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

(Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 23:38:50 +0100)

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Morse stations

MX - Channel markers & cluster beacons

A new cluster appeared recently on:

Channel marker OB was heard on 3036 kHz.

On 23 Dec I heard a signal on 3508 kHz that was either a DASH or the letter 'T'. It was on for many hours.

M07

Not reported very often, but it is still around.......

5027 kHz, 0223 UTC on 31 Dec. Thanks Igor.

450 44 44 19 19 = = 12637 70383 72248.... = = 44 44 19 19 ttt

M21 - Russian air defence

The Russian Air Defence stations are quite interesting if you follow them around. The SW morse system is most probably a backup for their satellite and/or land line systems. Officially the Russian Air Defence is now a branch of the Russian Air Force after the merger of various branches two years ago. This has had no effect on the activities. They seem even more active than in the past. I have been monitoring them for quite a while now and my findings were backed up by recent postings of Igor and Tom, who have found similar transmissions. Here is a run down.

Frequencies change often. The following were active during the past two months: 2278, 2718, 3281, 3271, 3314.5, 3363, 3386, 3802, 4014, 4574, 4868, 4885, 5304, 5788, 5820, 5873, 6864,5, 7987 kHz.

M21 sends messages with tracking info (grid codes) and when there are no 'normal' messages to be sent, it transmits a QRV message once a minute. Note: zero is transmitted as 'T'.

The QRV transmissions can easily be recognized. They look like this: BT99?2029?9????? (note: BT is the same as '='). All QRV messages start with BT99 and end with five question marks. There are currently two formats: BT990032??0????? and BT99?0015?9?????.

The first four digits after BT99 is the time. This is the local time of the target area and is mostly UTC+3, but other times have been noted as well.

The last digit (currently 8, 9 and 0) is either linked to the target area or the sender.

Samples:

BT990032??0?????
BT992305??8?????
BT99?0015?9?????

=12997112616822
=12994118586122
=991724??0?????
FOR ZMB ZMB 444406 = 44972290 RPT
FOR ZMB ZMB 444406 = 44972290 ar
=991813??0?????

= 7900 990 086804
= 00 7904 990 086704
= 00 7904 90 085604 = 5177 140 51800 eee 511800
= 7901 996 347505 /
= 7903 996 942505
= 00 7905 996 948405 /
= 00 7905 96 948405 = 5177 460 511800
= 7900 990 066106
= 7902 990 087806
= 7904 990 086706
= 00 7904 996 383206
ar

= 16 7904 845 745528
= 7906 845 475528
= 192 7902 845 747730
= 192 7904 845 747630
= 7906 845 746530
= 192 7906 845 061332 ar
= VUWE VUWE VUWE = WZD = ar ar ar

The following message was transmitted by 'OXGR'

R 02683374708
R 02783377309
R 02783327710

This one was hand keyed:

81111285924
2002701080832
2003115616124
2966?0?????
etc. etc. etc.
after a while followed by the automatic QRV messages.

M63

Romanian A2A can be heard on 3394//4318 kHz working the usual string of stations on 3183 kHz at 2200 UTC.

Unid station on 2362 kHz

An unid morse station occupies 2362 kHz for about a month now. It is probably a Slovak military station. It is best audible during the European evenings. It transmits a marker in slow morse and every now and then it transmits a message. The marker is the call sign of the recipient, not of the sender! The call signs of both the sender and the recipient change every day. 2362 kHz operated a couple of days in parallel with 2852 kHz. Similar stations operated on duplex freqs 3377//3832 kHz in late December. The format was slightly different as you can see.

Call signs:

YFS1, VJEM, B3MB, MEVH, 3J6U, VRMF, RJBX, ICMV, BFXO, R8Y5, VHTR, RJBX, ICMV, F8CA, C6XH, CH8N, TR2F, and many others.

Format 1:

Marker VHTR with occasional messages like
VHTR VHTR VHTR DE R8Y5 QTC 53 20 31 1718 855 = VHTR 5lgs = R8Y5
Often followed by R8Y5 FOR VHTR RPT QLN

Format 2:

Marker TR2F
TR2F TR2F TR2F DE CH8N CH8N QTC 62 20 24 1912 = 505
TR2F = 5LG = CH8N K, followed by marker TR2F.

Notes:

53 20 31 1718 855 means

RPT QLN, RPT ALL QLN or RPT TXT QLN means 'Read this message back to me on land line'.

Weird Morse station

Igor found a station that uses unusual morse characters on 7680 kHz. The station transmitted for at least 8 hours. This looks a bit like the dash less station that we heard about a year ago.

Although he is not certain about it, Igor thinks that 4-character groups were sent. He named the strange character a-j, just to be able to show how the groups were sent.

Using these letters, the groups look like this:

...afda eedf gbch iggc baca gahi iija fded hgdf dceg ...

Any info about this one is of course more than welcome!

Chinese military

Igor checks in with a sample of a Chinese military transmission that he copied on 14970 kHz.

j3qz de j1vr cl k
r qsa 3 hr msg
msg nr 4195 ck 72 35 o117 165o =
76n4 5363 a6d3 5t74 6n73 64ut 435d n37u adt4 nda5
6u7u nt4d d55t annu 3ta4 nuud 4a7u dt54 na7n 75u3
7n5t u363 t4ua 5t3n 6d3a 4d67 5u3t at53 at67 465n
u373 un4a nu65 nan7 4na5 43ta 3du4 a44t 3t35 n4n6
5nn7 nt64 da4n 657d d4a6 du3u t6u5 d5n6 75d5 754a
n6u4 6346 d4at 37tn au4a 33da n7da ant7 d745 76u3
3774 74t6 537a 3dn6 u5n5 d7t3 4ud5 d7ut 64u7 56a5
7a65 d676 ar ar
ahr ahr msg nr 4196 ck 71 35 o117 165o =
td35 647t ua5d u65u ud34 tuu6 537n tdnn 7a7d 4d5t
753u 667d 3ndu u6dn 764a 5d43 ua6t a53u 4an7 76t7
574d 3d47 a47t anta uan5 du7u unt4 n63d na5n 37d4
au65 d53n 4747 63tt n7n6 4u4t 63na 35nu td7d tnu6
6d73 6543 nt3u u553 n675 6434 n7a5 4u6a 37ua d7a7
5tdu 636d a54a 6nut 6u64 t63d 74a3 n45n 5td3 d376
36a6 u43t dt74 3ntn d6n4 4utn ta33 6n4d 3546 564a
d3n7 ar ar
znn gb sk

More unid stations

As usual, Igor is the main supplier of unid stations. Keep them coming Igor :-) Info is most welcome, folks.

Unid 1

5501 kHz, 0742 UTC, 05-01-2001

This station uses the Cyrillic character ..-.. between the call up and the message.

Samples:

vvv cq de mqoa mqoa mqoa
..-.. ..-.. ..-.. = nr41 nr41 nr41 nr41 nr41
time 1534 time 1534 time 1534 time 1534 time 1534 =
oya/zx3 ar = oya/zx3 ar = oya/zx3 = oya/zx3 =
oya/zx3 ar = oya/zx3 ar = oya/zx3 ar

vvv cq de cswr cswr cswr cswr cswr mqoa mqoa mqoa mqoa mqoa
..-.. ..-.. ..-.. = nr nr nr71 nr nr71 nr71 nr71 nr71
time 1546 time 1546 time 1546 time 1546 time 1546 = =
bop4/2 kg ar = bop4/2 kg ar = bop4/2 kg ar = bop4/2 kg ar =
bop4/2 kg ar

Unid 2

7502 kHz, 1000-1005 UTC, 07-01-2001

vvv srpw ii aqbw ii nylz ii jxio ii fm kr de iogr qtr 01 ii qru
vvv srpw ii aqbw ii nylz ii jxio ii fm kr de iogr qtr 02 ii qru
vvv srpw ii aqbw ii nylz ii jxio ii fm kr de iogr qtr 03 ii qru
vvv srpw ii aqbw ii nylz ii jxio ii fm kr de iogr qtr 04 ii qru
vvv srpw ii aqbw ii nylz ii jxio ii fm kr de iogr qtr 05 ii qru
ar ar
vvv srpw de iogr qsy 84 k

Unid 3

8100 kHz, 0240-0400 UTC, 04-01-2001. In progress.

Sends blocks of 50 5-character groups. Each block is sent in 3 minutes.

Sample block:

fpvcm flvo1 0au5d qasoc juda6 5pz1z zklia ycn57 p4m3i wxnzf
quokw 8re1r 10nrw skyws h4skt zhmdg mrowc 0eq51 b1jal l0tgv
y4r7q sixsj h1m9v 29b38 hxlaj q3zqn l2ayl w3rzd 3x1xs e7ima
afz5e mqpqe ztg60 6ioiw 2drie qifxu sqyl7 r8wio 6ltop jt85i
3x12g j4b8f vsy2c 8kpuv 8ushy rt6l1 dzvp7 r3ldf eg19v 2rgn9

Unid 4

8100 kHz, 0212 UTC, 19-12-2000. Automatic CW. 2LGs, 3LGs, 4LGs, 5LGs & 5FGs. Long zero's.

Samples:

CT VD NX ZU YZ JN HE XP SY LX
GZ HI VN OQ ZH GN OW QH VF RX
XW XQ SB NY PN ZM EA UN EN LN
WG IO VB OM PU LH VN QT IZ HU
PA GF AR ZJ QB AP ZO LS RE DZ
UA IW BZ OT KC ZH LF MP PA KL
HP KB GF ZW OS UD PW AQ SH ER
UK TF HD OI BX OG BX PX CT FI
FE PJ TI YZ IU CE WA CN VE RI
IG QJ KP MS GJ UO XN WM MU RW

CTA DJN TZU YZC NPH BXP SYA XVG SHI VNZ
QGZ CGN OWS HSV CRX QTS TNY PNW MUE MUN
ENF NMW UIO VXC MGP QLH VNO TCI XSV PAN
FIA WZJ QBN PGZ RLS REO ZHU FIW BZB TWK
NZH LFA PVP OKL HPA BWG IZW OSD DOP XAQ
SHV RWU NTF HDU IPB HOG BXQ XGC TVF OFE
PJZ IHY CIV CEK AFC VEG RIJ GMQ QKP MSC
JWU ZXN WMS UJR

A2GRB5

EOZCJ LSPWY FSAZF YXAYX EFJFZ CRFSD VXOWP HVEPX EZLBT
UBHAF FWUZS NLVUC VSCJG WDALW ZGUYR MTDIE YBEXW FGVTX
YEXAW OQCMB FWLJK RZFWF FLMGV CVCJN ZVGTL PKHEG CKJZY
LKWEV ZJOSZ TEKIQ GMRSF MLUJV VBSHI FJVZH EIAYA RVWCL
DBUNG HACKV RDIJW EWCSP TNZSM XPSEB HTHKA PHJCG ZEAEL
GRANM MZJGU QCHAD GOXSU EXPWV

51NVE 1GKBI

CTAV JNXT URYZ JNPH BXPZ YALX GZSH ZVNZ QGZS GNSO
SQHS FKRX XWFX TSBT YSPN ZMUE MUNL NFLN WGUI TVXC
MGPU LHQV OQTC ZXSU PANG IARW JKQB APGZ RLSZ EODZ
UAFI FBZB TWKY ZHEL AMPV AOKL HPAK WGFI WFOS UDOP
XAQM HVER UKNT EHDU IPBX OGPB QPXG CTVF OFEL JZTI
YZCI XCEK AFCN VEGR JIGM JGKP MSYG WUOZ NPWM MUPR

08476 74682 80725 93260 26139 90528 71212 35454 89428 96140
74356 60436 30423 95689 23763 53846 78342 69784 10712 62974
18187 79686 18507 59181 21249 61532 23923 21320 79191 45315
75487 13421 49542 87026 95483 78319 16969 65873 81494 78453
06302 46367 94025 87350 76757 98183 25915 15284 24093 89121

JT VL ND EP WV RL ZE RN 8C H

Unid 5

1468 kHz, 0420 UTC, 22-1-2001, heard near Prague.

This one is a bit odd. Petr tried several receivers and heard the station on all of them. This makes it less likely that the frequency is an harmonic. I have never heard a CW station on MW before. It is however possible that this is a Czech military station because the famous military numbers station on 1122 kHz (S31) has been using this frequency for about 30 years!

The transmission consisted of a number of 3FGs like 275 275 555 555 470 470 ... then = = and followed by faster 5-digit groups.

BX33

The BX33 network is still going strong on 7600 and 7800 kHz with stations BX33, BX56, BX57, BX58, BX72, BX74, BX75, BX76 and others.

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