Forty-first edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter

(Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001 20:50:22 +0200)

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Morse stations

M10

M10 is one of the most active morse stations around. Mark Slaten is a vivid M10 monitor who heard the station on the following frequencies:
4783, 5470, 5737, 6780, 6834, 7745, 8112, 9165 kHz.

See the frequency list for dates and times.

Headers:
555x3 186x3 17 450x3 27 (R5)
555x3 619x3 21 071x3 18 (R5)
555x3 186x3 17 450x3 27 (R5)
555x3 186x3 21 450x3 40 (R5)

M12

M12 seems to be less active than before. Just a few logs this month on 6782, 7657 and 8173 kHz.

M13

M13 is also slowing down and was reported no more than five times with three different messages:

M16 - DGSE

M16, the French DGSE related station, was quite active on all frequencies: 7668, 10248, 12075, 14931, 18415 and 20946 kHz.

Here is a selection of the transmissions. Each one started of course with the usual call-up 'VVV VVV VVV 8BY 8BY 8BY'.

933/533/208
906/116/775
762/153/612/116
455/506/739
080/208/788/708
542/506/643/673/914/371
433/561/463/354/037
445/533/121/153/475/208
434/195/523/906/124
612/195/538/219/313/300
121/037/274/015/506

M18

Probably due to propagation M18 was not heard for months. I copied the station a couple of times recently and other dxers in Russia and Japan have heard the station as well. I am glad that it is still on the air. Noted on 4503 kHz with 0101 0102 0103 et. Time is UTC+4.

M21 - Russian air defence

Active on 4032, 4096, 4559, 5201, 5221.5, 5315.9, 5731, 5873, 5877, 6979.5, 7311.5 kHz with its usual messages like BT992357??8????? Time on all frequencies was UTC+4. Codes between question marks: 0, 6, 8, 9.

M23

M23 was noted on four frequencies this month:

M24

Another very active station M24. The frequencies and headers as logged by various monitors in September.

Format:
560 repeated for 4 minutes
245 245 161 161 = = 161x5FGs = = 245 245 161 161 00000

Frequencies:
7304, 9418, 9422, 12184, 12195, 14532, 14578, 15748, 17446, 17544, 19405, 19826 kHz.

Headers:

• 348 (R4) 675x2 299x2 BTx2
• 348 (R4) 720x2 163x2 BTx2
• 407 (R4) 639x2 181x2 BTx2
• 407 (R4) 925x2 133x2 BTx2
• 407 (3x) 00000 (R4)(null msg)
• 528 (R4) 390x2 165x2 BTx2
• 528 (R4) 436x2 171x2 BTx2
• 528 (R4) 917x2 343x2 BTx2
• 531 (3x) 00000 (R4)(null msg)
• 629 (R4) 415x2 223x2 BTx2
• 629 (R4) 873x2 211x2 BTx2
• 675 (R4) 398x2 65x2 BTx2
• 675 (3x) 00000 (R4)(null msg)

M40

M40 is still banging away and Phoenix compiled a list of schedules.

M44?

I copied a station that transmitted single Roman letters for hours on 28 August. First heard at ca 2100 UTC. Frequency: 5200 kHz. Possibly M44.

MX - Channel markers & cluster beacons

Cluster beacon 'D' from Odessa, was active on 5153.6, 8494.6, 10871.6 and 13527.6 in August and September.

Another one that I had not heard in years was 'U', that popped up on 10871.5 kHz on Saturday 1 September at 2121 UTC. It was most likely a defective 'D' because 'D' was on 10871.6 the whole week but was silent when 'U' was on the air. The next day, 'D' was back and 'U' was gone.

Here is a rundown of the channel markers and beacons that popped up in September:

Besides the known transmitter sites of various beacons, other possible locations were mentioned by an anonymous dxer from the area. The beacon or marker is between brackets.

• Navy HQ Moscow (B, C, O)
• Navy Relay Center, Khiva (V)
• Cuban facilities (W)
• Pacific Fleet Bases
  • Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy (K)
  • Magadan (M)
  • Sovetskaya Gavan
  • Vladivostok (F)
• Northern Fleet
  • Arkhangelsk (S)
  • Gremikha
  • Kola Inlet
  • Litsa Gulf
  • Motovskiy Gulf
  • Polyarnyy
  • Ura Guba
  • Severodoninsk
  • Severomorsk HQ
  • Sankt Petersburg (L)
• Baltic Fleet Bases
  • Baltiysk
  • HQ Kaliningrad (P)
  • Kronstadt
• Black Sea Fleet Bases
  • Mukachevo (Z)
  • Sevastopol
  • Odessa (D)

The following signals were reported by several radio amateurs. It is not likely that these are 'our' markers, though.

More unid beacons were reported on the following frequencies:

Format is about 6-10 seconds of carrier followed by a sloppy CW ID which sounds like some kind of motor-driven mechanical keyer, then off, repeating every 2-3 minutes or so.

Thanks to all who reported these beacons. Much appreciated, folks. If someone has info about the beacons, please let me know.

Russian military stations

A Russian military control station was logged on 7019 kHz with the following message: XXX XXX RBL 66 73727 K

Another one transmitted the following on 21122 kHz:
XXX XXX WLHN 02906 56438 ANAPSID 5824 9550 K

The famous Russian station 'L9CC' was back on 7052.5 kHz, calling its companion 'CP17' at 1620 UTC.

Unids

Unid station with call '423' on 7035 kHz. Reported without date or time. The call was transmitted in CW. Went silent after 10 minutes.

Cyrillic 5LGs were noted by one of our friends in the Far East. The transmissions were on 14108 and 14270 kHz.

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