Tuesday 23 December 2008

E25 strange message

My recorder got a strange E25 message on 9450 kHz.

The transmission started at 1207z, at 1208z there was 1000 Hz tone, then at 1213z the song "Inte Omri". After that, at 1216z the mechanical E25 lady started calling "830 26 835" i.e. a "control" message to 830 and a (strange) message to 835:

9999 x8, "Rebeat" x3 at 1221z, QRT at 1224z.

Just a string of eight 9999...

Signal strength was weaker than usual as a typical broadcast station (probably WYFR Family Radio) was in the background. This is a part of the transmission recorded in USB.

Wednesday 10 December 2008

E10 Jammers get aggressive

Right now (1830z) there are two Jammers on 4880 kHz. E10 sends a 115-group message starting with "GHRCA..." to ULX, and both Jammers are on the same frequency! Is this a mistake, or a ferocious attack by all means, to ULX?

So far I believe that whoever operates the Jammers, can transmit at most with two jammers. This time he/she decided to use both Jammers on the same frequency.

Here is a part of the transmission. The Jammers sometimes nearly wins ULX. Also take a closer look at their time offset in the following spectrogram images:
There is a ~25ms time difference between the two Jammer signals. Well, you can hear and see that both remain constant in terms of strength (ok both affected by a slow QSB) so I don't think this is a weird propagation phenomenon. If any of you have a different opinion, feel free to post.

The Jammers stopped at 1851z, while E10 continued with the repeat of the message, plus a weaker broadcast station in the background. E10 QRT at 1855z and the BC QRT at 1859z.

Thursday 4 December 2008

Another E17 transmission

At 1452z on 10240 kHz I found E17 sending another 50-group message. The transmission was in progress and ended at 1458z with "538 538 50 50 0 0 0 0 0" (slow zeros). No breaks/restarts this time, even the signal strength was better (S9 with peaks +10 or +20dB).

Audio sample.

E17 found on 8180 kHz

8180 kHz was set on my VFO since earlier this morning, after successfully recording three SK01 transmissions. At 1100z I switched from the E25 memory (do I need a memory for E25? Hihihi!) to VFO, to set an E03a frequency and check if E03a was on air.

And... SURPRISE! The E17(z) YL was on 8180, calling "274" but had several problems, trying to send a 50-group message (274 986 50 30238). She started again and again several times, occasionally having low audio level.

Here is the complete (24 min) transmission.

And here's a typical transmission of E17z. This one logged on 27/11/2008, 0800z, 11170 kHz.

E17z (and E17) belongs to IA family (format similar to E06/S06). E17 believed to be some kind of training net, because of the problematic transmissions. Its sister, E17z, is more accurate :-)

Thursday 27 November 2008

S32 the "Squeaky Wheel" changes tempo

Thanks to Fritz, yesterday we were informed about the new sound of the so-called "Squeaky Wheel" (Enigma Designator: S32) which transmits on 3828 kHz during night, and on 5473 kHz during day.

S32 during night (3828 kHz)

S32 during day (5473 kHz)

LIVE LIVE LIVE!
Ooops! Right now (1643z) S32 sends a message on 3828 kHz! The language is Russian! (That's why it's S32 instead of XSW (the old enigma Designator; in the past we did not know that the Squeaky Wheel sends voice messages).

Here's what I got (a bit noisy...)

Wait till the end of the file to hear the Squeaky Wheel after the OM finishes!

Monday 24 November 2008

E07 and a Pirate sending SSTV?

This is the E07 2100z transmission on 6931 AM. You can hear some "digital" QRM just from the beginning of the transmission. It's SSTV. I managed to decode the last part of the SSTV transmission, just after E07 QRT. The actual frequency was 6924.97 USB. Here's the screen shot from MMSSTV (a freeware SSTV program):

MMSSTV shows 14ZK192 as the callsign of the sender. A Google search leads to http://14zk192.free.fr/. Who's this?

Tuesday 18 November 2008

A lot of E25 logs!

This morning we had 2 transmissions on 6140 and 4(!) on 9450 kHz. The last transmission on 9450 (ID "222") was over Polish Radio International. The sound samples are trimmed a bit (to get rid most of the 1000 Hz tone and the silent ends). So here we go...

E25 6140 AM 0836z:

1000 Hz tone
804 repeated several times
5488 0301 6511 2157 2589 9588 2447 9952 8795 6115 0301 8721
"Rebeat" x3
...
EOM EOT

(sound sample 1)

The signal was S9 peaking +10dB, carrier began slightly off-frequency.

E25 6140 AM 1019z:

1000 Hz tone
205 repeated
9774 6277 5844 1083 0472 3266 4393 2509 3442 7900
7095
"Rebeat" x3
... audio problems ...
EOM EOT

(sound sample 2)

Note at repeat the machine sounds like having a slower pace. Signal was S9 with peaks +10dB and some QSB & thunderstorm QRN.

Let's see what happened on 9450 kHz ...

The "a" (E25a) denotes a type: (ID), (number 1) , ... , (number n) transmission. These believed to be "control" transmissions. Also all recordings on 9450 kHz made with the receiver set to USB, while the actual TX could be in AM mode.

E25a 9450 USB 1154z:
1000 Hz tone
277 1 2
EOM EOT

(sound sample 3)

The transmission started off-frequency.

E25a 9450 USB 1211z
"Inte Omri" song
830 21 from the mechanical YL
EOM EOT

(sound sample 4)

The signal strength was lower than the previous (and the next) transmission.

E25a 9450 USB 1238z:
1000 Hz tone
785 20
EOM EOT

(sound sample 5)

And here's a transmission over Polish Radio International:

E25 9450 USB 1345z:
"Arouh Le Min" song (the other song by Umm Kalthoum)
222
8111 2061 9711 9810 4916 6472 2366 2183 5413 4651
7691 3668 5764 9317 9756 9711
"Rebeat" x3
EOM EOT

(sound sample 6)

So that's the end of a busy E25 day! Please be warned; tomorrow we might have repeats of some transmissions on 9450 kHz.