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

(Date: Sat, 04 Dec 2004 11:10:03 +0000)

Voice stations | Morse stations | Various modes
Unid stations | Military stations | Stasi
Memory lane | Intelligence profile : Palestinian authority
Intelligence news | Logs
Index | NS NL Home

Military stations

CIS / Russian / Ukrainian stations

CIS Navy (RDL/RLO/RKS)

Compiled by Fritz.

1) Frequencies

Very active last October, much less in November, on the following freqs:
18.1, 3548, 7657, 8076, 8136, 9044, 9224, 9346, 10155, 10535, 10672, 11468, 12741, 12832, 13032, 14411, 14664, 19257, 22864 kHz.

Up to 10 frequencies may be in parallel.

2) Fixed 24h transmissions

XXX messages are not sent at +n8 times, but in between.

3) Message formats

• Traffic in CIS F1B system T600, speed 36/50 Bd
• Dito, with XXX XXX in CW Morse as preface
• Traffic in CW Morse:
  RDL RDL RDL 88732 32267 88732 32267 88732 32267 k
• Traffic in CW Morse:
  XXX XXX RDL RDL 55998 53230 nitka 5313 7616 k

UUU as preface means routine.

The following XXX code words were observed in Oct/Nov:
ORLäNKA BROSANJE TROJNäG ADYGEJSKIJ UDLINENNYJ BANKETNYJ UPONIE NITKA OLEJNICA NAJTOWYJ MOLODEVNYJ

4) Call signs and locations

According to Trond Jacobsen findings RDL is part of a VLF network together with RLO and RKS. RDL on 18.1 kHz is active from Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod, Arkhangelsk, Tashkent, Molodechno, Kaliningrad? and Ryazan? RKS transmits from Murmansk? and RLO from Ryazan and St. Petersburg?

Maybe the VLF transmitter sites of the BETA chain of TS stations RJH63, RJH66, RJH69, RHJ77, RJH99 and RAB99 are used for RDL. There is a connection between some BETA stations and CISN HQ in Moscow. In the morning of October 20 RHJ77, RJH63, RJH69 and RJH90 in turn sent one short 4FG QTC with varying content to the Navy HQ RIW, which QSL'd.

I cannot decode T-600 messages. Therefore the following is based on CW tfc only. RDL is most often used, RLO and RKS very rarely. Three letter callsigns seem to be of a high priority in CIS Ny. Apart from the HQs in Moscow (RIW), Sevastopol (RCV), Vladivostok (RJS), Severomorsk (RIT) and Kaliningrad (RMP) there are few others: RDL, RLO and RKS RCB (Naval Air Transport), REO (Ny collective c/s, used by the fleet HQs), RKT (Ny unid), RKZ (Ny collective c/s, used by the fleet HQs)

I have never heard „...de RDL(RLO RKS)“. Therefore I tend to believe, RDL, RLO and RKS are not senders, but addressees. RIP90, RGX94 and others are collective c/s for small units of maybe few vessels, REO and RKZ are used by the fleet HQs for the whole or major parts of a fleet and RDL, RLO and RKS may be used by Moscow HQ for important parts of forces, maybe beyond Ny. (In some publications RDL is referred to as „MIL, Moscow“ only, not „NY, Moscow“). Transmitter sites may be everywhere and I think RIT and RCV transmitters are used too.

5) RDL/RLO/RKS and CIS Ny beacons

There were exercises of the RUSN in the Mediterranean Sea in September and the joint exercises of USN and CISN („Northern Eagle“) in the North Atlantic in October. This may explain why CISN beacons and RDL stations were very active in October and November. RDL/RLO/RKS however had very little traffic in November. There is obviously no direct connection to the activities of the beacons or of the fleets. The next CISN exercises (anti- terrorist campaign with NATO in the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific exercises in December) will perhaps show more.

Japanese military stations

Both observed by Igor.

• 6475 kHz, Mode: CW, 0328 UTC, 24-11, 4-character groups.

...
~32t jr3m 9aj4 eu95 emam d7l9 la3k t0ip lbv9 nvu0
13qs krvu c57f k~3t v~0i jc4n v87m m8~4 bqnc s41c
~~~5 l9d4 6j9s 3vq8 52ug kp9~ ods5 541u ~4e7 bcsa
gjh8 de~~ gk33 mp87 5c0a qlcj 063s ah25 ~kvd r~83
sqvr qcgg ~~7t ja~~ ~4o2 0jqi qoaq k3m1 op2t 2oai
j0sm ~9o2 ~8~~ ~cpj 5mkl a86u djdb i5g3 3s3i bp2~
7vk~ 49mm 0k3o g785 tk3h 1k79 5qmf hol5 qhok 653k
5bbb qntd jcgu r8gt av78 85r3 hc56 15~j ... <qrm>
~ugb n6oa h0la 7op0 vkn3 6o0f ~~4~ tcra 2e3t qdtd
62md ekji 1jqi 13n9 j929 h95b up3s 9435 ifss 2n82
mlee j6eo 3gpf r29h krco 6amm ut06 uuj~ gfhg k6kn
0jc4 3g06 fe48 3972 dhn~ ha4h hhde 6e89 0pii ~ua8
~~~~ oefi ugo2 p~~d o~~~ bni~ ic8l 85lh em2g ~~~~
~nhn ~3f2 v80m o055 om82 8ii4 ~~d8 unj~ pvun 5o4j
~l~~ 5u7p 9i44 ~gi3 qhn0 9l97 ~~~k km4u inir 2jec
a7gj n~~~ ~~ma 0pp6 rihs 6~um 86c1 tquf rut~ ~~~m
hod~ kntj 4h88 r8us kqgp lq~~ c24b cj~~ ~~~~ c0rd
hfo~ h8vo ~~mc b4uf lmn2 avr9 8~~~ ~u40 ~~jk ren9
4n~g o3if ~~ld m7eh va2p tai3 edee 3r49 dun~ j9jn
3mbt 43pd 1bnq plkv ~tg0 au0c 4j89 ~56b d9hf 8nek
haaa b9he brof nt9n 7rno og0v 3p5h 3~~8 ppp1 1jsp
h0~~ ~~p6 6lv~ lvi3 ecg2 6cpl n90v 6ekn 7bca h0ie
qfc~ ~9hd cn~~ 7~tn euho ~v6o q~2s rn26 nsj~ ~~~v
m~jv m0po 7 bt
cp de jjf fb3 qru zic nr 0520 ar

• 8017 kHz, Mode: CW, 0005 UTC, 29 Nov, 4-character groups.

de jja20 r 401 va
de jjb20 r 401 va
de jje20 va
jjc20 de jja20 o ar ?
jjb20 var l$1 k
de jjc20 ok va va
jjb20 de jja20 qtc var lþ 1 k
de jjb20 k
hr m# var l$ f p^^r w48 b d^^o nr 182 id @ 2908 45 =
szzs o^mp o^mp pzdp rrz@ pspm pzp* m^^d dr*m r^m@ ii
p^zm d@sr s@sz @orz @r*o @roo s@rp @moo d@sd po@p ii
dmsd pzsr ^dmz rd@d p^md osr@ rosd prpd prz* p^d^ ii
@*sd omrp dops o*r@ do*d *z^^ pdoo zprs z@pr dpso ii
^sz^ mzm@ @d^@ ^dms dopo *pz@ @osp z^ss ar k
de jjb20 r 182 va
de jja20 va
jja20 jjd20 jje20 jjb20 de jjc20 qru ? k
de jja20 qru k
de jjd20 qru k
de jje20 qru k
de jjb20 qru k
de jjc20 qru va
de jja20 va
de jjd20 va
de jje20 va
de jjb20 va

Remarks:

• Only 10 different characters are being used in the 4-character groups.
• The Japanese characters in this message were replaced by the following symbols:

Voice stations | Morse stations | Various modes
Unid stations | Military stations | Stasi
Memory lane | Intelligence profile : Palestinian authority
Intelligence news | Logs
Index | NS NL Home