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

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

Voice stations | Morse stations | Various modes | Intelligence news | Logs
Index | NS NL Home

Various modes

XPH - Polytone station

Predicted schedules for February:

I recorded the 0700 and 0720 transmissions of XPH on 26-1. XPH sent out two messages and I noticed that the first one ended with 00000 00000, while the second one just ended. No zero's at the end, which is the normal procedure, btw.

433 433 433 2 433 433 433 2 433 433 433 2 433 433 433 2
433 433 433 2 433 433 433 2 433 433 433 2 433 433 433 2
433 433 433 2

R>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> _________00362 00199 38584 92512 06708
79104 05034 91407 10992 58438 97147 73953 39069 86454 60366
22231 86122 08172 96150 02601 08337 83382 15045 38570 30133
29591 83077 46511 89747 71291 80183 43766 03758 28855 87317
74595 97478 10678 16256 05986 01254 16826 40078 57382 18490
22837 61415 41417 77413 38940 29252 92747 03138 33825 49087
80289 49642 58016 00935 57639 30187 05479 65427 74868 53798
80049 29571 89042 82000 20322 92218 46139 37212 60183 65182
21851 09878 36291 45771 15394 03105 65686 72558 11207 08555
17493 09365 90173 36306 42601 54221 20895 70585 93105 22434
13013 47860 45580 13277 21192 64423 43773 52737 65559 49813
00324 48297 21411 31062 76027 50908 71215 09934 50949 22700
29754 91818 18626 72398 41782 15429 80398 74553 98864 65134
04738 62382 72049 66620 87631 64078 96990 93364 67698 91398
51407 20733 29117 38092 01504 81396 24831 05349 23502 76625
67747 73249 68187 49596 83119 56847 75764 00463 18114 85822
60644 21293 08967 58902 78347 03100 06327 42466 91500 34631
36341 72930 00014 58524 51179 45031 31156 15274 31154 16246
87827 33490 49575 58573 66304 30912 89625 12379 57535 28729
33172 83108 94743 12223 34453 79725 10983 00177 40512 96466
04577 22729 40512 96466 04577 22729 00000 00000 05834 00119 <new msg>
09163 44008 16437 18653 68569 89186 65032 61199 13454 15029
31614 10000 46912 41125 57607 80210 17903 41806 68107 33505
69281 50937 40758 26456 04595 92475 13074 03182 74461 94939
78268 45215 71299 88176 35623 40816 10345 56940 70784 34838
80392 54008 07067 87887 20977 04438 52972 52489 89366 88451
55782 53265 41505 50142 51821 58026 79673 60087 80619 10101
60809 18556 84201 11005 52712 18032 40799 09342 90963 94506
57580 25832 47986 50744 65805 99504 08859 30976 47593 08512
45772 02279 48796 09236 34888 94878 90078 37691 44335 36260
52640 59573 59927 63170 97849 07887 01470 51628 61031 25094
01611 74625 24117 58863 45209 89428 91436 92844 09366 00081
53809 35644 08251 86010 55829 35644 08251 86010 55829 <<<<<
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

XSL - Slot machine

The still unidentified stations of the 'Slot Machine' were also very active in January. You can hear them on the following frequencies 4233, 4293, 6417, 6445, 8588, 8703.5 kHz. Best reception is in the Far East, Pacific and Western USA.

Unid FEC station

Peter Thompson reports a station that sends numbers in FEC on 11436 kHz at 1105 UTC. Possibly diplo.

54842 54842 54842 95 95 95
46669 46669 46669 90 90 90
92344 92344 92344 93 93 93
111 111 111
Repeated several times; then into 5LGs
92344 92344 92344 01 01 93 93 =
" and ending "= = 01 01 93 93
Transmission ends with "0000"

xxx7 Propagation logger

Discoverer Klaus Betke mailed me to say that the xxx7 propagation logger has moved up to xx807 kHz. See N&0 #31 for more details.

The location is probably near Moscow. Schedules are still on hh+07 minutes and hh+37 minutes.

Unid numbers RTTY station

7718 kHz, 1623 UTC, 26-12-2000, RTTY 200/500

This text was repeated during the 5 minutes transmission.

=8091 467589571382536
=8152 880257681460680
=8113 750598888024100
=8864 085959503316033
=7555 347756391082583
=7816 355607103714539
=9017 420924871300250
=7838 949541084334519
=8789 238660146037413
=83610 652522976844460
=86211 785763980690558
=85812 495453748528767
=84413 253952030193624
=82314 117038029708274
=81415 443168481217324
=80116 231221447720572
=84417 230102704900000)
58118 +++++++++++++++

<source: Igor>

OTHR

The ARRL reports a NATO Over-The-Horizon-Radar transmitting from Cyprus. Lowest frequency was 18100 kHz, highest frequency 29180 kHz.

Mother of all jamming stations continues to plague 40 metres

For some months now, regular users of the 40-metre band have been plagued from time to time by strong, very broad, frequency-hopping signals that somewhat resemble a slow-scan TV transmission. The signals, it turns out, originate from jamming stations in the Middle East.

"We know exactly what this is," said ARRL Monitoring System Coordinator Brennan Price, N4QX. "This is a very high-power Iraqi jammer of a very high-power Iranian shortwave broadcast station."

The loud buzzing signals have been heard on the 40-meter CW and phone bands and have even been "spotted" on packet. The jammers occupy about 10 kHz of spectrum.

Price says the shortwave broadcast station involved is The Voice of the People of Kurdistan, transmitted via The Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran facility in Teheran.

"The Iranian station has a daily transmission on 7100 kHz from the same facility, and Iraq has jammed that one also," he says.

Price explains that the Iranian station--which broadcasts anti-Saddam Hussein propaganda, hence the jamming--jumps frequencies several times each broadcast in order to avoid the jamming. Unfortunately for 40-meter users, the Iraqi transmissions follow. This results in a situation where it's hard to predict when the jammers might show up on a given frequency block or how long they'll stay.

Price said that neither station is transmitting where it is supposed to be.

"The Iranian and Iraqi telecommunications administrations have been advised of this," he said.

Price says that such "politically motivated" intruders typically don't disappear until the political situation changes.

"The 'woodpecker' went away when the Cold War did," he said. "This one will probably not go away until Saddam Hussein does."

<source: the ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League>

Voice stations | Morse stations | Various modes | Intelligence news | Logs
Index | NS NL Home