Ninety-seventh edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter

(Date:Thu, 04 Aug 2005 23:16:43 +0200)

Military stations

A selection of your military CW and SSB logs in June and July.

Russian, Ukrainian & CIS military

18.1	Russian Mil: RDL. Transmitting from Tashkent, Krasnodar and possibly Druznyj/Nizhniy Novgorod. Strategic flash message to RJE65 "xxx xxx rje 65 rje 65 28235 geodirt 1790 8502" also a strategic flash message to RJD84; "u u xxx xxx rjd84 rjd84 44663 izoøutka 4469 6838" msg repeated then "k"
2932	Russian Mil: 'RFF' Net. Calls: RFFN, RFFO, RFFM. QSX 3933 kHz.
3658	CIS Mil: DNHJ, MAMN, IDDM, VWFO.
3759	Unid Russian Net: RAS92. Msg to RIQ88
3811	CIS Mil: NLGP, SKFR, DVF1, G9ZR, IQWQ. Simplex net
3832	Ukranian Mil: QYO2, DK6L, ETEV, DZTF, SRSW, 4CLA, 1QI9, PROF, XM1L. Strategic msg: PROF PROF 58286 31027 IKRäNINEC 7128 5440 NYTIK 3007 5334 OPATUW 7468 3968 (repeats) K.
3832	HQ Russian Black Sea Fleet Sebastopol UKR: RCV clg RJT22 (warship). Simplex net.
3835	CIS Mil: LBDO
3882	Russian Mil: RGT77 broadcasting routine strategic code message 443 = JBRHZ WyILQ ... PyJUK WTPäE = K
3882	Ukranian Mil: IK6D, Y6M1, VRMV, GFSA
4051	Ukranian Mil: JFWA, HSB3, T6XW, 6DNT, 6IH8, 1U8E, AGOM, AVS5, P6NO, ZKP6, WGYE,GDK1, 5RA2, B1TI, TKT8, AW8D, YMH7, P5YM, IWSM, 1ZAN, JO2D, WGBR, D3WG.
4079	Russian Baltic Fleet Kaliningrad (RMP) clg RFV99. QSX 5135.5 kHz
4419	Russian Mil: S7MZ, V5AR, S4WL, MKMA, MZOA, FV9T, E22X, TMAP, NKAZ, D5WM, CEXV, YVMB. Cancels msg to JYYR and TUKE.
4467	Russian Mil: A8TD, FT5C, 7ES9. QSX 5874 kHz
5476	CIS Mil: V8OA, 5YZN, 5QQ5
5874	Russian Mil: QFMC, H6TE, DCMC, H6TE. QSX 4467 kHz
6873	Baltic Fleet HQ Kaliningrad: RMP clg RJH41. QSX 5086 kHz also "REO REO DE RMP RMP QTC 383 146 1 1956 383 = SML = PROGNOZ POGODY DO 18.."
8306	Russian Warship: RBEG wkg RIW
9044	Russian Mil Strategic Broadcast. 5FG message RDL (x3) 66388 60094 (x3) after at least two T600 messages. //18.1 kHz
9288	Russian Mil: ETNB, AR5I, C9AI, GAZA, 4GTL, 7ID2, ZKTB, F6XM
10155	Russian Mil: "XXX XXX RKS RKS 57489 GEODIA 9794 4563 K". RIW clg RJD93
10987	Russian Mil: WPNP, CGWD, J2E2, KTYB, AARC, ZBPN, C67I
11000	Russian navy, Moscow: RIW wkg warships RMXV, RBEG. QSX 8338/12394 kHz. Later specifies 8306/12370 kHz.
13979	Russian Mil: I13E, MWTK, CZNU, 1XLD. Simplex net.
14487	Russian Mil: FC6Y, ELQZ

I received a note from Fritz who noticed that since March 2005 CIS Navy stations sometimes use different formats for their messages. No preamble, no final group. Messages are 5LGs or just one string of characters; sometimes very long. Traffic may last for hours. Speed slow to fast.

Example:

RMP de RIW ZDS gugch ZZT lvkvk mmkkk mkvvk vvlmm llmkk (DK?)
5LALG x 21 qea (ends with 3 ch)
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee RMP ZCS eb1 k
RIW de RMP ZKM ZGR k
RMP de RIW ZDS gugch ZZT lmmkm llkkk kkvkm klkvv lkmkk (DK?)
5ALG x 12 jcho (ends with 3 ch)
etc

"Stations involved are RMP, RIW, RCV and many individual callsigns. No known frequencies are used for these messages. No training net, ops very skilled." writes Fritz.

I received an interesting reaction to the above note:

"This is enciphered Morse; Basically a keyboarded Morse system in which what is typed is not what is sent! The Morse characters are encrypted and buffered, then output in one long stream. The few spaces which appear are where the buffer has emptied before the operator can catch up.

ZDS GUGCH is the machine setting for that session.

ZZT is followed by a long series of Ls, Ks and Ms (they are sent as one long string and not grouped in fives as shown. The purpose of this string is not known, but is part of the setup process.

This may be followed by a short burst of dots before the system goes into enciphered mode. The traffic strings are long with few spaces and will only ever be letters, no figures or punctuation.

The procedure signal ZGR may also be seen."

Thanks for the explanation, OM!!!

Other countries

2738	Argentine Civil Defense (c/s Central) Santa Cruz Province.
4152.5	Alfa-Quebec: DRAQ: Fregate "BREMEN" F 207
	Alfa-X-Ray: DRAX: "GORCH FOCK" A 60
	Echo-Yankee: DREY: Minehunter "FRANKENTHAL" M 1066
	all wkg DHJ59, German navy Wilhelmshaven.
4356.6	Foxtrott-Juliett: DRFJ: Minehunter "PASSAU" M 1096
	Hotel-Juliet: DRHJ: "ELBE" A 511
	Alfa-Quebec: DRAQ: Fregate "BREMEN" F 207
	all wkg DHJ58, German navy Gluecksburg
5263	Algerian Mil: LZ51 clg LZ50
5687	GAF142, GAF238, GAF312, GAF338 wkg DHM91: German Air Force Muenster
6727	Unid 6PD clg DHJ59: German navy Wilhelmshaven
6727	JWT: Norwegian navy Stavanger wkg Magic71
6730	Unid 6PD clg DHJ59: German navy Wilhelmshaven
6777.2	Echo-Zulu: DREZ: Minehunter M 1067 "BAD RAPPENAU"
	Golf-November: ORGN: Minehunter "NARCIS" M923
	Alfa-Quebec: DRAQ: Fregate "BREMEN" F 207
	Echo-Yankee: DREY: Minehunter "FRANKENTHAL" M 1066
	all wkg DHJ59: German navy Wilhelmshaven
8333.5	DHJ59: German navy Wilhelmshaven, wkg Echo-Zulu and Alfa-Quebec
8582	Venezuelan Naval River Post, Rio Meta: PNME5 clg PNRN5 -Naval River Post, Rio Negro
11217	GAF103 wkg DHM91: German Air Force Muenster
12948	Japanese Navy: CY CY CY de JJF JJF JJF fb3 fb3 fb3 nr 22 03 + (a CQ msg? A defective keyer perhaps?)

ZDS	GUGCH is the machine setting for that session.
ZZT	is followed by a long series of Ls, Ks and Ms (they are sent as one long string and not grouped in fives as shown. The purpose of this string is not known, but is part of the setup process.