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

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

Voice stations | Morse stations | Other modes
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Voice stations

E03 - Lincolnshire Poacher

No anomalies were reported this month. The Lincolnshire Poacher has use the following id's in the first half of August:

...and in the second half of August:

E04 - Cherry ripe

On request Cherry Ripe's schedules:

E05

E05 schedules as heard since May 2002.

These were actually heard during July and August. I'm not sure if the rest is gone or not. Additions and/or corrections are most welcome.

I copied the 1500 UTC transmission on Sunday, 25 August on 14739 and 16198 kHz. The signal was weak to unreadable in W.Europe, while it was fair in N.E. USA and strong at the West Coast. The signal didn't come from the USA and also not from Europe. Looking at the signal strength monitored by dxers from various parts in Europe and the USA, the most probable location is the Far East. The signal followed the same propagation pattern as stations from Japan and Hong Kong. Guam looks like a good candidate.

E10

On 5 and 6 August, ABC transmitted its first suffix: "ABC 2" on 6428 kHz. I wonder if this is the beginning of a new service or that they did it just for us. If you did it just for us, ladies and gents, please send us an "ABC 3" message on Wednesday 4 September. Thank you very much! :-)

VLB has sent more string messages: "VLB 25" and "VLB 30". As this was the only station that sent various string messages during Israel's increasing military activity in Palestine, one might start to think that VLB and Palestine related operation are somehow connected....

Our new contributor, Jochen Schäfer from Germany, has heard HCN in the 41 meter band somewhere in July. He cannot remember the exact frequency but it was on the frequency that Radio Pyongyang uses for its French transmissions. Beside the string "Hotel November Charly X-Ray" he also copied "HNCG" in March.

On 20 August I found ABC and YHF mixing on 4560 kHz at 1900 UTC. After finishing its message YHF signed off at 1912 UTC and left ABC on the frequency. ABC left 4560 at 1920 and popped up on its normal frequency 6428 kHz at the same time.

21st August brought us "KPA 21ZKIMD" at 1920 UTC on 5230 and 8025 kHz.

The next day KPA returned with yet another string message on 5230 at 1920 UTC: "KPA 0146EHJFG". (recordings on http://home.luna.nl/~ary/download.htm)

Where on earth are E10's locations? In Israel? Iran? Saudi Arabia? Egypt? Turkmenistan? Mediterranean? Well, they are, if ITU's DFs are correct. But how accurate are the DFs of the ITU monitoring stations? Not very accurate in my opinion. Here are the results for 4880 kHz (ULX) monitored from Spain, Italy, France and the UK. Good DF is difficult, I know, but aren't these professionals???

Listed are the geographical co-ordinates and/or the location of the transmitter and/or the bearing from the monitoring station.

Another one: CIO on 5091 kHz.

.... and EZI on 6840 kHz.

Great! The bearings were 90, 92 and 94 degrees. 90-94 degrees from Spain is Israel. "EZI" resembles a Turkmenistan call, so the location that El Casar mentions is Turkmenistan, not Israel. Bizarre :-)

G06

Thomas writes that he has heard a German lady, reading numbers on 22 August at 1830 UTC. The transmission was on 6887 kHz. This might have been a G06 transmission.

842 842 842 (R3) 635 635 47, followed by 47 5FGs, 635 635 47 00000.

S06

Gert heard the Russian man on Saturday, 24 August at 2040 UTC, on 5815 kHz.

S11a

Logged on Thursday 8 Aug 2002, 0500 UTC at 4783 kHz, message 972/00. "S11a is almost completely overshadowed by the digital station that can be heard there all day and is therefore difficult to hear.", says Gert. Maybe that is the reason why this is the only log this month.

V09

"Guangzhou calling" was copied on 6885, 7750 and 10750 kHz.

V22

"Beijing calling" is on 8375 kHz at 0000 and 0100 UTC.

V24

South Korean station V24 has a daily sked on 6215//5715 kHz at 2300 and 0100 UTC.

Chinese "robot"

Robert reports the Chinese robot station on various frequencies. He says "This is a typical USB operation with RF carrier suppressed, notching of audio frequency from 300 to 1000Hz is clearly observed during it's transmission, probably used to increase a possible DSP identification."

Logged frequencies: 4480, 5700, 6840, 6860, 7090, 7770, 8025 kHz.

Uwaga

It has been a while that I have seen a log of this Polish military station sending its "UWAGA" ("ATTENTION") messages. Heard by AF on Thursday 22 August on 5230 kHz.

WBNY - Voice of the rodent revolution

Attention, all rabbits!!!

The "Voice of the Rodent Revolution" of Commander Bunny was heard on various days during August. This is an old fun station that appeared on Easter Sundays as early as in 1991. Frequencies used in this period include: 6925, 6950-6958, 7412 kHz. All transmissions lasted 10-15 minutes.

The first transmission in August included the song "Here comes Peter Cottontail", after which Commander Bunny called his fellow rodents to start a "Rodent Revolution" and read out a secret numbers message. The voice was speeded up to get the cartoon like "rabbit sound". Chris Smolinski recorded the transmission and Derek Glidden successfully decoded the message. Good job, Derek!

The messages during the second transmission was read in a normal voice between parts of the song "White Rabbit".

I played the first recording at a lower pitch so that it was easier to hear what Commander Bunny had to say and I jotted down the following numbers :

12 2 7 12 13 18 14 1 8 4
18 12 6 14 14 9 5 20 1 12
13 5 8 21 4 2 2 7 8 8
9 23 14 20 8 12 19 19 5 8
18 15 8 10 4 12 2 10 12 17
17 14 19 18 21 8 6 14 19 7
17 14 1 6 12 13 4 12 19 5
12 19 4 18 12 2 2 11 20 13
13 23 14 20 19
message repeated

Derek did the same, analyzed the code and translated the numbers to:

"Al Fansome is a good human. He will feed you. Eat the special carrots we got from Gania. That is all. Bunny out."

But who are Fansome and Gania? Tom Sevart enlightens us: "Al Fansome is a pirate DX'er who, for some reason, is the target of Commander Bunny's animosity. Gania is probably "Ganja," as in Captain Ganja, a pirate operator." Thanks for the explanation, Tom.

The code used for the first message of the second transmission appear to be different from the second one. The second one is the same code as used in the first transmission.

Message 1:
11 14 14 1 8 17 18 12 22 18 12 17 7
Repeated 5 times

Using the code of the first transmission this would translate to:
"BOOMERSA?SARF", which doesn't make sense. Anyone???

Our furry friend loves a good joke as we can see in the second message which was decoded by Scott Robson.

Message 2:
5 8 2 2 18 1 17 18 1 14 2 4 13 18 3 4
Repeated 5 times.

Which translates as: "Hello Mr Smolinksi"

Chris devoted a page to the station which also includes the decoding
table: http://www.spynumbers.com/WBNY.html

Chris' recordings are on JMM's site. Thanks OM!

• http://www.cvni.net/mp3/WBNY.mp3 (ca 6.5 Mb)
• http://www.cvni.net/mp3/WBNY2.mp3 (ca 4.3 Mb)

Indonesian / Asian illicit stations

The suspected terrorist and para military stations from Indonesia that I mentioned in July were also reported in August. A popular frequency range is 14000-14125 kHz. Mode is usually USB, but LSB has also been noted.

Frequencies: 7000, 7015, 7025, 10105, 14000, 14005, 14080, 14100, 14110, 14115, 14120, 14125 (Timor), 14230 (Timor), 18010 kHz.

Indian paramilitary were heard in USB and RTTY on 18075 kHz, while others used 14044 kHz.

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