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

(Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 21:29:47 +0100)

Voice stations

Lincolnshire poacher [E03]

Lincolnshire Poacher [E03] id's. October 01-14

UTC	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	UTC
1200	48472	48472	48472	48472	48472	48472	48472	1200
1300	87489	87489	87489	87489	87489	87489	87489	1300
1400	94598	82847	90958	07758	48472	36995	92117	1400
1500	92117	94598	82847	90958	07758	48472	80384	1500
1600	80384	92117	94598	82847	90958	07758	36995	1600
1700	36995	80384	92117	94598	82847	90958	48472	1700
1800	48472	36995	80384	92117	94598	82847	07758	1800
1900	07758	87489	36995	87489	92117	94598	87489	1900
2000	87489	48472	87489	80384	87489	92117	90958	2000
2100	90958	07758	48472	36995	80384	87489	82847	2100
2200	82847	90958	07758	48472	36995	80384	94598	2200

Lincolnshire Poacher [E03] id's. October 15-31

UTC	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	UTC
1200	54998	54998	54998	54998	54998	54998	54998	1200
1300	76493	76493	76493	76493	76493	76493	76493	1300
1400	84961	08374	79910	81989	54998	33055	42706	1400
1500	42706	84961	08374	79910	81989	54998	81231	1500
1600	81231	42706	84961	08374	79910	81989	33055	1600
1700	33055	81231	42706	84961	08374	79910	54998	1700
1800	54998	33055	81231	42706	84961	08374	81989	1800
1900	81989	76493	33055	76493	42706	84961	76493	1900
2000	76493	54998	76493	81231	76493	42706	79910	2000
2100	79910	81989	54998	33055	81231	76493	08374	2100
2200	08374	79910	81989	54998	33055	81231	84961	2200

<source: Axel Kruse>

Israeli intelligence [E10]

Tomonori Izumi from Japan writes that he heard the 'ABC' transmissions again. He found them on 17 October on 13555 kHz at 1431 UTC and on 7605 kHz at 1434 UTC. The transmission ended at 1439 UTC. Further transmissions were copied on the same frequencies at 1503 to 1515 UTC.

For a sound sample, please check
http://www.linet.gr.jp/~izumi/c/spynumbers/E10-ABC-200110171431.wav

Last month I published the list of unusual messages that reached me from an anonymous sender. It appears that this info was hijacked from a website where our friend Takashi Yamaguchi had put them on. I am glad that Takashi noticed it and sent me a note right away. He says that the following callsigns are a bit suspicious because the transmissions were barely audible: COE, ELB, KOA, PDC and VLD.

HNCM, HNCS, HNC1, HNC6, HNC8 and HNC9 are occasionally heard on 6567 kHz from 1430 UTC to 1450 UTC during the winter. Radio Pyongyang starts its non-modulated carrier at ca 1450 UTC and blocks the frequency completely after that.

ZWL on 14000 kHz at 1400 UTC could be heard simultaneously with E15's transmission at that time.

Three note oddity [G4]

After 5 months, G04 broke the silence with one message on Monday, October 1st, at 0900 UTC, on 5225 kHz. It hasn't been reported since.

S11A

S11A was heard by Gert on 5624 kHz at 1900 UTC on 8 October, while I heard an unscheduled(?) one on 5520 kHz at 1930 UTC on 8 October.

Unid stations

The unid Slavic station that Max van Arnhem heard on 10341 kHz last month, now also appeared on 7804 kHz on 7 October between 2050 and 2130 UTC. The same kind of spelling (Wladimir, Gregory, Dimitri, etc.) as on 10341 kHz, but now read by a female operator. Sometimes another station joined her on this frequency to exchange coded messages.

Max, these stations are most likely Eastern European military stations. I don't know from which country.

Alf from Germany has heard a couple of unid, probably Russian stations and asks if anyone can help with the identification.

He writes: « A Russian station (OM/RR) on 29715 khz USB transmitted blind messages. Are these tracking details? »

The messages look like this:

13 052 201 002
14 047 022 055
15 .....
16 030 097 ....
17 022 087 ....
18 026 093 033 ....

Another one from Alf: « A large unidentified Italian network on 6872 kHz in LSB-Phone. The operation style sounds formal, like an official net, no sign of an illegal pirate network. It looks like a daily sked for radio checks (0508 UTC). »

An Italian male operator, callsign 44, called stations 11, 13, 20, 21, 22, 30, 31, 40, 41, 42, 43, 60, 61, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 710, 711, 712, 713, 720, 721, 722, 730, 731, 740, 741, 742, 743, 760, 761, 770, and 771. The stations answer on the same frequency. They use Q-Groups ('Fine de QSO', 'Forte de QRM') and gave signal reports as:
NEGATIVO or 01, 12, 23, 34.

Alf says that the 2 figures could be only part of the callsign, e.g. IPR44 or CENTO 11, or something like that. Just a wild guess, of course.

Jim suggests that it is possibly ICS, Italian Navy, La Spezia, listed on 6873.5 SSB. If anyone has more info, please write to N&O.

Russian military stations

The following info was sent to me by an anonymous dxer from Japan.
Thanks OM!

Russian Unid Military Network #1

Traffic consisted primarily of radio checks every two hours. An occasional encrypted message of 5LGs was passed.

Callsigns:
KATOK-17, KATOK-22, KATOK-25, KATOK-44, KATOK-46, KATOK-55, KATOK-74, KATOK-77, KATOK-80, KATOK-86, KATOK-93, KATOK-94, KATOK-100, MALEN'KIY, BOL'SHOY (AKA KATOK-100)

Frequencies:
2650 kHz (Night), 5855 kHz (Day)

Russian Unid Military Network #2

Traffic on this network consisted of formatted messages in the following format: "5FG word 4FG 4FG". Obviously, this is some type of encrypted message, and this type of traffic was noted on a variety of frequencies.

Example:
"54828 SVINTETS 0064 0392" or "11233 BRONYA 2207 7720".

Callsigns:
LAZAK-24, VIRAS-11, UROZHAY-24, EFIR-12

Frequencies:
4517 and 5794 kHz.

Russian Unid Military Network #3

This network consisted of a variety of stations, at least one of which was an aircraft, and another was a vessel.

Callsigns noted were
KLAD-86(Aircraft controller), METEOR-24(Aircraft), NAGAN-58, KLEN-38, VETER-41, LIDER-24, GIPNOZ-60, ZIMA-158(Vessel)

Frequencies:
5360 and 5888 kHz.