Ninth edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter

(Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998 22:31:34 +0100 MET)

Voice stations

'Nancy Adam Susan' [E15]

The 'Old Style Phonetic Alphabet Station', aka 'E15' is better known as 'Nancy Adam Susan', named after the first callsign that was ever heard.

The station was first copied in 1994 and is located in northern Egypt. They use an alphabet that was used by radio amateurs in the late 40's. It goes as follows:
Adam, Baker, Charlie, David, Edward, Frank, George, Henry, Italy, John, King, Lewis, Mary, Nancy, Otto, Peter, Queen, Robert, Susan, Thomas, Union, Victor, William, X-ray, Young, Zebra.

Format:
NAS (repeated for 1 minute)
QTC QTC QTC NR 5 NR 5 NR 5 GR 41 GR 41 GR 41 followed by double 5-letter groups
RA RA

or, when there is no traffic:

NAS (repeated for 1 minute)
QRU QRU QRU

All the above is always spelled out:

`NAS`	Nancy Adam Susan
`QTC`	Queen Thomas Charlie	(message for you)
QRU	Queen Robert Union	(nothing for you)
`NR5`	Nancy Robert 5	(group number 5)
`GR41`	George Robert 41	(number of groups). Note that the group number is in Arab style = reversed. So, GR 41 means 14 groups.
`RA`	Robert Adam	(also reversed. End of transmission)

Schedules:

UTC	Frequency	Callsign
1100	18000	BEC	[Baker Edward Charlie]
1200	17502	WSP	[William Susan Peter]
1230	11170	MSA	[Mary Susan Adam]
1300	11000	BEC	[Baker Edward Charlie]
1400	14000	FYP	[Frank Young Peter]
1630	6716	MSA	[Mary Susan Adam]
1700	14000	FYP	[Frank Young Peter]
1730	5834	MSA	[Mary Susan Adam]
1800	5834	WSP	[William Susan Peter]
1900	4130	SAR	[Susan Adam Robert]
2000	5530	NAS	[Nancy Adam Susan]
2100	4130	MSA	[Mary Susan Adam]
or occasionally		OSS	[Otto Susan Susan]

Three-note oddity [G04]

Both Guy Denman and Hans-Friedrich Dumrese sent some interesting notes.

G04 transmitted on 22 Nov. an entirely different message to the usual. It was back to its normal self on 29 Nov. The message was...

03040 00030 59501 56743 44624 05295 33211 48066 72097 6169 15602 15205 28128 09248 53756 56143 52332 75244 84496 0882 52993 73344 99346 85050 31012 86287 43295 70821 50435 03040

As you can see the first and last group are the same. The second group most probably indicates the number of groups (30). Very odd....

Hans-Friedrich analysed the 6 December transmissions.

Message :
62125 45215 32125 95458 32125 74521 78547 85452 02125 95456 12545 62366 84547 84522 85455 12014 32155 84547 32558 42158 75488

Analysis:

Frequent groups :

3x	32125
2x	84547
3x	95458

4x	#2125	(02125, 32125, 62125)
2x	#5458	(75458, 95458)

First two figures :	02125	Last three figures:	12014
	12014		02125
	545		32
	32125		32
	125		62
	155		32155
	558		42158
	42158		45215
	45215		62366
	62125		85452
	366		85455
	74521		95456
	75488		95458
	78547		75488
	84522		74521
	547		84522
	547		12545
	85452		78547
	455		84
	95456		84
	458		32558

History :

Summer		Winter
2005 2035 UTC		2105 2135 UTC
01/96	3227 3127	02/96	3409 3309
03/96	3419 3319	04/96	4581 4481
05/96	4165 4065	06/96	4340 4240
07/96	3935 3835	08/96	4165 4065
09/96	3930 3830	10/96	3280 3180
11/96	3270 3170	12/96	3285 3185
01/97	3230 3130	02/97	3245 3145
03/97	3275 3175	04/97	3936 3836
05/97	4245 4145	06/97	4376 4276
07/97	3930 3830	08/97	3935 3835
09/97	3915 3815	10/97	3315 3215
11/97	3265 3165	12/97	3255 3155
01/98	3255 3155	02/98	3265 3165
03/98	4435 4335	04/98	4745 4645
05/98	5410 5310	06/98	5730 5630
07/98	5840 5740	08/98	5755 5655
09/98	5310 5210	10/98	4685 4585
11/98	3940 3840	12/98	3380 3280

Attention: If you had the opinion that G04 changes frequencies AND message only at the first Sunday of the month, that's not true. During the last months Guy Denman has already noticed two exceptions:

Date	Frequencies	Messages	heard by
Sep 6th	5310/5210	32587 05458 32125...	HFD
Sep 13th
Sep 20th
Sep 27th	5310/5210	58545 65458 65454...	GD	(1)
Oct 4th	4685/4585	58545 65458 65454...	GD, HFD
Oct 11th
Oct 18th	4685/4585	58545 65458 65454...	GD
Oct 25th	4685/4585	58545 65458 65454...	GD
Nov 1th	3940/3840	21025 95458 32125...	HFD
Nov 8th
Nov 15th
Nov 22th	3940/3840	03040 00030 59501...	GD	(2)
Nov 29th
Dec 6th	3380/3280	62125 45215 32125...	HFD

The October message was transmitted on the last Sunday of September on the September frequencies.
Special 30 groups message. None of the usual G04 groups. First and last (30.) group (03040) were the same. See the 2nd "00030" group (GC?)

Has anybody G04 logs from 13.09, 20.09, 11.10, 08.11, 15.11, and 29.11?

Please send them to Hans-Friedrich.