E25: AM or not AM?

A brief "control" transmission from my favorite Enigma, E25, occurred today at 1143z. An OM started calling "785 58 788 45 46 50 52". The transmission was in AM mode.

Next, I'll show you the spectrograms from these transmissions: While recording, I switched to USB and detuned the radio for 1-2 kHz to see if both sidebands are present. Today we had...

The 1000 Hz horizontal line is the carrier, both sidebands present. (Audio)

Yesterday it was another story... LSB-suppressed, a couple of problems during startup, and a brief musical segment just before they QRT. The "control" message was "788 45 46 50 52 58 " also sent at 1143z.

The 2000 Hz line (and a 1000 Hz bit during re-tuning) is the carrier, only USB present. (Audio)

I hope this visual/audio representation was useful. I wonder when E25 operators will settle in a fixed mode and a fixed schedule...

E25 stomps DRM noise for a couple of seconds

This is how E25 kills Voice of Russia DRM when E25 ops decide to transmit. As usual, E25 appeared from nowhere at 1250z for a couple of seconds, knocking down DRM, with a new song and excellent audio quality!

Sunday morning: Full of oriental music

From at least 0800z to 1322z E25 was on air playing oriental music. At my QTH, signal strength was constant S9+. Towards the end of this lengthy test (?) session a song was repeated again and again several times. Listen!

E25 resends nearly the same message

A nice AM transmission today at 1142z, sending nearly the same message to Agent 780. Listen! As a bonus, some background chat is present too! So the OM called "780 785 49 51 788 38 41 45 46 48 50" many times, then "780" a couple of times and then a g11 message followed:

27/04
g11
9546 4111 0310 3238 5429 9388 5757 2587 6001 6341 0310

but yesterday...
26/04
g11
9405 3111 0310 3238 5429 9388 5757 2587 6001 6341 0310

Of course you can spot the difference! The first group is different, but the second, which gives a serial and the group count is legitimate...

26/04 3111 → 31 → 13 = serial, 11 → 11 = group count.
27/04 4111 → 41 → 14 = serial indeed increased by 1 and again 11 → 11 = gc.

Another TX occurred at 1244z again AM, "Arouh Le Min" and an OM repeating "220 4 5". ID 220 is a rare one, last appeared on 17/09/2005 and 01/09/2003 accompanied with musical intro.

Who else is on 9450 kHz?

I found the latest Shortwave broadcast schedule from EiBi. So who else uses the same frequency?
So we have IBRA Radio at 1200z-1300z without causing too much QRM and then VoR, with a strong digital (DRM) transmission. A little searching can reveal more info about these stations.

Language codes:
PJ stands for Punjabi (India/Pakistan)
HD stands for Hindko (Pakistan)
UR stands for Urdu (Pakistan)
HA stands for Haussa (Nigeria)

The rest language codes should be clear to you :-) If not, take a look at the "readme" file at EiBi.

Transmitter locations (aka Remarks):
t is Taldom-Severnyj (near Moscow) 56N44, 37E38
ka is Kashi (Kashgar) (Xinjiang) 39N30, 76E00

And that completes the "Who's who on 9450 kHz"!

E25 in USB under 1000 Hz tone and DRM

After being absent for a couple of days, I checked for E25 news. A carrier was present on the well-known frequency since 1030z today. At 1244z a 1000 Hz tone was up and later, a guy started calling "780 785 47 788 38 41 45 46" (a rather odd calling session, which anyway implied that a message will follow for Agent "780"). Indeed, that happened, and a 11-group message followed for Agent "780". The tone gone near the repeat of the message. Here is the message:

9405 3111 0310 3238 5429 9388 5757 2587 6001 6341 0310

The 5th group was 5428 then changed to 5429 in the repeat.

And here is the processed sample to remove the 1000 Hz tone. It is recorded on USB and near the end of it I switched for a couple of seconds to AM and then back to USB for comparison, so to make clear that it was a USB transmission. The DRM station interfering is Voice Of Russia. Check here for more info. Scroll down and click next to entries for 9450 kHz.

The guy says "Repeat" instead of the usual "Rebeat". Arabic language has no "p" so maybe that's the reason why E25 operators say something like "Rebeat" instead of "Repeat".

E25

This is today's E25 transmission featuring a seriously-sounding OM calling "555" and delivering a 11-group message, after a couple of minutes of the song "Arouh Le Min". Log details: 9450 kHz AM 1218z, recorded in AM mode. Another excellent recording for all of you E25 fans!

E25 this morning but no E15 yet

I'm doing some HF surfing to find E15 but still no luck... Frequencies to check: 18000, 14727 (discovered by Poacher), 14000, 11170, 11000, 6715 (Greek pirates' favorite also), 5834, 5530 and 4130, all USB mode. Take a look in the current Enigma2000 Newsletter (under E15) and in Newsletter #28 and the accompanying article regarding E15.

On the other hand, E25 appeared this morning on its usual spot (9450 kHz) in AM mode. A couple of transmissions in something like suppressed-LSB mode occurred lately. Personally I prefer AM mode, they sound a lot better, even if they play a little with audio gain and cause distortion.

Here is a sound sample of the 0912z E25 transmission. Too much audio gain in the beginning, then lower gain and background chat. I don't know which song they played. I wonder what the ops say in the background...

E25 test & voices again

This is the beginning of the test transmission started at 0815z and ended ~0833z on 9450 kHz this morning. Again there is a weak conversation in the beginning, and when the music started, the people talking, can be heard easily.

It will be very interesting if E25 start transmitting more frequently. More messages to gather & analyze, and more opportunities to other Numbers fans to listen! I wonder if this will evolve to a 0830z-1030z-1230z schedule!

E25 morning tests

This is a recording of the beginning of a test(?) transmission from E25 this morning (9450 kHz AM, 1032z). Except that it proves the existence of other broadcast times than ~1200z-1300z, it is very interesting because an entire conversation can be heard in the background. If anyone can hear & translate it, is welcome to post a comment and make me happy!

The E25 saga continues

For several days I have noted activity on 9450 kHz at 0800z. Yes, that early! Let's unfold this story first:

Monday 5 February
A carrier noted on 9450 kHz at 0756z. QRT at 0759z

Tuesday 6 February
0753z carrier up! 0754z music, the familiar style of E25! Definitely E25. QRT 0810z

Wednesday 7 February
0749z carrier! Music! "Arouh Le Min" QRT 0800z

And today the surprise:
0823z carrier on 9460 kHz coming and going. Weaker than previous ones. These were as strong as the English E25 transmissions ~1245z. 0826-08028z series of test tones of different frequencies. Maybe it is not related to E25 but is a very interesting event.

Noon:

• 1211z: Carrier, "Inte Omri" music intro.
• 1217z: "830 16" weaker signals than usual. Read on.
• 1244z: 780 788 27 28 785 29 30 repeated, the usual excellent signal strength now.
  
• 1246z: 780 repeated, "Message" x3

1319 2160 1111 1754 2130 1111

This message reached USA! Chris of SpyNumbers had the luck to log E25 today along with other people on #wunclub!

• 1248z: "End of message, end of transmission", QRT. Listen! "EOM" is at 4min 51sec.

Tip: Messages to "8xx" are in Arabic and with reduced power/different beaming. Analysis in progress!

Too tired now... 73!

E25

We had two transmissions today, one in Arabic and one in English. Both are the same as yesterday's transmissions. There was a notable difference though. Yesterday in the Arabic message, single digits were first, while today they came second.

• Arabic transmission: 9450 kHz AM 04/02 1220z (listen!)
  

9001 / 9 0 10
9260 / 29 6 0
4621 / 64 12
1410 / 41 1 0
6729 / 76 92
8917 / 98 71
9416 / 49 61
2339 / 32 93
9260 / 29 6 0
7479 / 47 97

• Arabic transmission: 9450 kHz AM 05/02 1211z Different announcer, clearer voice for me to translate! (listen!)

90 10 / 9001
29 6 0 / 9260
64 12 / 4621
41 1 0 / 1410
76 92 / 6729
98 71 / 8917
46 91 / 6419
32 93 / 2339
29 6 0 / 9260
47 97 / 7479

• English transmission: 9450 kHz AM 05/02 1241z, same as of 31/01 (listen!)
  

1310 0160 1111 1754 2130 1111

I hope my translation to be correct. Time for rest now...

Update 08/02/2007:
After Mr DXer's comment, I corrected the translation! Thanks Mr DXer! Yes I confuse sitta (6) with tissa (9) because sometimes I can't hear the stressed "t" in tissa. Some of the E25 announcers are more difficulr for me to understand!

E25 with a lot of pops and breaks

I tuned on 9450 kHz at 1201z and a nice carrier was present. But with a lot of pops and later with transmission breaks.

• 1201z: Carrier was present.
• 1212z: Music intro: "Arouh Le Min".
• 1217z: Music stops, hum, bump, man starts calling "8... 830 13".
• 1223z: Mic taps, QRT.

Recording

And then the breaks party begun:

• 1241z: Carrier up again.
• 1246z: After a series of test tones and transmission failures, a man starts calling "780 785..." failure again...
  
• 1249z: Background noises! A voice! Door screeching, then man calling "780 785 29 30 788 27 28" many times.
• 1253z: OM calling "780" many times.
• 1254z: Message of 6 groups: 1310 0160 1111 1754 2130 1111
• 1255z: Repeat.
• 1256z: EOM EOT, QRT.
  

Recording

Important observation!
Richard from e2k group noted:

The last 2 digits of the second group indicates group count. For example, 2nd group today was 0160, the last 2 digits are 60. If you reverse the order (06) you have the group count!

Try it in every message I posted and see that it works! Thanks Richard! This tip seems to work even in my old logs!

Reverse E25

After a hard weekend I'm back! E25 on the air today with another surprise:

• 1241z: Carrier.
• 1242z: 1000 Hz tone.
• 1245z: OM starts calling "780 30 29 788 28 27" then correctly "780 785 30 29..." (Initially he missed 785). Note the countdown!
• 1251z: "780" repeated, then message:

9496 9080 1831 3673 1003 5721 2851 1831

• 1253z: Repeat.
• 1254z: "End of message, end of transmission", then QRT.

It's the first time I see a countdown! Usually the reverse was the case! Here is the recording! Note that some clicks/pops heard are due to a faulty antenna connection. Luckily, it was easy to repair!

Yesterday's transmission:
After listening Sunday's recording, this transmission was the same, but without yesterday's failures! A lot of breaks happened during the calling session (780 785 etc...). Today I was experiencing "technical difficulties"!

E25: Entirely new music theme but no message

For at least 25 minutes E25 was on air today, playing music. Not the usuals. I tuned on 9450 kHz at 1207z and it was already there, until 1229z. I think they tried to transmit a message with no success at 1223z. Here is the sample, ~1221z till the end of the TX. Any ideas about the music?

Yesterday only two "control" messages:

• 9450 kHz 1226z 25/01: "Arouh Le Min" intro, 557 4, RTTY QRM
• 9450 kHz 1246z 25/01: 785 29 30 788 27 28, RTTY QRM

E25

Two messages today but with a lot of transmitter failures and four(?) announcers. Carrier was present at 1221z until 1252z, with many breaks. Two messages were sent, old ones with just a minor difference:

• 1226z: "Arouh Le Min" music intro by Umm Kulthum. A lot of breaks.
• 1230z: OM calling "555".
• 1232z: TX failure.
• 1233z: TX on, other OM into 17g message, as of 23/01!
• 1235z: Repeat.
• 1237z: EOM EOT. Carrier left on.

Listen here the sample! Then another message:

• 1244z: Another OM (more familiar to me!) calling 780.
• 1246z: Message: 21g message from another guy! As of 21/01 but with one exception: 2nd group "8012" instead of "7012"!
• 1249z: "Re beat!"
• 1252z: EOM EOT, QRT.

And here is the second sample! Both transmissions with excellent signal strength.

The other musical theme is "Inte Omri" also by Umm Kulthum. I like them both, actually I like this type of music for its instrumental richness, tempo and vocals. After all, Greek music is influenced by oriental music. A Greek label (EMI) has released some of her art, as you can read here.

E25 2 voices

E25 today with music intro and 17 groups. Listen today's recording; transmitter's power up in the beginning (1223z) is very spooky! Here is the 17g message to "555". Frequency is as always 9450 kHz AM.

g17
1092 6171 3010 6553 7095 2187 1503 4975 9753 6852
6226 2203 2099 1141 5388 4279 3010

Downloading difficulties issues:
Not my fault. OK, I test the links and work for me. That doesn't mean it works for everyone, you know how computers behave! It must be a Blogger/Google issue. I recommend using a download manager like GetRight, or your favorite alternative.

Update 24/01/2007:
Mike independently logged E25 yesterday and noted two voices, i.e. a second guy took the microphone for the message. It seems to be true, as I posted my log in a great hurry, not carefully listening my recording and didn't notice it. They have similar voices hi hi! Here is the number "five" spoken by both of them, in this short stereo sample. One channel is the first OM, when calling "555" and the other is a "five" from the message. Use the balance control of your soundcard to hear the one or the other channel and compare.

E25 another guy again!

There were 2 transmissions today, from a different voice. Listen!

• 1208z: Carrier, good to very good signal strength.
• 1211z: Music, transmission breaks.
• 1217z: A different OM calling "830 12".
• 1221z: QRT (what does "QRT" mean? Q-codes).

Then while waiting for another transmission, I tune on 9443 kHz to check for E11. When E11's YL said "Out", I tuned back to 9450 kHz, and voila! 20 secs after E11, the E25 transmitter was turned on. I was really lucky! Listen the whole process!

• 1235z: Carrier on.
• 1236z: 1000 Hz test tone.
• 1244z: OM calling "780".
• 1249z: "Message" x3, repeating yesterday's message.
• 1253z: Repeat.
• 1258z: QRT.

The signal was perfect this time, in contrast with 1208z transmission.

E25 getting serious

An OM trying really hard to defeat his mechanical counterparts, with a long (g21) message: 9450 kHz 1240z AM mode. Here is the message:

g21
9609 7012 4151 4029 8839 1795 3888 6815 2405 6746
0401 4243 3705 0571 9987 0787 6001 4103 1635 2916
4151

And here is the recording!

E25 long message

E25 is back, sending a long (19 groups!) message on 9450 kHz AM at 1244z:

g19
3909 5091 5941 5814 0798 7670 5335 7429 9312 9030
2737 7587 2909 0407 4494 6094 5598 9856 5941

The third and last groups are the same. It seems to be typical for most E25 messages. Usually their messages are about 10 groups, but today 19! Maybe a lot of news to tell after a long time away. Listen my recording. It is the whole transmission. I have to add that around 1230z was a weaker carrier on the same frequency, 3/7 of my Sangean signal scal.e You can hear the power-up in the beginning, reaching 7/7, which is usual for my QTH.

ATS-909 S-meter

I don't remember where I found this graph, relating the signal meter indication of my 909 with S-Units. My radio has a meter of 7 bars indicating full signal strength. If anyone has more info about the source of this graph, please leave a comment.

So 3/7 is S3-S5 and 7/7 is... S9+10+...