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

(Date: Sun, 01 Sep 2002 13:52:49 +0200)

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Polytone stations [XP / XPH]

Various

XM

Only a hand full of XM logs this year so far. I heard it on 16 and 20 August around 0430 UTC on 5434.5 kHz with a fair signal.

S28

Buzzer, daily on 4625 kHz.

S30

Pip, daily on 3756 kHz.

XSL

Active on 6445, 6417, 8313, 8588, 8703.5 kHz.

XSW

Squeaky Wheel, daily on 3828.9 kHz. This is a real odd one. Being on the air for at least 11 years, no-one has ever heard a message from this station. It was first heard on 3667.9 kHz; operated for two or three years on 3695.6 kHz, moved to 3815 kHz, and finally moved to 3828.9 kHz. It had a daytime frequency on 5462 kHz for a while as well.

During the past few months I received various reports about a 2-second pip on 14425 kHz. All reports were from Northern Europe. The station is only heard in the early morning there. Anyone else who can hear the station?

OTHR / CODAR / Chirp sounders

The NATO Over-The-Horizon-Radar from Akrotiri, Cyprus, "is driving me crazy" says one of the contributors. He heard it on a number of freqs but forgot to write them down. One of the frequencies was 14350 kHz.

A wide CODAR signal was heard in the USA on 24950-24990 kHz, daily, 24 hours a day! Can someone confirm this, please?

Tom forwarded a note from Peter Martinez posted to the "ukfivemegs" group about three chirp sounders, two in Scotland and one in Holland.

"The Inskip sounder sweeps past 5400 kHz at 2 minutes 12 seconds past the hour and every 5 minutes. It's sweep rate is 100 kHz per second, so it will be 1 sec earlier on 5300. It just sounds like a sharp "clack" lasting 30mS in a 3 kHz filter. It's quite strong - about 30-40dB over noise in 3 kHz bandwidth so you won't have any difficulty in hearing it. Indeed you will have heard it before and ignored it. Currently the Inskip sounder is drifting late by 60mS/day, but it's reset back to nominal timing periodically. This morning (Thursday 21st August) it was about 500mS late.

The Scottish one sweeps every 15 minutes and goes through 5400 at 11 mins 55 secs past the hour. The Dutch one is also every 15 minutes and passes 5400 at 2 mins 20 secs. These two are pretty stable in their timing."

Interesting Tom. Thanks for forwarding it.

Jammers

The usual bunch of wobble, buzz, and bubble jammers from Iran, Iraq, China, N.Korea and Cuba are a pest on a large number of frequencies: 3912, 5680, 7000, 7010, 7030, 7040, 7050, 7060, 7070, 7080, 7086, 8350, 13420, 13430, 13440, 13470, 14005, 14036, 14061, 14105, 14175, 18090 kHz. Chinese frequencies are listed below.

Regular contributor Rimantas Pleikys recently wrote a very interesting article for Clandestine Radio Watch about China's jamming activities. This "Chinese -musical- Jamming Special" was updated by Rimantas on 14 August. Thanks OM!

Station data

• Transmissions:
  Chinese instrumental folk music.
• Special nonstop compilation.
• Loop playback from hard drive.
• Duration of 1 cycle - 1hr 00 min 00.2 sec.#
• Modulation:
  Camouflage jamming audio signals:
  1. Chinese instrumental folk music, computerized loop recording, t=60 min 00.2 sec.;
  2. 1st or 2nd program of Chinese National Radio.
• Jamming modulations:
  1. Programs of China National Radio in non-distorted AM mode for long distance high power (100-500 kW) sky-wave operation.
  2. Programs of China National Radio in Narrow FM - mostly for local (ground-wave) operation.
• Estimated transmitters used for musical jamming: 20.
• Most suitable time for reception in Europe: from 1600 to 0900 UTC.
• Chinese musical jamming is targeted at Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Falun Dafa and other stations.

Frequencies

Frequencies on which the musical jamming could be heard one or more hours per day. AM and Narrow FM jamming networks not included in the frequency list.
5925, 6035, 6140, 7150, 7160, 7190, 7200, 7310, 7470, 7515, 7530, 9355, 9445, 9450, 9455, 9510, 9545, 9675, 9905, 9915, 9945, 9955, 11510, 11520, 11665, 11700, 11750, 11760, 11785, 11795, 11855, 11935, 11945, 11955, 12065, 13610, 13625, 13670, 13675, 13680, 13690, 13775, 15280, 15510, 15515, 15625, 15665, 15680, 17615, 17640, 17695, 17720, 21500, 21540, 21570, 21650, 21690, 21700, 21705 kHz

Schedules

Listed are only the schedules that were audible in Europe in July and August.

Notes

• Usually between 30% and 80% of the used frequencies may be heard in Europe at the same time. The frequency that propagated best in Europe during July was 15680 kHz: daily from 1400 to 2200 UTC.
• You may hear 1, 2 or more jamming transmitters on the same frequency at the same time.

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