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

(Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 18:19:51 +0200)

Morse stations

M18

Thanks to Takashi's tip, I heard M18 4073 kHz after a long absence.

The signal was very faint. The time transmitted was UTC+3.

M21 - Russian air defence

The Russians were heard on 4071.5, 5371, 5372, 5921.5, 6906.5 kHz with the usual "BT99" time markers and plots.

M23

M23 was as active as ever and was heard with id's 000, 310, 555 and 579. All logs are from Mark. Id's were repeated for 10 minutes.

Id 000	5-3	0330 UTC	10220 kHz

Id 310	1-3	0100 UTC	10250 // 11020 kHz
	1-3	0130 UTC	8160 kHz
	1-3	0200 UTC	7960 kHz
	1-3	2200 UTC	7770 kHz
	2-3	0200 UTC	7960 // 10110 kHz
	2-3	0430 UTC	12220 kHz
	3-3	0100 UTC	11020 kHz
	3-3	0430 UTC	12220 // 13140 kHz
	3-3	1700 UTC	11020 kHz
	4-3	0100 UTC	10250 // 11020 kHz
	4-3	0130 UTC	8160 kHz
	4-3	0200 UTC	7960 kHz
	19-3	0130 UTC	8160 kHz

Id 555	2-3	0230 UTC	10110 // 11220 kHz
	2-3	0300 UTC	7770 kHz
	2-3	2200 UTC	7770 // 8160 kHz
	3-3	2200 UTC	7770 kHz
	4-3	2200 UTC	7770 // 8160 kHz
	5-3	0300 UTC	7960 kHz
	8-3	2200 UTC	7770 kHz
	9-3	2200 UTC	7770 // 8160 kHz
	10-3	2200 UTC	7770 kHz

Id 579	4-3	0800 UTC	8307 // 9285 kHz

M40

More reports from Igor:

6290 kHz, 1432 UTC, 6 March:

vvv cq 211,432 (repeated)
vvv cq432 cq432 cq432
hr hr 21 21 = =
52633 9219t 32885 97396 39369 79t22 251t4 6278t t91t4 81435
11459 t129t 69274 18382 238tt 84536 76892 67t83 515t2 4176t
98t83 ar ar
rpt rpt
vvv cq432 cq432 cq432
hr hr 21 21 = =
52633 9219t 32885 97396 39369 79t22 251t4 6278t t91t4 81435
11459 t129t 69274 18382 238tt 84536 76892 67t83 515t2 4176t
98t83 ar ar
sk sk

5600 kHz, 1304 UTC, 6 March:

vvv cq 113,141 (repeated)
vvv cq141 cq141 cq141
hr hr 21 21 = =
t8748 91t92 4218t 19123 5354t 84535 19t59 17518 42257 411*9
59487 8245t t1185 98t71 96311 6522t 58339 t7187 43t78 154t9
11t7t ar ar
rpt rpt
vvv cq141 cq141 cq141
hr hr 21 21 = =
t8748 91t92 4218t 19123 5354t 84535 19t59 17518 42257 411*9
59487 8245t t1185 98t71 96311 6522t 58339 t7187 43t78 154t9
11t7t ar ar
sk sk

M82

Heard on 4700 kHz at various dates and times with "VVV ... de BML" calls and messages.

MX - Cluster beacons & channel markers

A
unid location
on 4558 kHz.
AAINNM
unid location
on 4558 kHz. Defective 'M'?
C
Moscow
on 4558 kHz.
E
unid location, on 4558 kHz.
F
Vladivostok
on 4558.2, 7039.2, 8494.2, 13528.2, 16332.2 kHz.
K
Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy
on 5154, 10872 kHz.
L
St. Petersburg
on 3340 kHz.
M
Magadan
on 4558, 5154, 7039, 8495, 10872, 13528 kHz.
R
Izhevsk
on 3195, 4326, 5466 kHz.
Trond recorded a voice message on 5465 kHz at 2100 UTC on 26 March. You can download it from the N&O site.
S
Arkhangelsk
on 10871.9, 20047.9 kHz.
T
unid location
4558 kHz.
TEEEEE
unid location
on 4558 kHz. Defective 'M'?
V
Khiva
on 3658, 4498.5 kHz.

Chinese stations

"V CP17 CP17 CP17 DE L9CC L9CC"
on 3536.5, 3543.5, 3551, 3554, 3556, 3561, 5423, 7045.5, 7050, 7051.5, 7053, 7059, 7068.5 kHz.
"V MW3D MW3D MW3D DE 2SLC 2SLC"
on 3330, 7074 kHz.
"V BFR7 BFR7 BFR7 DE 4XML 4XML"
on 3380, 5645, 5756, 8189.5, 8308, 10822 kHz.
"V GM1W GM1W GM1W DE B7UA B7UA"
on 4415 kHz.
"V IBEH IBEH IBEH DE L3FC L4FC"
on 4771.5. 6506.5 kHz.
"V LA5H LA5H LA5H DE NH8T NH8T"
on 4874, 5383, 5756, 7310, 8042 kHz.
"V JS4X JS4X JS4X DE 6DUO 6DUO"
on 6982 kHz.
"V HNR2 HNR2 HNR2 DE CN9R CN9R"
on 9071 kHz.

Russian military stations

John A. Cramer copied a number of Russian stations:

OLZ2
working with BDZX and JBQ6 on 13004 kHz. QSX 13844 kHz.
IP5Y
radio checks with 4SC2, 7I3P, NNPR, L38N, OROD, A5KZ, X2AK, G6MG, FBFK and coded messages to A5KZ on 13853 kHz.
RAL2
radio checks with RFH2, RHW2, RDU2, RBL62 on 13975 kHz.
QYVG
radio checks with TP8P, XMSC, AVGJ, CIEF, 4EIU, YEFA, AOS7, C95U, 4FDV on 13852 kHz.

Our LF specialist, Trond, caught a number of flash messages on 18.1 kHz, 21.1 kHz, and 13852 kHz:

UUU XXX XXX M8H8 M8H8 WRNU WRNU SVQZ SVQZ 10193 KORKONT 8503 3052 K
XXX XXX RKS RKS 90250 WORSOWANIE 7967 8801 WERWEY 4647 4739 K
XXX XXX RDL RDL 02428 59742 OBSAD 5308 4731 K
UUU UUU XXX XXX RJD52 RJD52 59993 TARNOBOJKA 4712 7237 UUU XXX XXX RJD52 RJD52 59993 TARNOBOJKA 4712 7237 K

248

An interesting unid station was reported by Igor. He heard "248" on 6852 kHz at 1500 UTC on 6 March. The format was a bit unusual as both long and short zero's were used. Check the N&O website for a MP3 of the transmission.

248 248 248 000 000 (long zero's)
248 248 248 000 000
248 248 248 000 000
248 248 248 000 000
248 248 248 000 000
248 248 24 t t t (short zero's)

Unid stations

3195
"JJT88 DE JJT44 QRK 4 K", presumed Japanese military net.
3419
Unid, repeating "U849"
3551
Unid, repeating "VVV EVX"
7630
Unid, repeating "HHH"
7864
Unid, repeating "V CQ DE 3SP ZNN"