Sixtieth edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter

(Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 19:38:55 +0200)

Morse stations

M10

Last month someone asked for current freqs an times of M10. I compiled a list for those who are interested. So, there is no reason for not sending us your M10 logs now :-)

Freq	call	//freq	day	UTC
4485	555		Sun	0210
5027	555		Sun	0210
6758	555		Sun	0210
4485	555		Sun	0410
5027	555		Sun	0410
6763	444		Sun	0410
6763	555		Sun	0410
6763	666		Sun	0410
6763	777		Sun	0410
4030	555	//6763	Sun	1630
6763	555	//4030	Sun	1630
4958	555	//7605	Sun	1720
7605	555	//4958	Sun	1720
3631	555	//5471	Sun	1800
3631	777	//5471	Sun	1800
5471	555	//3631	Sun	1800
5471	777	//3631	Sun	1800
3810	555	//5861	Sun	1920
5861	555	//3810	Sun	1920
4007	555		Sun	2100
4485	555		Mon	0210
6758	555		Mon	0210
4485	555		Mon	0400
6763	444		Mon	0410
5301	555		Mon	0450
4030	555	//6763	Mon	1630
6763	555	//4030	Mon	1630
4958	555	//7605	Mon	1720
7605	555	//4958	Mon	1720
3810	555	//5861	Mon	1920
5861	555	//3810	Mon	1920
3522	555	//4007	Mon	2100
4007	555	//3522	Mon	2100
5301	555		Mon	2200

5945	555		Tue	1500
3522	555	//4007	Tue	2100
4007	555	//3522	Tue	2100 1

4485	555		Wed	0210
5027	555		Wed	0210
6758	555		Wed	0210
6763	555		Wed	0410
4030	555	//6763	Wed	1630
6763	555	//4030	Wed	1630
4958	555	//7605	Wed	1720
7605	555	//4958	Wed	1720
3522	555	//4007	Wed	2100
4007	555	//3522	Wed	2100

3522	555	//4007	Thu	2100
4007	555	//3522	Thu	2100

3523	555	//5027	Fri	0210
5027	555	//3523	Fri	0210
5027	746		Fri	0210
4958	555		Fri	1720
7605	555		Fri	1720
3522	555	//4007	Fri	2100
4007	555	//3522	Fri	2100

3523	555 1 1 //5027	Sat	0210
4485			Sat	0210
5027	555	//3523	Sat	0210
6758			Sat	0210
5027	555		Sat	0410
6763	555		Sat	0410
4958	555	//7605	Sat	1720
7605	555	//4958	Sat	1720
3522	555	//4007	Sat	2100
4007	555	//3522	Sat	2100

M16

French station "8BY" was heard by Andy in Poland. He copied the station on 10248, 14930 and 20946 kHz with messages like these:

"vvv vvv vvv 8by 8by 8by 673/816/281/391/594"
"vvv vvv vvv 8by 8by 8by 099/862/429/709"
"vvv vvv vvv 8by 8by 8by 533/433/459/161/609"

The complete set of 8BY's frequencies is 7668, 10248, 12075, 14931, 18415 and 20946 kHz.

M21, M21 variants, M41

As usual M21 keeps changing its frequencies. During March the following frequencies were used:

M21

3314//4391	id 0	daily	from 1-3 until ...
5131	id 0	daily	from 5-3 until 10-3
5260,5	id 0	few msg	from 4-3 until ...
5873	id ?	QRM BC	from 1-3 until 2-3
6321,5	id 9	morning	from 5-3 until ...
7994	id 9	mornings	from 1-3 until ...
4771,5	id 9	few msg	from 25-3 until ...
3314//4391		daily	from 1-4 until 30-4
5260,5		daily	from 1-4 until 30-4
6321,5		sporadically	from 1-4 until 30-4
7994		sporadically	from 1-4 until 30-4

M21 variants

4959//3301	UCF6	sporadically	from 1-3 until ...
5765		sporadically	from 5-3 until ...
4418		daily	from 1-3 until ...
5340			from 12-3 until 12-3
5738			from 5-3 until 5-3
5733,5	WZD		from 24-3 until ...
3182,5	F6UC	sporadically	from 3-4 until 30-4
5733,5	WZD	sporadically	from 6-4 until 30-4
4133	F2KN	sporadically	from 9-4 until 30-4
5765		sporadically	from 1-4 until 10-4

The stations do not use time stamps like M21 does. The time indicator consists of minutes only. M41 (WZD) is apparently still alive.

Examples

4418	08-03-2003	1620 UTC	xxx paba 17821 poseredryj 9524
5765	08-03-2003	1625 UTC	xxx paba 17821 poseredryj 9524
5349	08-03-2003	1630 UTC	xxx paba 17821 poseredryj 9524
5765	18-03-2003	1525 UTC	xxx kwow don 789 k
	18-03-2003	1619 UTC	xxx kwow tir 703 k
5733,5	24-03-2003	1628 UTC	8705268682820
			8706268487820
			8701268686420
			8702368684222
			8703268284222

Observations

3314//4391 kHz	15-04-2003	1851 UTC	transmissions are // but apparently with independent keyers.
4391 kHz	25-04-2003	1928 UTC	keyer defective again.

See also Newsletter 61 for more about M41 and Newsletter 62 for more about M21.

M29

Recently Igor asked for a sample of a complete message of VDE, which was posted by Laurent. So, for those of you who haven't logged this station yet, this is what it looks like:

VVV VVV DE VDE VDE VDE
VVV VVV DE VDE VDE VDE
VVV VVV DE VDE VDE VDE +
VVV VVV DE VDE VDE VDE = =
65 65 31 31 13 13 2200 2200 = =
66842 66842 85086 85086 11616 11616 20226 20226 85180 85180
50438 50438 36883 36883 77554 77554 44814 44814 30844 30844
83523 83523 52200 52200 00060 00060 74081 74081 34728 34728
81032 81032 78685 78685 52617 52617 47364 47364 00032 00032
72683 72683 28385 28385 14675 14675 60274 60274 23758 23758
88537 88537 51602 51602 30810 30810 53538 53538 32055 32055
58372 58372 +

One of my first 8BY encounters was 17 years ago. A sample can be found on the N&O website. I found it on 17 Feb 1986 at 2215 UTC on 4014 kHz. My equipment in those days consisted of a FRG7700 receiver linked to a Commodore 64 with a SWL/Airdisk card as decoder. My first digital experience :-)

M51

We hardly see logs of M51 these days. Jim copied it on 3847 kHz at 1909 UTC on 1 April, so it is still active.
"NR43A 01 21:08:37 2003 = EUXPP EWZNR..."

MX

On 6 April, ships from Russia's Pacific Fleet departed from Vladivostok for an exercise with the Indian navy in the Indian Ocean. The exercise will start in May. The Russian ships are the anti-submarine ships Marshal Shaposhnikov, Admiral Panteleyev and the tanker Vladimir Kolechitsky.

This coincides with an increased activity of the cluster beacons, just as it did during the last exercise. "C", "D" and "S" are active on all bands: 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 16 and 20 MHz. I haven't heard the 3 MHz cluster though. Not surprisingly, also the Far Eastern clusters were reported to be active. "F", "K" and "M" were heard on a number of frequencies.

"C" acted differently on Sunday 20 April. It sent "CK CK CK CK CK TNK TNK TNK TNK TNK" strings for 20 seconds and then resumed its "C" routine. This pattern was sent throughout the day. On Monday 21 April, I found "C" with "CK" and "CTN" strings. I received a log from Jim who heard "C" on an unusual frequency: 9116 at 2057 UTC on 14 April.

Franta reports activity from "P" in Kaliningrad on 3837 kHz at 0500 UTC and at 0700 UTC QRV on 4828 kHz with RTTY and CW traffic. Jim found the station on 3699.5 kHz at 2239 UTC.

"V" in Khiva was weak but readable on its usual frequency 3658 kHz. The chirpy St. Petersburg marker "L" can be heard on 3336.2 kHz and "R" from Izhevsk is on 5465.9 kHz.