 FM  13.00  TO  24.00  QSW 16224/13532/19612

Also on Dec. 3, 1995 the following was sent at the end of SPK's regular traffic:
 QWK  QDG  FM  5/12  TO  NEXT  QWK
 FM  00.00  TO  12.00  QSW  10183/7418/13227
 FM  12.00  TO  24.00  QSW  19808/16144/13227

ET messages have been heard on every one of the daytime frequencies listed in the messages above. And these messages on these frequencies are almost always copied on a Saturday or a Sunday, but occasionally during the week as recently as March 22, 1995. The QWK message then seems to say "During the times indicated I will use the following as _standby_ or _alert_ frequencies." Until February 1995, there were no reports of such a string on the European network.

Recently a sequence, very much like the American one, was heard and it was keyed in the same sloppy way. The sequence was slightly different from the American one. This one reads 'E/NJX TKAZAS'. The string was recorded and played back for -I guess- a million times by several monitors and fed into a couple of decoders. Although it was a tough one to write down, we are 100% certain that the string is correctly decoded.

Bloopers

A couple of years ago, right at the moment that the WFO callup should find place, a numbers tape came up. After a moment it was terminated and replaced by the WFO callup tape. On another occasion the WNY callup tape was replaced by a PSN tape. After a few repetitions of the '464646 PSN PSN' lines, the correct WNY callup tape was transmitted. This proves the theory that also the American network has a master station.

CW powerhouses

Although it is just an uneducated guess, I believe that the CW powerhouses that can be heard on numberous frequencies, belong to the same organisation as the RTTY network. These stations transmit 5L or 5F groups and often use odd Q-codes. In several occasions a CW station transmitted at the same time as a RTTY station and was only a couple of kHz away. The signals were equal in strength and they faded at exactly the same moment.

Chapter 2: Chatter, preambles and messages

A typical preamble for a message on link 60069, followed by the message which consists of 52 5-letter groups. As you can see the 5th group of the preamble states that there are 53 groups in this message. That is because the last group of the preamble is actually the first group of the message.

 11177 60069 00000 03118 00531

 cwzky fypxz pldyn nwpmd wvihe rfrgy embqy jecdc xirws omfrg
 ucxxs aeosi pxdfx jtrru ofrva ltlrt vbyzj khgyn dglts rzykr
 bqhwy csffq iekmd jwytt ziydz bvzxm fjrkh lyrgv bbqcg tbctn
 gdhte ydpfc bzvns xoyvd dpnuv kbosy mzuvt dpyim krmmx fvpdb
 iwoyd dphyt sooct zftsu ggmcm dmjcg bclqx jpytn zfwfg shouq
 ppnnj ozoro

qru

Another example of a message on link 60069, this time 5-figure groups were transmitted. Note the '11111' group at the end.

11177 60069 00000 22209 01301

 72747 28417 50560 87313 85526 80632 52837 50418 16664 76399
 58123 43603 78923 58766 15986 49421 34805 14025 78515 74440
 10019 97789 56541 79041 11698 86832 14191 66922 89474 81657
 03900 16223 95063 13477 97728 66255 27427 67767 02743 82849
 62606 51086 23986 16123 01422 90158 89227 62126 17243 66305
 59757 46873 80493 88263 19018 04742 82333 33503 09448 02138
 89435 56354 28856 81866 33796 86485 95644 22140 76885 88093
 97982 90453 89866 09536 50411 01278 85726 65630 60100 73744
 54969 37039 63648 58444 09316 69664 02392 17253 17128 70258
 49641 99702 69467 93542 62986 62633 80508 93330 99101 00020
 76346 45897 67603 10154 85533 93742 80072 21270 51988 56724
 43127 29860 05485 71573 97484 90177 47836 03396 22210 41105
 30544 31327 24852 37874 23453 24504 52880 52852 11111

The master station in Moscow sends out messages to KUL, VKX and several others at a fixed daily schedule. Note the '46' test slip instead of 'RY'. 'KUL' is the callsign of the recipient, there are 3 messages with a total of 535 5-letter groups. (messages shortened)

 464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
 kul kul kul  3/535   kul kul kul  3/535   kul kul kul  3/535  
 464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
 kul kul kul  3/535   kul kul kul  3/535   kul kul kul  3/535  
 464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
 kul kul kul  3/535   kul kul kul  3/535   kul kul kul  3/535  

 11177 00142 33972 29181 01479
 
 pofre xhtwl ewpxu garrv peife dfhfb sdstt bewph jxqzn uhlwo
 lukhy mavla bgwmu vvhmo tzptw ssxrx ibsho joznd grdlo nmxyf
 qspsi exvhm hacfj kqzfc nyldc szdqv tvwpv cnotp ozapg orijf

 11177 00142 17790 29182 01459

 uodkh mtauy ssfnc czanv caecr scyiv yccpi kqqhi qvvub qursm
 uozjz arrir zutzn zubfy xjzpg ozydy mxgdk cgsec cerbk jvmzc
 qbozz bgssz yjjky guglv avrae yfypo avjux sxfis nihoi zsgmb

 11177 00142 04039 29183 02439

 enqkz kjoan ryvhn vuacc tvzuz fclci zfmsg pmjkw lgqpv aabag
 wqrml mdwux ptenu dwiya xsezx zeppr fomsx poclz paftk ytmyz
 yydix ujdbb xqpkj flujk hbqov temvj ngfhz wynly onbmh iqdjt

 qru qru  sk sk

RAU gets also messages from Moscow on the daily basis.

 4646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464
 rau rau rau 1/50    rau rau rau 1/50    rau rau rau 1/50
 4646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464
 rau rau rau 1/50    rau rau rau 1/50    rau rau rau 1/50
 4646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464
 rau rau rau 1/50    rau rau rau 1/50    rau rau rau 1/50

 11177 00070 00000 02012 00509

 95511 17087 98320 83286 97066 36253 72549 37069 35360 10784
 48040 33879 71438 38539 02451 07605 78635 83245 55568 59601
 55663 91143 62376 59010 04870 71347 93615 52923 73086 69033
 61524 28127 89014 24432 41604 85779 98200 90728 49032 53639
 90008 91002 44796 05048 91058 98563 32569 45745 10160

qru qru sk sk

The station that started my interest in this network was RCF. I captured its signal for the first time in the early eighties. Several frequency lists listed this station as MFA Moscow. RCF often transmitted callup lists that are similar to the traffic lists that many of you may know from coastal stations. Note the significant difference between the callups in the above listed examples and the RCF broadcasts below. RCF started their messages with DE RCF, while the master station now only uses the callsign of the recipient, not their own callsign !

464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646


cq cq cq  de rcf     cq cq cq de rcf

for udz21 caz rpo fru bla rkg rkm bxl uro nr 05
for  acd trp rcx81 wnk nr 06
qoo  nr 05 gr 189  nr 06 gr 219

464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646

cq cq cq  de rcf     cq cq cq  de rcf

for  jua rxx fqx udz21 caz rpo fru bla rkg rkm bxl uro nr 05
for  acd trp rcx81 wnk nr 06
qoo  nr 05 gr 189  nr 06 gr 219

ryryryryryryryryryryryryryryry
cq cq cq  de rcf     cq cq cq  de rcf
for  jua rxx fqx udz21 caz rpo fru bla rcx81 fjn rkg rkm bxl
     uro bnv ewz42 nr 36 37  all gr 1176

464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
cq cq cq  de rcf     cq cq cq  de rcf
for  jua rxx fqx udz21 caz rpo fru bla rcx81 fjn rkg rkm bxl
     uro bnv ewz42 nr 36 37  all gr 1176
464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646

4646464646464#4646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
cq cq cq  de rcf     cq cq cq  de rcf
for  all nr 69
for  glk owr dpl obx ptf dkr wkl kua rss wql lsg nr 08/70
for  qru
qoo nr 08/70 gr 292  nr 69 gr 1122

464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
cq cq cq  de rcf     cq cq cq  de rcf
for  all nr 69
for  glk owr dpl~bx ptf dkr wkl kua rss wql lsg nr 08/70
for  qru
qoo  nr 08/70 gr 292  nr 69 gr 1122

Broadcasts to VKX can be heard very easily both in Europe and also in the USA.

 464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
 vkx vkx vkx  1/476   vkx vkx vkx  1/476   vkx vkx vkx  1/476
 464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
 vkx vkx vkx  1/476   vkx vkx vkx  1/476   vkx vkx vkx  1/476
 
 11177 00166 72959 31124 04769
 
 wekhe eykuw ntiut pesko hfkbc tehsv lxfvh cczzk znxjp qmweh
 ealxe tmdfn qackt tgbhp nsguf sfbay arbdr whqad hkpuq zivrl
 vipne gwgio fgcfn aajzc wzjum tcoho brbrs xdpbd pgdts utifg
 
 qru qru  sk  sk

A difference between the European and American networks is the lack of chatter on the American side. Here in Europe we have occasional chatter between the operators. In the America's this seldom happens. The words 'TIKAS' and 'SEE' are often used, mostly when the operators have a 'technical' chat. 'TIKAS' probably comes from Ticai or Tikat which means 'to tick' in various Slavic languages. So TIKAS probably means 'ticker' or 'telex operator/telex/telegram/telex machine' or whatever. The use of SEE in "OM AS SEE A UR PER?" indicates this translation as well (see below for KUA traffic). In this case it would be used as "OM wait, look at your perforator"

vnr 05     gr 314
nr 05     gr 314


tikas
for ptf kua -after qky qrz
zkuuuuuukkkkkkaeex
tikas
for ptf kua -after qky qrz


qru  sk     qru  sk

TIKAS in this sense, probably refers to telegram traffic on hand for 'PTF' and 'KUA'.

This was heard on the link 10163 on 16.008 kHz at 09:20 UTC 24/08/94

 h qju k
 ok see
 ok asm 

 11177 10163 05870~,2.?kb660kk 004(9
 cfm 
 64646464

 vvv  
  om    4to ne nrawits qb ?
  asm  qsa bd 
 
 
    063 rpt 
 wqxkvk ok not    23 bd ? 
 mnqsp ?
  ur op 1 ?
  ok see  hr   all cfm pse qsp tikas  pbl ili  qrz op 1 

 ryryryryryryryryry
 
  om pse sa qsp ? 
  gr ?  gr ? pbl  gr 1 2 3 4 5 ?
 pse nryvr mni wrk vy qrl
 ok asm ee see 
 pse qsp tikas hr all cfm 
 see agn
 05870  pse k
  asm 
 
  hw

 gmagvl qsp vy pse qsp ur k

  op 1 qrl ?
  ok vy om  4to ne tak ?
  ur new op ?
  om pse qsl my qtc tak ok ?
 op 1 all qsp after ili pse qrz after 
 ok ? 
 hr a  wrk op 1 hr all cfm ok ?
 cfm tks qsl 1 k

The following was heard on the KUA link. Note the last paragraph in which the operator asks if he may use a Russian register to continue. The RTTY message was sent in 'normal' shift while it is easier for the operator to chat in 3rd shift Cyrillic, or what he calls 'Ruskih registrow'.

first CW: ''qsy 14622 qsy 14622 kua kua qsy 14622 ga''
then into RTTY 75bd

 RYRYRYRRYRQRYGYRYRYRYKRRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRY
 RYRYRYRRYRQRYGYRYRYRYKRRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRY
 OM HR SA AS SEE  A UR PER?
 NOT FB
 PSE AGN ES  SEE POV
 SANX  POV NAU4isx lenty prawilxno delatx
 MA&ina ih ne bereit
 GA GA

RYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYR


 11177 30022 45013 20882 00549

 KDRUG ALMIV LPTAT EACKS YBVPF LSCXG AFJII XDAHJ RQMXY JJXFV
 HAJME EJKMA XMXLE ADMSE DSYHQ ZVAIZ ORANL PEBPI EHPGZ LTYFU
 OSBBX DBWRM EKOOB NOZVX UPPPW ZVXHC OAETV DQJBR ABQFD TCILT
      
 QSL 4
 QRU
 CFM   T K S   GB   SK   

 FXRYRYRYYYRYRYRYRYYRYRYRYRYYRYRYYRYRYRYYRYRYRRYRRYR
   QSP QSP QSP TX   QSP X ZLD ZLD 
 11177 30022 48526 20886 03859
 
 MIPYE KVMGG AOCHW RDJLJ FCMOO UORGV CFKYE PVSLM YMOMY CYBUU
 ZYTNE RTPRB QMBUA GKAUP GEMLK HPCVN ZPQYS ODTWT OXUTC UWFWC
 SINUB RYXCV RDJWC VUNLX CMCMW VHUUK ZFHAJ NYZJO GBIST PXQMA
      
  QRU  QSL 4  ALL FM   OM PSE   DAWWAJ MEDU TXT ES PL  PBL 
  OKOLO 15  RUSKIH  REGISTROW OK  ?  TQVELO RABOTATX INA 4E OV??
  TKS   GB SK SK

Here again a message from the master station to VKX. Note the test schedule at the end.

 464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
 vkx vkx vkx  1/476  vkx vkx vkx  1/476   vkx vkx vkx  1/476

 11177 00166 72959 31124 04769    5-letter-groups

 fm 12.05  test qrg  12124
 fm 12.05  test qrg  12124

 qru qru sk sk

Q-codes are frequently used. This is an unusual long chatter including a transmission schedule.

OM   QRU    PSE    QBN QBNVVVVVVOM   PSE QOZ
RYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYYRYRYRYRYRYRCSYRYRYRYRYRY OK OK
OK OM     HR QRZ WM  FM
QSA QTR ? 4646QQSA NOT NOT QSA NOT OK OK OK OK
HR ALL OK  PSE AS M OM OM  HR SEE QUW ONLI QSW
14622 M OM HR SEE UR WRK  QK
GP11YWW QSA 0
OM ALL OK WILL QSPALL OK WILL QSP PSE AS 3 ALL OK OK AS
SEE S  WILL QSP ES SA ALL QRG QUW PSE AS SEE WL

464646464646464646464646464646464646
04-06 QRG 13466  11134 80043  15683
06-14  QRG 18587 18617 17488 21860
14 -18  QRG  16337 12188 11028 17488
18-04  QRG 8815  7376 6884 11068

OM OM PSE LNT ONLI QSY HR UR QRG SA FM KY 1 OK ? AS M
OM OM AFTER PSE LNT ONLI QSY  OK ? HR  SA UR QRG FM KY 1  AS M M OM OM PSE
TEST QRZ   QSU   OM OM HR SEE  PSE SEE HR WRK   QAZNOT NOT OM OM PSE TEST 
QSR
OM  OM  PEREWERN I  LNT  NA  TT   WYZOWOM   IDET  ZADOM NAPERED  OM OM
BK BK BK BK  BK BK BK OM OM ALL   FB  FB FB   OM OM   PSE   TESR
QRZ   QSR  QRG   14929 OM   PSE  TES  QSR QRG   14929 OK ? HR SEE SEE OM OM
PSE QSP NOMER   KORRESPOND  UR WRK   NR 21 21 21  646464646464 6464OK OK OK
OM OM HR  TEST QSR WRK  BD OM OM PSE QSP NR KORRESR   OM OM HR WRK NR 21
SINH SINHRON NR 21
OM OM     QRZ QUW WRK  FB   O  OK OK   OM OM HR WILL QTC PSE  AS SE OM OM PSE
QOZ  HR WILL SA OP 1    OM OM  4I TO U TEBQ NE RABOTAET W QSU
646464646464646464OM OM PSE QBN QBN   646464646464646464646464646464646
4646IM OM PSE QBN QSA NOT  QSA NOOT  PSE QBN   HMFB FB FB FB  OM OM SEE HR
WILLQRZ OK OK  OM OM    HR WILL QRZ QSU  OM UR WILL QRZ QUW LNT  OK ? OM OM
HR QTC NOT QRQ WILL QSO  F CFM CFM OM QTC NOT QRQ  OM OM   QTC W QSO  OK  QSL
?  QSL ? F  CFM CFM   TKS  GB SK SK PSK  URR ALL FB   GB  GB SK SK PKS

The QSF codes:

The 'RAU' transmission at 14:10 UTC contained the following

(msg was repeated on 12180 kcs, shortly thereafter):

 46464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464
 rau rau rau   qsf   rau rau rau   qsf   rau rau rau   qsf
 12/12   wrk  qsf 4
 12/12   wrk  qsf 4
 qru qru  sk sk

The 'KUL' broadcast on 10584 consisted of the following. Interesting is the fact that the 'KUL' transmission on 10584 had one more message than the previous transmission on 12193 kHz. Looks like they got one more message in, during their transmission.

 646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646464646
 kul kul kul   2/845   kul kul kul   2/845   kul kul kul   2/845

 12/12   wrk  qsf 4
 12/12   wrk  qsf 4

 11177 00142 00000 09749 07201

 all  qtc  3/1013
 all  qtc  3/1013
 12/12   wrk  qsf 4
 12/12   wrk  qsf 4

 qru qru  sk sk

YBU sent this right after his callup and before any other trafic was sent:

QWK   QDG   FM   1/11   TO   NEXT   QWK:
 
FM 00.00 TO 04.00 QSY 11212/10135/ 8147 QSW 10243/ 8108/ 5837
FM 04.00 TO 11.00 QSY  8225/ 7610/ 6308 QSW  6845/ 5877/ 5258
FM 11.00 TO 14.00 QSY  6645/12530/17325 QSW  5797/11406/16308
FM 14.00 TO 21.00 QSY 16830/18290/19580 QSW 15682/17490/18839
FM 21.00 TO 24.00 QSY 18876/14814/11180 QSW 17490/13627/10294

Then he sent "AGN AGN" and repeated it. Later that same day, station WNY

(on high-speed CW - 34 WPM) sent this:

VVV VVV WNY WNY WNY
 
NW NW
 
QWK QDG FM 1/11 TO NEXT QWK
FM 0000 TO 0300 QSW 8144/6881/5745
FM 0300 TO 1200 QSW 8144/6881/9246
FM 1200 TO 2400 QSW 10131/15559/8158 
 
RPT AGN RPT AGN

((repeats entire msg))

Traffic sent to `JMS' contained this before the regular traffic:

Febuary 03, 1995 22.30 UTC 16842.5 kHz

ILC QDG FM 4/2 TO QWK
FM 00.00 TO 13.00 QWS 10713/8118/13541
FM 13.00 TO 24.00 QWS 18053/16491/13541
QWK  QDG FM 4/2 TO NEXT QWK
FM 00.00 TO 13.00 QSW 10713/8118/13541
FM 13.00 TO 24.00 QSW 18053/16491/13541

To show you the similarity in traffic on both the European and the North American sides, I quote a piece of a transmission from Moscow to -I guess- DKR:

 GXWHQ UJBAZ FZLCV WNEGK JZAHF MWZIJ WNEZO QQKLN WKTUS YUSJZ
 HIOUK JBUPV SKLBI JVTCW KPZJW UTUUT
      
 OM PSE SEE TIKAS
 HR RPT AGN
 
 
 04.00-06.00
 QRG 1  18565/16058/15683/13466/12158/11028/10328/8487/8178/7537
 QRG 2  14578/11536/11134/8043/7867/7376/6888/5414/5858/5021
 06.00-14.00
 QRG 1  23170/22825/21860/18587/20071/18234/15683/14578/16337/12158
 QRG 2  18234/18573/18617/17488/18364/13466/11028/10218/8877/7833
 14.00-18.00
 QRG 1  12131/15733/17488/16337/18617/16184/18308/14486/16058/11614
 QRG 2  7814/10315/12188/11028/12188/11536/12131/8203/8843/5478
 18.00-04.00
 QRG 1  10512/10218/11068/8815/10707/8826/8487/7608/7885/5858
 QRG 2  6885/6888/7376/6884/6885/6888/5836/5015/5771/4526
 
 
 OK ?
 WRK FM 01 11 80 KWK QUW TO NEXT QWK
 ALL OK?
 PSE ALL QSP TIKAS
 NIL
 PSE QSL
 CFM
 
 K

QSL messages which always bear a 11199 as the first group in the preamble, and begin with 55555. Recently a startling message was sent by YBU. It seems to be the first unenciphered code ever seen on the Brotherhood. Here is the entire message:

 11199 00148 00000 20269 01759

 55555 77011 99641 99749 99736 99719 99726 99667 99635 99749
 99736 99710 99750 99736 99751 99762 99640 99607 99749 99736
 99748 99749 99736 44326 99736 99612 99721 99736 99705 99736
 99678 99736 99688 99744 99641 99744 99641 99635 99696 99696
 99641 99655 44326 99736 99607 99704 99737 99688 99744 99641
 99744 99750 99750 99696 99641 99768 99655 44326 99736 99704
 99664 99751 99688 99744 99641 99744 99750 99750 99696 99750
 99635 99655 44326 99607 99751 99698 99737 99639 99744 99750
 99721 99688 99721 99641 99750 99744 99750 99641 99636 99744
 99736 99711 99649 99736 99635 99696 99736 99656 99736 99635
 99641 99736 99749 99750 99749 99736 99719 99756 99740 99736
 99687 99736 99612 99721 99736 99705 99736 99678 99749 99677
 99736 99612 99736 99649 99635 99696 99736 99683 99696 99696
 99639 99696 99750 99681 99736 99656 99736 99765 99635 99639
 99765 99721 99681 99655 99736 99612 99736 99649 99635 99641
 99683 99750 99768 99639 99750 99636 99681 99749 99765 99749
 99736 99724 99742 99736 99725 99640 99647 99751 99676 99775
 99747 99601 99747 99749

Analysis shows that starting at the third group, this message uses a trinomial (3-digit) code. When sent as 5F groups, the first two digits of each 5F group are nulls. All of the code groups begin with either a 6 or a 7 except for the one group (repeated three times in the message) which uses 44 as the nulls.

Chatter

What do you think of this chatter by NDO's operator:
"SULTAN BORN DOTHER (3500/54)" good example of bad English; I assume the 3500/54 is the weight and length in metric of the new born daughter.

Chapter 3: Link-id's and Callsigns

Brotherhood link-id's and callsigns. The '*' marks stations that also appeared on the RCF traffic lists.

Chapter 4: Frequency lists

Brotherhood frequencies, Europe Last update: 29-3-1995

* indicates inactive channel

Brotherhood frequencies, America's Last update: 26-3-1995

Messages are sent on the primary frequency and repeated right afterward on the secondary frequency.

Frequencies