Seventieth edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter

(Date: Sat, 06 Mar 2004 00:00:25 +0100)

Morse stations

Observations by Fritz, Takashi, Tony, Tomonori, Japan Ute Monitor and myself.

M01A

4427 kHz	30-1	1955 UTC	111 555 88120 88120 87154 87154 89546 89546 83489 83489 111 000
5262 kHz	30-1	1025 UTC	.... 07684 05638 55128 48836 31233 28966 67035 = 215 16 111 55128 111 000
3577 kHz	18-2	2019 UTC	333 10981 10981 (x6) 333 19803 19803 (x6) 333 19131 19131 (x6) 111 000

M10E

5705 kHz

24-2

0835 UTC

.... 08 08 18 18 == 5FG(x18,rptd) ==
08 08 18 18 08 08 18 18 62901 62901 62901 96 96 15 15 ==
5FG(x15,rptd) ==
96 96 15 15 67065 67065 67065 32 32 17 17 ==
5FG(x17,rptd) == 32 32 17 17 000

M16

14931 kHz	8BY	VVV 8BY 8BY 8BY 68/ 16
20946 kHz	8BY	323 / 912 / 682 / 190 / 661 VVV VVV

M21

The following article was published by Interfax in Russia.
(http://www2.interfax.ru/eng/news/politics/040208/40830/story.html)

MOSCOW. Feb 8 (Interfax) - Russia's radar engineering troops detected more than 1,000 foreign combat and spy planes in the vicinity of the Russian border in 2003, radar troops chief Alexander Shramchenko told Interfax.

In total, over 500,000 radar targets were detected last year, including over 80,000 foreign, he said.

The intensity of foreign combat and spy planes' flights did not decrease in 2003, and the radar troops were alerted 16% more often, said Shramchenko. "The air situation was particularly disturbing in the Northwestern, Central, North Caucasian and Kaliningrad air defense zones," the general said.

Up to 40% of the radar engineering troops' units, as well as radar intelligence groups and dual-purpose radars of the State Civil Aviation Service were used to monitor Russia's air space, he said. The system of gathering and processing information, and controlling the use of the country's air space is being perfected, Shramchenko said.

(Thanks for the tip JMM)

The Air Defense stations are using satellites of course but their terrestrial backup and training facilities are still on the air on shortwave. The stations were heard on the following frequencies in February:

3322.0 kHz	23-2	2035 UTC	ID 0, QSA 0/1
4059.0 kHz	20-2	2058 UTC	ID 0, =992358??0?????
4951.5 kHz	13-2	1934 UTC	ID 0, =992243??0?????
4071.5 kHz	9-2	1257 UTC	ID 8, =991558??8?????
4973.5 kHz	19-2	1638 UTC	ID 0, =991938??0?????
5063.0 kHz	7-2	0723 UTC	ID ?, =1830516 23
5198.0 kHz	13-2	1538 UTC	ID 0, =991837??0?????
5254.0 kHz	7-2	0703 UTC	USB voice tracking reports "096 91515 03"
	8-2	2155 UTC	USB voice tracking reports
6906.0 kHz	5-2	2353 UTC	ID 8, =99253??8?????
10335.0 kHz	17-2	1006 UTC	ID 0, =991305??0?????

See also Newsletter 71.

M21 variants

6912.5 kHz	17-2	1530 UTC	970 1915649710
			970 3919213910
			970 5919615910
			970 5919611410

3301.0 kHz	13-2	2027 UTC	PSNN with messages

3350.5 kHz	3-2	1655 UTC	KUQI =951 1919272254
			=951 3119213854
			=950 0918218254

5827.5 kHz	7-2	1552 UTC	900 4336
			900 4718222152
			900 572854922152
			900 1718642154
			900 17180

See also Newsletter 71.

M22

The Israeli Navy in Haifa is quite busy on a number of frequencies:
2680, 2800, 4241, 4331, 5159, 6379, 8103, 10046, 12984 kHz.

Fritz observed a couple of irregularities:

4241
temporarely shifted to 4242.2 (18/22-2). Reason: QRM RTTY
5001
additional frequency (2/8-2). Reason: unknown
5159
temporarily shifted to 5160.2 (22/24-2). Reason: QRM RTTY
18001
additional frequency (30-1/2-2). Reason: unknown, did same last year, same time. (That is odd!)

See also Newsletter 71.

M40

8232 kHz	24-12-03	2235 UTC	VVV CQ 747.816 CQ 816 CQ 816 HR HR 36 36 = = Then numbers, ending AR AR SK SK
10620 kHz	06-02-04	2235 UTC	VVV CQ747.494 VVV CQ 747.494 CQ 494 HR HR 1T 1T = = Numbers + AR SK SK
8260 kHz	01-03-04	0431 UTC	VVV CQ 747.520

Also heard at 1030 UTC on 10620 kHz.

See also Newsletter 71.

M51

4769 kHz	19-2	1645 UTC
5309 kHz	24-2	1351 UTC	nr 78 f 24 14:51:22 2004 = 5LG(x100)
5335.5//5148 kHz	12-2	1955 UTC	nr 76 f 12 20:55:12 2004 = 5LG(x100)
5406//4039 kHz	23-2	1515 UTC
5429 kHz	3-2	1600 UTC
5455 kHz	5-2	1945 UTC
5769//4441 kHz	18-2	1545 UTC
5769 kHz	19-2	0815 UTC
5824.5//4029.5 kHz	23-2	1920 UTC
6963 kHz	28-1	1647 UTC
6976.5 kHz	2-2	1650 UTC
10688 kHz	12-2	1035 UTC

See also Newsletter 71.

M62

3485 kHz	1/10-2	24/7	B3ET B3ET B3ET = RNJ5 RNJ5 RNJ5 +
3485 kHz	11/20-2	24/7	J7XD J7XD J7XD = D3QK D3QK D3QK +
3485 kHz	21/29-2	24/7	QR2U QR2U QR2U = KP6F KP6F KP6F +
1732 kHz 1/29-2			QSA NIL
3485 kHz	1/29-2	very faint, audible around 1500z

See also Newsletter 71.

M89

V LA5S LA5S LA5S DE NH8T NH8T	4874//5382, 8042 kHz
V GM3W GM3W GM3W DE PNW9 PNW9	5629.3 kHz
V MW3D MW3D MW3D DE 2SLC 2SLC + message "BT 1200 / 377 NR / 6038 BT 20460 09338 / 1200 377 // BT AR"	3330//4440//5580//7074 kHz

See also Newsletter 71.

M91

4820 kHz	1/29-2	0730-1700 UTC
3996 kHz	1/29-2	0730-1700 UTC	last heard 4 Feb.
2362 kHz	1/29-2	1700-0730 UTC
2852 kHz	1/29-2	1700-0730 UTC	QSA NIL

Sample messages.

4820 kHz	4-2	1645 UTC	V8N7 marker
4820 kHz	4-2	1700 UTC	V8N7 de V4E4 372 col 372 +	(Frequency changes)
4820 kHz	8-2	1500 UTC	Q5HW marker
4820 kHz	8-2	1510 UTC	Q5HW de NZM8 QTC 54 20 08 1608 780 = Q5HW = 5LG(x20) = for Q5HW rpt QLN +

See also Newsletter 71.

MX

Cluster beacons reported in February:

Cluster	4558 kHz	C
Cluster	5154 kHz	C
Cluster	7039 kHz	C	K	M	S
Cluster	8495 kHz	C	F	M
Cluster	10872 kHz	C	F	K	M	S
Cluster	13528 kHz	F	K	M	S	21var
Cluster	16332 kHz	C	F	K	M	S
Cluster	20048 kHz	C	K	M	S

Note: "M": Magadan beacon, 8-2, 2321 UTC on 7039.8. Still off normal frequency of 7039.4 kHz.

Channel markers:

L
3336, 3336.3, 4091.2, 4091.8, 8183.6 kHz. As you can see it's transmitter seems a bit shaky lately. 8183.6 could be a harmonic.
P
4043 kHz.
R
4325.8 kHz.
V
3658 kHz.

See also Newsletter 71.