Thirty-second edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter

(Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 11:43:47 +0100)

Voice stations

E23

E23 has changed its schedule. It now starts on the first Monday of the month, and is AM mode only. M4 has ceased transmission, last logged on 14 September.

More to read in the Morse section of this edition.

E23 times and frequencies:

Transmissions still only on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Same message all week.

Week 1:	0957 UTC on 6507 kHz
	1157 UTC on 8188 kHz
	1257 UTC on 5340 kHz

Week 2:	no transmission

Week 3:	0757 UTC on 4832 kHz
	0957 UTC on 6200 kHz
	1157 UTC on 8188 kHz
	1257 UTC on 6507 kHz

Week 4:	0957 UTC on 8188 kHz
	1157 UTC on 7250 kHz

Israeli Intelligence [E10]

A number of people reported an unusual amount of message strings sent by E10 during the past weeks. Here are the reports from Erwann Merrien, JMM, Harald Pakusch, John Maky and a couple of anonymous monitors.

Freq.	UTC	date	string
4780	1758	03-12	MIWE14A292015
4780	1642	03-12	MIWE8
4780	1617	03-12	MIWS4A41808ZE8
6575	1518	05-12	VLBR
?	2106	14-12	HNC1
10353	0845	17-12	CIOM2 00
5230	0145	18-12	CIO 8
5170	0325	18-12	SYN M2
5170	0145	18-12	SYN NR2ZEAG
5170	0323	18-12	SYN NR2ZEC5
4165	2225	19-12	CIO8	//5230 kHz
4165	2216	19-12	CIONR1Z140040ZA290105	//5230 kHz
5170	2216	19-12	SYN70	//4015 kHz
5170	2305	19-12	SYNNR1ZEA29	//4015 kHZ
4360	1936	22-11	CIO42127

Sound samples:

And also :

E18

E18 has moved to 5155 kHz.

E17

E17 was logged by oldtimer on 8157 kHz at 2112 UTC on 12 Dec. while John Maky reports:

« As if there was any doubt; this confirms it...
At 0300, on 4520, The English Woman (E17) was mixing with a Cuban Morse (M8a) station. E17 was transmitting a "null" message (759 759 759 00000) for the usual three minutes with the M8a transmission definitely on the carrier. Once the E17 "null" broadcast concluded at 0303, the transmitter was switched ON THE AIR to CW! The M8a then continued as normal. »

South Korean station

Last month I mentioned Takushi Ochiai's Japanese numbers web site

http://www3.justnet.ne.jp/~dxer/

and this month Takushi <jo2oxl@jamsat.or.jp> was so kind to send me a translation of the info on his page. Thanks a million, Takushi!

Frequencies

4500, 4600, 5450, 5550, 5715, 6215 kHz

Transmission times:

1200-1700 UTC

The station is heard frequently. The interval signals are South Korean pop songs (except for "the Song of General Kim Ilsung", which is a North Korean song). A female announcer reads out numbers.

The mystery is still not 100% solved, there are many open ends, such as its location, its purpose, and of course the contents of the messages. I think that the location of the station is not North Korea but South Korea.

Sample message

Interval signal (mostly South Korean pop music)

"No.3825, No.3825, please receive the message. The number of groups is 41."
5FG's or 4FG's
"I will repeat the message"
5FG's or 4FG's
"That's all. Thank you."

Callsigns

There are many different recipient id's, like: No.008, No.1346, Taedong River, Morang-bong, Phoenix, etc.

Recipient id	day	UTC	frequency
Morang-bong	14,15	1600	5550
No.007	5,6,21,22	1700	4600?
No.008	not sure	1600	5715
No.461	25	1400	5715
No.1346	16,17	1400	5715
No.2133	11,27	1400	6215
No.2255	7,8,25,26	1600	5450?
No.2345	4,18,19	1400	6215?
No.2626	5,17	1500	6215
No.3250	21	1600	5715
No.3535	10,11,26,27	1500	6215
No.3825	5,6,19,20	1600	5715
No.4545	19	1500	6215
No.4823	1,2	1400	6215	1)
No.5535 or No.6535	9,10,19,20	1530	6215	2)
No.7989	1,15	1600	6215

Interval signal only
Interval signal "Song of General Kim Ilsung"

Cherry Ripe [E03a/E04]

UTC	frequencies
0000	18864 // 21866
0100	19844 // 21866
1100	18864 // ?
1200	18864 // 23461
1300	18864 // 21866
2200	18864 // 24644
2300	18864 // 21866

Three note oddity [G04]

Hans-Friedrich's monthly ponderings. Thanks HF!

03.12.00	2105Z	4110 kHz
	2135Z	4210 kHz

Message :

42668 26250 15457 57070 64731 43711 52006 54782 04822 74038 83012 52253 67305 38685 55518 24850 68741 45704 64400 86305 53314 64240 17656 80607 30416 70038 02480 02802
= 28 groups

Remarks : No "9".

History :

Summer	2005	2035
Winter	2105	2135

12/99	3360	3260	2nd transm. -100 kHz.
01/00	3440	3340	.
02/00	3920	3820	.
03/00	4520	4420	.
04/00	5210	5310	2nd transm. +100 kHz
05/00	4830	4930	.
06/00	5220	5320	.
07/00	5360	5460	.
08/00	5320	5420	.
09/00	4760	4860	.
10/00	4580	4680	.
11/00	4270	4370	.
12/00	4110	4210

V09

"Guangzhou calling" [V09]. This Chinese number station, was recorded by Igor. The transmission was heard on 6885//10750 kHz, at 1600 UTC, on 03-12-2000, AM YL/CC 4FGs.

Message:

nr14 gr16
8456 9312 0229 9242 1457 5588 0634 3256
1537 1212 7998 2926 3895 5496 4522 0850

You can download the message from http://home.luna.nl/~ary

G07

A frequent guest in this column reports that G07 keeps to a yearly schedule. Here is a list of frequencies:

Times:

Winter	2110 UTC, 2130 UTC, and 2150 UTC
Summer	2010 UTC, 2030 UTC, and 2050 UTC

Frequencies and id:

January & December	5375	5085	4470 kHz,	742
February & November	5435	5185	4560 kHz,	267
March & October	5810	5240	4530 kHz,	418
April & September	6950	5745	4620 kHz,	359
May & August	????	5880	4640 kHz,	703
June & July	8175	6915	5750 kHz,	531

Czech stations

After a life cycle of more than 30 years, the Czech military numbers station on 1122 kHz seems to have vanished. It used to be on the air at H+10-12, and H+40-42.

Its sister station, that operated on 2136 kHz, is also silent.

Unid beacon

John reported the following unid station. Does anyone have any info on this station?

Frequency :	6955 kHz
Date/time :	29 Nov./ 2350 UTC
Mode :	USB, Male voice
Message :	"This is the 6955 beacon"
Remarks :	It runs a 30 sec cycle. 27 sec off, 3 sec announcement with short tone at the end of the transmission. Monitored until 0030, 30/11/00 and the format was constant.