Twenty-fifth edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter

(Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 12:27:22 +0200)

Stolen Enigma | Morse stations | RTTY stations | Voice stations | Logs
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Morse stations

Russian channelmarkers [MX]

After last month's recovery of channelmarkers S and F, P and C now also resurfaced. Great! The markers came back to life shortly after Mr Putin was elected as the new Russian president. Could there be a connection? Because the markers are not always there, I wonder if the transmissions are just system checks or... are they really back? In April I heard transmissions on all the frequencies in the list. Today (22-4) the only live cluster marker is 'S' and only on one frequency at the time. All other freqs are dead.

• Channelmarker 'R', Ustinov
  3195
  3322
  4325

• Channelmarker 'P', Kaliningrad
  3291
  3699.5
  4557.8
  5153.8
  7038.8
  8494.8
  10871.8
  13527.8
  16331.8

• Channelmarker 'S', Arkhangelsk
  4557.9
  7038.9
  10871.9
  13257.9
  16331.9
  20047.9

• Channelmarker 'C', Moscow
  5154
  7039
  8495
  10872
  13258
  16332
  20048

• Channelmarker 'F', Vladivostok
  8495
  10872
  13258

• Channelmarker 'V', Khiva
  3658
  4646
  4878

• Channelmarker 'L', St. Petersburg
  3338

Chinese air defence

Igor Buhtiyarov sent the following interesting log. Igor says « it is possibly Chinese Air Defense ». Igor, a reliable source told me that you are most probably right. His ideas about the code segments are between brackets [ ].

3036 kHz, Chinese Air Defense, 1247 (27-03-2000), USB, Chinese, synthesized female voice, 9FGs
... 061055104 064072219 060075212 056291182 061056107 064072118 056291184 061057109 064072186 056291186 061057111 064072184 060075218 056291187 061058113 060075221 056291189 061059115...

Looking at the first four digits, we see four different patterns

• The first 4 digits are probably fixed and don't change (0562, 0600, 0610, 0640) [Assuming this is Air Defense, then the following probably applies. The first four refer to the station originating the report, probably a radar station along the Chinese coast. This makes sense as only a few 4 digit patterns emerge. In this case 0562, 0600, 0610, 0640.]

• Digits 5 and 6 change very slowly (55-59. 72, 75, 91 didn't change) [Two possibilities:

1) In military terms, a "one-up" serialization. Each new contact would gain a new number, starting at 1 for the new day and going up. Each station would have its own serialization, so there could be multiple number 1's, but only one from each station until 99 is reached, then it would roll back to 1 (or perhaps 00 then 01)

OR

2) A grid location.]

• The last 3 digits change more rapidly (104-115, 219-184, 212-221, 182-189). [Possibly the smaller grids within the larger grid; or else just the grid by itself, in which case the Chinese area would be divided into 1000's of small grids.]

Note: It would make sense that this system is similar to the Russian system, as the Russian trained many foreign countries in the area of Air Defense, especially the PRC, DPRK, Iraq, and many many others.

Russian air defence [M21]

M21 is still alive and kicking and was heard on 7987 kHz at 0143 UTC

BT 22t349t1t6t618
BT 99?t543???????
BT 99?t543???????
BT 1263473t584144
BT 99?t545???????
BT 12t3473t584846
BT 99?t547???????

Russian military

I picked one sample from the large list of Russian military cw logs.

Freq: 14290.5 kHz, 1610 UTC, 31 March, 5-letter groups.

QTC 619 22 31 181T 619 = ZRx = 317 = .... 5LGs

A2A [M63]

A2A has changed to its usual summer time and freqs - 0500 UTC on 5807 and 6763 kHz and the outstations on 4743 kHz. The station has also an evening transmission at 1845 UTC on 6763 kHz. Recently A2A came on at 0500 and sent only 'CQ de A2A for all pse QRX QTR 0900'. He re-appeared at 0600 UTC (0900 local time in Romania) and sent his traffic.

VDE [M29]

VDE has a regular sked on Monday at 0600 UTC on 5620 kHz

Unid morse stations

First Unid

Igor Buhtiyarov checks in with a log of an unid station. Ideas anyone?
It is most probably Chinese.

5780 kHz, 1124 UTC, 14-04-2000, CW, cut numbers (au34567dnt)

The last two digits are possibly minutes: u4, u5, u6, u7, ud, un, 3t

= = 5t47t 3t7au4
= = 5t47t 3t7aatu5
= = 5t47t 3t7uattu5
= = 5t47t 3t7uattu5
= = 5t47t 3t7uattu5
= = 5t47t 3td5u6
= = 5t47t 3tn7u7
= = 5t47t 3tnnu7
= = 5t47t 3tn4u7
= = 5t47t 3tn4u7
= = 5t47t 3t4dud
= = 5t47t 3t4dud
= = 5t47t 3t4uun
= = 5t47t 3t4uun
= = 5t47t 3t4uun
= = 5t47t 3t4uun
= = 5t47t 3t43att3t
= = 5t47t 3aa73t
= = 5t47t 3aa73t
= = 5t47t 3aa73t
..... etc

Second unid

More unids are yet to come. Here is another one, logged by a young Hungarian dxer. Ladies and gents, your help to identify this station is needed.

5300 kHz, 0850-2359 UTC, 1 March 2000. This unid morse station was on the air for over 15 hours!!! The transmission ended at 0000 UTC.

Characteristics:

A message of four 5fgs is transmitted every 10 minutes and is repeated after a 'C'. Then the letter 'C' is transmitted for 9 minutes, followed by the next message. Cut zero's. Here is an sample:

On 21.04.2000, 1240 UTC, at 3808 kHz, a similar broadcast was logged.

Same station/organization?????

Third unid

The last unid of this month comes from the most active CW monitor at this moment, Igor. It looks familiar, but where have I seen it before???? I cannot find it in the WUN and Spooks logs :-(

6538 kHz, 0100 UTC, 13 April, callsigns: P9P2, P7P2, P2P2, P9P7 handkeyed CW, the letter 'o' is used as zero.

So, what do we have? Probably 5 stations (o1-o5). The callsign of the main station seems to change every hour. We can break the message down into 5 parts: tos a11 b29 c5o do24. A, B, and C most probably represent the time (UTC+8), respectively hours, minutes, seconds. 'D' and 'TOS' are unknown.

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