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

(Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2001 23:48:18 +0200)

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Voice stations

Lincolnshire poacher [E03]

Riots in Cyprus.

The riots in Episkopi followed on 3 July the arrest of Marios Matsakis, a Cypriot Member of Parliament protesting at the British decision to begin construction of 195-metre curtain antenna array. Four smaller masts have already been erected. The new array should be operational in 2003. The array completes the replacement of the 27 antennae that were dismantled in 1997. The giant antennae are part of Britain's strategic communications and intelligence network.

Villagers fear that the radiation of the antennae will cause leukaemia and brain tumors. The British are also destroying the unique ecology of the salt lake, they say.

Approximately 50 people were injured during the riots near the base, and over 30 vehicles were destroyed. The damage to base installations amounts to GBP 500,000.

As you know, the Lincolnshire Poacher transmissions originate from the above mentioned site. According to the UK authorities, the transmitter is turned off while the new installation is completed. This is either disinformation, or the constructors only work outside the Lincolnshire Poacher scheduled transmission times. The LP still transmits on its scheduled times but the signals seem to be weaker than normally. This could be a propagation problem, though. It was suggested that another site in the Middle East (eg. Masirah) could have taken over. The majority of the DF results however, say that the signals originate from Cyprus. Local investigations should give a definitive answer to the question. I'll keep you posted.

Further 'prove' that Cyprus is still THE place comes from Axel Kruse. He writes: "regarding the LP; there is a typical thing about the LP. It has a loose contact or something like that, causing interruptions in certain transmissions on certain frequencies. It sounds like an audio cable with a broken wire, and when you move the cable, you do sometimes hear the music and sometimes you don't. But with the LP it is different; sometimes you can hear the signal with a strength of, let's say, S8 and sometimes with S1. So they have a problem with one of their transmitters and it is not the input to the transmitter but the output. It may be the p.a. or contact problems regarding the antenna. This problem occurred approximately once a week in the past and also today (26-7) at the 1800 UTC transmission on 14487 kHz, and at the 1900 UTC transmission on 11545 kHz. So, if they had moved to a different QTH, or used an other antenna system they would most probably have solved the problem. I think that they are still transmitting from Cyprus with the old equipment."

It remains to be seen if the site has been fully operational during the past month. John Maky writes on 23-7: "For what it's worth, all three 1500 Sun frequencies (11545//12603//13375) were noticeably absent of a broadcast, replaced by what sounded like test tones. I guess we'll see if someone else reports hearing the same thing."

Robert reports on 22-7 from Cairo and says: "Here in Cairo, LP was barely audible on 15682/16084 at 1200 today, and not at all on 14487. None of them were audible at 1300. At 1400, an unusually clear and strong (signal strength 6) signal could be heard on 10426, but nothing on the other two frequencies."

Current E03 schedules - times in UTC

Id's used in July:

Id's compiled by Axel Kruse <al.kruse@gmx.de>

Thanks to all who sent me their logs and df results; to Axel for the id's and for correcting the schedules; to Duncan Campbell and George Georgiou for their help. Much appreciated all !

Israeli intelligence [E10]

Every now and then you come across a new theory. I recently read a note from a dxer who said that VLB2 probably belongs to the communications system of VLBI.

Is it??? This one was new to me....... Then who or what is VLBI???

VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) was developed 30 years ago as a radio astronomical technique for high resolution mapping of the structure of distant quasars. Soon VLBI also found many applications in Earth-based science.

Although VLBI uses very large antenna's (dishes), it's not them who transmit 'VLB2', that's for sure. I wonder if he said it as a joke or.......

An interesting E10 log comes from Finland. Pile heard VLB on 26 July with a long string at 0227 UTC on 5230 kHz.
VLB 2R55288461260715F100T19K100Z77260715461

G04

Is G04 really down the drain, or do they use a more sophisticated system these days? A -so far- unid station has a daily schedule on 4110 kHz at 20:57:50 UTC. It uses two callsigns: BRL and BRLB2. It always calls PNMB2. I haven't heard anything but the calls yet. It is most likely a coincidence, but nevertheless interesting to keep an eye/ear open for this station.

Here are two of my logs from 27 and 28 July.

[20:57:51][FRQ 4110000][TO ][PNMB2][TIS][BRLB2][AL0] BER 19 SN 04
[20:58:04][FRQ 4110000][TO ][PNMB2][TIS][BRL ][AL0] BER 17 SN 04

Needless to say that all info about G04 and/or the ALE station is most welcome.

S21

"Where is S21?", Hans-Friedrich asks. HF writes: "Has anybody heard S21? According to my files the station transmits from May to August each Tuesday and Thursday at 1742Z on 4973 and 5373. But I can't hear it!"

I haven't seen any logs this month, HF. If you know if the station uses new schedules, please let me know, folks.

Unid or V02 ?

Oldtimer checks in with a log of an unid station:

13346 kHz, 1028 UTC, 15 July. Spanish Female with numbers, finished at 1030 UTC.

I don't know if V02 has a schedule on 13346 kHz. They do have one on 13436 kHz. I asked OT if his frequency could be a typo, but he is 100% certain that it was 13346 kHz. If anyone has a positive id for this one, please write.

New star [V13]

Giuseppe Gravina from Italy told me in an e-mail that he found a new station after reading N&O. Now, that is nice to know :-) Thanks for the friendly note, Giuseppe.

"I just read today in the N&O # 38 the notes about V13, the New Star. Very interesting. This station is a new one for me so I had to try it. The results: at 22.00z I started on 8300 Kc, exactly at the hour, the music began (yes, flute) and the computerized YL voice with a long numbers message."

Giuseppe found New Star on 8300, 9725, 11430, 13750 and 15388 kHz with different broadcasts.

Counting station [E05, V05, E14, V14]

E05/V05

• General:
  The 'Counting Station', operated by the CIA, currently operates two schedules; one for the English service [E05], and one for its Spanish counterpart [V05]. Transmissions start at the top of the hour.
  
  TCS uses transmitter sites in the USA, Germany and possibly also other countries. One of the transmitter site in the USA includes Remington, VA. This site is officially run by the NCS (National Communication System).
  
  The maximum count reported is 225.
• Formats:
  123456789 NNN (repeated for 10 minutes, NNN is the 3FG ID)
  Ten tones
  COUNT N
  3/2FGs
  REPEAT COUNT N
  Repeat of the 3/2FGs
  END
• 123456789 NNN (repeated for 10 minutes, NNN is the 3FG ID)
  Ten tones
  GRUPO N
  3/2FGs
  REPITO GRUPO N
  Repeat of 3/2FG groups
  FIN

• Schedules:
  E05 and V05 have been heard on the following frequencies during the past few months:

Mark Slaten and John Maky noticed that E05/V05 activity has drastically slowed down. JMM mentioned E05 transmissions with a strong signal in Europe on Thursday 19-7 and Friday 20-7 on 10321 and 8080 kHz. These transmissions originate most probably from Frankfurt, Germany.

JMM says "I missed the call-up so I cannot tell if they were // and if it was the same message. In this case, it would be the first time I would have noticed a UTC 1200-2300 time slot E05 transmission with its repeat the day after, without the usual 1-3 day gap."

E14/V14 Control transmissions * Flashback *

• General:
  Both E14 and V14 were last heard in 1995. The transmissions started at the half hour.
• Format:
  Ten tones (same as E05/V05); then 4FGs repeated for 10 minutes. The transmissions were repeated several times throughout the day.

Other US intelligence transmissions

See Morse Stations 'M25 Flashback' and Other Modes.

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