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

(Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2005 21:55:12 +0200)

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Morse stations

MX

Channel markers

I received a couple of questions about the location of the "R" marker. According to my source, the station is located on the Balezino-3 Technical Repair Base in Izhevsk. This base belongs to the Strategic Missile Troops and not to the navy.

Cluster beacons

*) also heard on spurious freqs 7000 and 7044 kHz.

M08

Mark Slaten posted a "Cuban Tutorial" which is definitely of interest of the not so experienced listener. Thanks Mark, the floor is yours.

Thought I would give a short tutorial for the newer members on how logging of calls on V2a or M8a family of numbers stations can help in traffic analysis of the stations. Here are my Cuban logs for today March 19, 2005

Please note how logging the calls clearly shows the relationship between the first and second broadcast. Also, if you study the calls on a regular basis, you will clearly see that the last digit in each 5-digit call will advance by one. EX: 35112 77821 61113 which was copied today, may be 35113 77822 xxxx1 tomorrow. The last number currently is being assumed as the number of days the message was broadcast. Normally this 5-digit number changes after the 3rd day, but as you can see by the 1200z and 1300z broadcast, 40625 is an exception to the rule. This message may have been broadcast 5 days in a row. Recently, I have seen the 2200z and 2300z M8a broadcast go as high as 9 days! But 3 will be what is encounter the majority of the time.

As far as the message formats with both V2a and M8a, they consist of 150 5-digit groups. Three messages are normally sent with one being intended for each of the three addressees in the callup. And a further curiosity is that the first and second group are repeated again as the 149th and 150th groups. This is probably some sort of indicator for the encoding/ decoding of the messages.

Hope this is of interest to the group. If you would like me to include more numbers info, let me know. There is a lot more on the air than just the Cuban numbers.

The numbers are fun to monitor. It is exciting when you can find a new one, or find one that has been elusive. Finding out a new characteristic about them is also satisfying. It's a lot like putting together a jig-saw puzzle. Discovering a new piece that fits in hopes that someday the whole puzzle will be completed.

Have fun with the hobby!

73's
Mark

Check also Enigma 2000's Morse Stations Profile which can be downloaded from the N&O website at http://home.luna.nl/~ary/morse.zip

M13

Thought I would give another tutorial on one of the morse stations. The enigma designator is M13. I believe he is thought to be from Eastern Europe. If anyone has any more information on this, please let me know. He is not always an easy one to hear. I find it best to copy him from 2100z - 2300z, anything earlier is pure luck to copy.

This network seems to start the UTC day between about 0200z and 0800z and then repeats the message later. Do a database search to catch some of the past intercepts for M13 on the Spooks Database and the Database on Ary Boender's "Numbers and Oddities" site. M13 changes frequencies each month, but will repeat the sked a year later. Usually broadcasts the 1st and 3rd or the 2nd and 4th weeks each month. Each month has one message and the message number advances by one the next month. Messages are usually short, like 20-22 groups. Although, a variant M13d has been known to send over 500 groups for a 5 hour marathon! CW is sent about 5 WPM, so is good practice for those trying to learn morse. The only cut number is 0 which is sent as a T. All the other nine numbers are long.

The following is copy I made from today's intercept:

(End of sked)

Note:
A little Enigma shorthand for those who wonder about the x12 and the R5.The x12 means that the call 261 was repeated 12 times, this could have also been represented by R1, which is 1 minute. The R5 means that 261 was repeated for 5 minutes.

After the initial callup for 5 minutes the station sends BT or "=" which is morse shorthand for a break, 290 is the message number and 22 is the group count of the upcoming message. Next months message from 261 will the message number 291. The message is sent and the BT is sent again. 261 is called again for only 1 minute and then the message is repeated a second time. (If you don't get it the first time, you get another chance!) When the message is concluded, three zeroes (0 0 0) are sent and the station goes down. This is the end of the sked.

Hope you find this of interest. By the way, if you take the time to learn morse (at least the numbers and a few letters) you will find there are many more morse numbers stations than voice stations.

73's

Mark

M18

Still sending time strings on 3803 kHz.

M21

M21 used 2219.5, 3801 and 5201 kHz in March. Id "0".

M21 variant PBSN was heard by John on 13000.5 kHz with plots and strategic flash messages.

• "PBSN PBSN WZD" and into long strings of figures. Look Like 16FG.".... 3042169068820515 3042702090093620 30431689192..." 0534 down with "PBSN PBSN PBSN AR"
• "X X X X X X PBSN PBSN PBSN 62353 AWKANXE 4838 4932 BETALAKTIN 4052 9923 UBYTOoNYJ 6914 7390" repeated once.
• "X X X X X X PBSN PBSN 07648 ISHIMBIN 1688 8383" repeated once.
• "X X X X X X PBSN PBSN 33526 TATARSKIJ 6550 3710 FRUKTOWOZ 1002 0284" repeated once.

M87

A couple of reports from our Russian friend, Igor:

• 7429 kHz, 7-3, 1400 UTC. Mode: CW. 5FGs, cut numbers.

682 682 91 91 (R)
= = 058 058 20 20 = =
a3t3u duau3 n76t5 u34d4 5t557 unt43 ud4dn 56una 5d33a 3d7nu
4657t a5n7a 3466t 437na t6355 7d757 4n7da au5u6 d4utn 75564
= =
333 333
= = 058 058 20 20 = =
a3t3u duau3 n76t5 u34d4 5t557 unt43 ud4dn 56una 5d33a 3d7nu
4657t a5n7a 3466t 437na t6355 7d757 4n7da au5u6 d4utn 75564
= =
000 000 ttt

• 16420 kHz, 1-3, 0330 UTC. Mode: CW. 5FGs, cut numbers. M87 variant.
  000 sent very rarely.

... 154 154 154 154 154 000
154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154
154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154
154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154
154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154
154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 154 000

• 9840 kHz, 1-3, 0130 UTC. Mode: CW. 5FGs, cut numbers. M87 variant.

249 249 249 000 000 000
249 249 249 000 000 000
249 249 249 000 000 000
249 249 249 000 000 000
249 249 249 000 000 000
249 249 249 000 000 000
249 249 249 000 000 000
249 249 249 000 000 000

M89

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