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

(Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2003 23:24:06 +0200)

Various modes

M42/X06 FAPSI

Earlier this month, mr Putin surprised us with a number of changes that he has implemented. One of them means the end of FAPSI.

President Putin has reinforced the powers of the Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti - FSB (Federal Security Service), the successor to the former KGB, by abolishing two other powerful agencies. The Federal Tax Police Service and the Federal Agency for Governmental Communication and Information (FAPSI) are both history. The tasks of the Tax Police will be taken over by the Interior Ministry. FAPSI's functions will be divided between the Defence Ministry and the FSB. Another change is the position of the Border Guard Service, that will be placed under the supervision of the first deputy director of the FSB.

But that is not all. Ex-director of FAPSI Viktor Matyukhin the first deputy defence minister at the head of a newly established state committee under the Defence Ministry, which will be in charge of state defence.

There are also rumours that say that a new agency will shortly appear. This new agency, the Federal Investigation Service (FSR), according to sources in the Interior Ministry, would be the counterpart of the FBI in the USA. (Source: Gazeta)

So, now FAPSI is gone and FSB and MOD will take over, I suggest that we will log them as "Department of State Communications". We don't know the contents of the messages. They can be diplo related, intel related or even of a military nature or a combination of these. They are state communications, that's for sure, so Dept of State Comms would be a good one i.m.h.o.

This month's logs:

X06 logs:

Mazielka calls (X06) were reported on:

8082 kHz on 20-3 at 1805 UTC
10519.4 kHz on 19-3 at 1545 UTC

M42 logs:

Frequency	date	UTC	details/mode
7810	19-3	1756	link 00031 to LKF, mode: Baudot 150bd/500Hz
10519.4	19-3	1545	mode: CROWD36
12217	29-3	1852	link 00068, mode: Baudot 75bd/500Hz
13584	15-3	1557	link 60179, mode: MFSK-32/CROWD36
16119	15-3	1535	link 90039, mode: MFSK-32/CROWD36
17463	18-3	1542	link 10163, mode: Baudot 75bd/500Hz
18410	15-3	909	link 40078, mode: Baudot 75bd/500Hz
18518	22-3	1030	mode: AM/18-tone multitone system running at 1.25bd, 40Hz tone spacing
18518	23-3	1030	mode: USB/13-tone multitone system running at 1.00bd, 40Hz tone spacing

XP/XPH

On Friday 14 March, Paul reported a XP transmission that had different format than usually. He explains :

"This mornings XP transmissions had a slightly different format. Instead of just sending the dk/gc once and preceeded by zeroes in the usual group of 5 characters [00318/00211] it was sent as 318 211, repeating it once. Also the first sending, a healthy 9+20dBs in South London, dropped seven times at around 0704z. The spectrographic trace has been loaded to the photo section to show modified opening groups, the first tone being 384Hz[3] then 352[1], 465[8] 306[space], 368[2], 352[1], 515[repeat], 306[space] then that is repeated again. Message shown below. Missing numerals have not been recovered."

XP 14948kHz 0720z 14/03/03 ID592 dk/gc 318/211:

592 592 592 1 592 592 592 1 592 592 592 1 592 592 592 1
592 592 592 1 592 592 592 1 592 592 592 1 592 592 592 1
592 592 592 1

R>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> _________318 211 318 211 62968 09984
36004 90700 04113 79958 88090 76306 64102 94010 31234 21055
48580 42311 43722 42481 59386 39388 09407 55761 63073 82832
29615 55620 48443 99770 99206 16824 44610 39950 03328 61692
72081 95531 00939 97067 78894 03269 34783 31854 96156 57988
32656 37287 98163 59342 55412 84914 02916 02318 61643 00196
13952 20018 72484 28728 44593 58725 54962 60434 53763 18422
14097 92531 64493 06506 21857 33072 16161 87009 45638 28378
41648 96664 48777 46058 11494 77317 05042 34166 15847 64490
60618 97286 32448 32475 92255 91142 68__6 30340 88054 4_036
50082 78123 22585 59183 40482 35995 55543 70480 41355 36707
67125 98993 38515 49580 19473 01758 64148 48880 73272 15430
45870 60511 30378 77767 28263 82061 69725 51618 51476 82746
81282 86602 96804 91441 56692 13050 22405 74761 85473 14474
14987 80771 20763 70168 06799 93110 59297 52245 28194 03910
81087 64012 38095 35011 46148 31320 53942 94097 42079 29714
24215 90234 44217 35739 60775 04601 10019 42802 63343 04119
03202 38543 30049 33790 99122 31880 72819 59088 32662 89378
12500 58034 70858 06682 28553 68649 69566 97323 90735 36980
30230 29434 43439 04613 90395 22452 18291 75237 05482 05462
23391 01882 37137 39830 89674 71618 36730 88261 37992 91709
07327 95211 23893 05740 58105 62025 61827 85258 63981 <<<<<

Thanks for sharing this with us, Paul.

XP has used the following schedules in March:

0700 UTC	-	13548 kHz	2100 UTC	-	9140 kHz	2110 UTC	-	10972 kHz
0720 UTC	-	14948 kHz	2120 UTC	-	7610 kHz	2130 UTC	-	9475 kHz
0740 UTC	-	16248 kHz	2140 UTC	-	6840 kHz	2150 UTC	-	8122 kHz

XPH	1830 UTC	-	11617 kHz
	1850 UTC	-	10130 kHz
	1910 UTC	-	?

Due to the change to summertime per April all schedules will be one hour earlier next month.

Jammers

Besides the usual bunch from Iran and Iraq in the 7MHz band, the following jammers were reported:

Cuba:	6030 kHz
India:	5102 kHz
S.Korea:	657, 819, 999, 1053, 1080, 6520 kHz
Saudi Arabia:	7590 kHz

And of course this one:

[Mar 20] With the words "The facilities of the Iraqi regime have started to be hit... This is the day we have been waiting for... The attack on Iraq has begun," the United States jammed and then obliterated Baghdad Radio with its own psychological war programming, Reuters reports, in a remarkable move to control the airwaves over Iraq. (Info via CRW)