A nice ART / JSR mix

For a couple of minutes a fight between E10 JSR (the intruder) and ART happened on 5435 kHz (ART's home frequency) at 1500z. Here is the recording of their "quarrel"!

ART finally sent its g26 ZSWMU message (an old one).

E25 on 6140 kHz with more power and new songs

Usually E25 sounds like this here in Crete, in USB mode with RAI interfering. This makes things very hard to me because I always get confused about what the operator says!

Today operators decided to help by increasing their power and playing new music in AM mode. Unfortunately no message followed; the entire session lasted from ~1100z to 1127z. Here is a portion of it. In the beginning only the (strong) carrier is present; in the end you can listen RAI alone. The difference is prominent. I really hope they will keep the new power settings on their transmitter and make my life easier! (And broaden the potential E25 audience!)

Buzzer's other frequency

S28 the "buzzer" or the "foghorn" (OK it sounds like a truck's horn to me!) is using another frequency except 4625 kHz. Ary warned the Enigma 2000 group that S28 can also be found at 3842 kHz.

Here is a comparison of 4625 and 3842 kHz as recorded in USB mode today at 1920z. 3842 is weaker here and lacks the carrier. Also the tones are decaying, not like 4625 kHz.

If you're not convinced if this is S28, listen them both going in "berserk mode" near the hour (1959z). This time the first one recorded is 4625 kHz.

E10 ABC2 on 6428 kHz

I logged E10 calling ABC2 in the extremely hot island of Crete (temperature peaked at 43 degrees Celsius!) after a warning sent on Enigma 2000 Group. Very strong signal at 1922z, with slight digi QRM. Here is the sample!

Radio Show of interest: Mathematics and Codes

This is an introductory talk about Mathematics and Coding by NHK:

NHK World (English) http://www.nhk.or.jp/rjweekly/english/index.html

Friday 9th Mar 2007
Japan & The World 44 minutes:

1) "Tokyo Performing Arts Market 2007"
* Ms. Noriko Ohara / Vice Director of Tokyo Performing Arts Market
* Mr. Wie Jiyun / Secretary General PAMS
* Mr. David Fraher / Evective Director of Arts Midwest
2) "Mathematics and Codes"

Radio Show of interest: BRIXMIS Story

Here is a recording of BRIXMIS Story featured on BBC Radio 4, 11 June 2007, 1900z to 1930z.

This is how E25 sounds on 6140 kHz, with NO RAI present!

Great luck today!

I got E25 on 6140 kHz this morning (0817z) calling "955 21" in USB mode. The frequency was clear from RAI thus giving me a chance for a signal measurement! So E25 was S7 max on 6140.

You can listen the transmission here.

Less than an hour later, at 0901z, E25 sent a message to "570". Signal was in USB, RAI-free but with some QRN. Signal was S5-S7.

Here is the message:

2313 3178 0588 1355 7091 0895 9354 8088 8008 5284
9852 1744 5259

This is the full transmission! I deliberately detune my radio to check if it was an AM transmission or LSB-suppressed. Also you can hear the switchover from the guy calling "570" to the guy sending the message.

And yes, more action followed!

At 0916z a stronger carrier appeared, and it wasn't RAI! Music followed, in AM mode, peaking S9+ but most of the times it fluctuated around S8. So this must be another transmitter on the same frequency!

Music continued and at 0930z an OM started calling "405 425" and then "405" only, under the music! The message was:

8920 8053 9788 0251 0753 8751 1008 0448 4098 8715
5405 7539

Listen what actually happened! Again, an other guy announced the message.

The music session ended at 1021z.

I'm almost sure these was two different transmissions on the same frequency. Today's observations are of great importance, if you also take account the occurrence of another test transmission from at least 0710z (as reported by Mike on E2k Group) until 0816z with a S9+ to S9++ here and S9 at 0710z in UK at 0710z.

I was extremely lucky today; being in my shack to note down signal strengths in a RAI-free frequency :-) instead of the usual record-and-check-later procedure which means no signal strength measurements!

Two simultaneous E25 transmissions on 9450 kHz

E25 is active on 6140 kHz -- messages are sent in almost daily basis, but I have to recover them from unattended recordings with a lot of RAI QRM. Anyway, one exciting thing happened today on 9450 kHz:

At 1144z there was an OM calling "788 63 62 61 59 52 785 50 46 45" in USB mode and in relatively low signal strength, an AM carrier appeared (very strong) and another OM started calling "788 52 59 61 62 63 785 45 46 50 60"!

This is a recording from the weak signal just before the AM carrier appeared (USB mode).

And this is a recording featuring both guys (USB mode, a couple of minutes later).

The always-exciting world of E25 continues to surprise me...

E25 uses Windows

Listen the Windows OS startup sound and some background chat when the E25 transmission on 9450 kHz, AM mode, began at 0957z. Now (1015z) they're still playing "Inte Omri". Recording made in USB mode to avoid splatter from Radio China International on 9440 kHz (my AM filters are not so tight...)

New edition of rfax is available

A new edition of the rfax.pdf HF-Fax list by NOAA is available. I haven't thoroughly compared it with the previous one, but seems to have the latest info regarding JMH. On the other hand, no further info about Rome Meteo, which I'm not sure if it is still on air.

E25: New frequency found!

Yesterday Mr. DXer alerted Enigma2000 for the existence of a second E25 frequency, namely 6140 kHz. A message to 880 sent at ~0700z.

And yes, it's true! E25 appeared at 0700z calling "880", under RAI Radio. They sent the same message as yesterday in English:

4621 4401 2895 8976 9541 1828 2294 2785 0932 4621

A bit different format, this time first and last groups are the same, and I wonder if the group containing the group count and serial is the second one: 4401: 44 → 44 is the serial? 01 → 10 is the group count? For the moment, it seems to be. More messages needed to clarify the situation.

ID 880 is entirely new to me; and in contrast to other 8xx IDs, the message was in English.

Listen to E25 under RAI, message to 880.

The moment I'm writing this, 0801z, E25 calls "200 8" (a control message to Agent 200)! This ID heard only once back in 12/3/2005 at 1250z! Wow! A whole new world under RAI....

Listen to E25 calling "200 8".

E25 live & playback transmission

At 1007z today, carrier and a 1000 Hz tone appeared, and an OM started calling "315", a rather rare ID. Then a 13-group message followed in AM mode:

g13
3284 6390 4131 2962 0255 9232 9142 4133 8427 7405
2188 6390 7695

After the "End of message, end of transmission", the OM started calling again "315" at 1019z! The song "Arouh Le Min" heard at 1026z and then again the OM called "315" and the whole message delivery procedure was repeated. Here is the whole transmission. Signal was lower than usual.

After a little research, I proved that the operators decided to playback the message session. They did it again for Agent 315 in the past. I created a 2-channel audio file, putting in the Left channel the initial message and in the Right channel what I believed to be a playback. If the resulting stereo file sounded without echoes (=timing differences), the second repeat was indeed a playback. Only propagation differences should be present. Here is a short sample of the resulting stereo file. Do you notice any timing differences? I don't.

Second transmission:

E25 appeared again at 1126z, with the song "Arouh Le Min", calling "555" and sending the 13-group message:

g12
9150 9121 3911 4428 3360 2388 1821 8231 9908 8180
7623 3911

(listen!)

A typical message which follows the guidelines of my article in Enigma2000 Newsletter #39. The transmission was in AM mode, with a stronger signal.

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...

S11b message

S11b is also a member of Family III like E11b. Check your Enigma Control List for details.

This one logged yesterday, 17 May 2007 on 7377 kHz USB, at 1030z:

213/35

77777 77777 08863 84165 37806 82607 83077 75531 73768 05155
31331 43344 83716 12625 28754 15735 07681 58384 55607 04406
57667 74406 55718 05715 56623 77530 74556 70521 71458 71268
37036 10786 10875 77777 77777

Due to low signal strength there may be errors in it! Note there are no 9's in the message.

The format is the same as E11b: "213 cherta 35" repeated, then message, each group repeated twice. The message is repeated again, this time each group spoken once this time.

E11b message

E11b appeared on 9576 kHz USB mode, at 0845z but with a strong broadcast station creating interference.

0845z:
"233 oblique 36" repeated (a 36 group message will follow for Agent 236!)

0850z:
"Attention
77777 77777 42625 86583 67621 12764 31819 86701 48630 68251
03187 21700 56892 88330 59132 89989 91457 78190 51226 50289
25202 73666 89999 89303 36928 70176 34896 90263 47855 74088
94098 50799 04697 86814 77777 77777"

(each group repeated twice)

Pause every 10 groups. 5 is pronounced as "fiver", 9 as "ninour" and
as usual 0 as "tsero"!

0854z:
"Attention
77777 77777 42625 86583 67621 12764 31819 86701 48630 68251
03187 21700 56892 88330 59132 89989 91457 78190 51226 50289
25202 73666 89999 89303 36928 70176 34896 90263 47855 74088
94098 50799 04697 86814 77777 77777"

(each group repeated once)

0856z:
"Out!"

Listen the recording!

Update 12/05/2007: Is it "6" or "8"?

If you monitor Enigma2000 or this blog, I have mentioned that the third group was 42825 and not 42625. It was my mistake. Noise and BC QRM conspired against me and made "8" to sond like "6". With the help of Mike and some spectrogram analysis, it is proved now that no oddities occurred! The message and the repeat were the same. Here is the proof.

(Hmmm.... Blogger hates animated gifs?)

This is an animated gif of the two spectrograms. The first frame is from the segment "...42?25 865..." of the repeat (the one in question and the noisier) while the second is from exactly the same part of the transmission, when the lady says the same groups, in the beginning of the transmission, being for sure "...42625 865..." (reference).

The number in question is at 0.9 - 1.6 sec of the horizontal (time) axis. Keep your eye on the feature located at 1.1sec and ~2800 Hz.

I also measured the time-distances between prominent features of the reference spectrogram, and compared the results between the spectrograms. No great differences found, so the lady didn't make any mistake! The only one to blame is the BC station and bad luck!

Here are the two sound segments: Reference - repeat. I know -- it is very tricky!

Update 13/05/2007:
Because it is tricky, here is the repeat, processed. It is 6 isn't it?

So the case is finally closed...

JMH new frequencies confirmed

It seems that the image I posted earlier from JMH Tokyo HF-Fax Service was the best so far... I have trouble getting a decent image from Japan. The good news? I confirmed all three frequencies (2 new, one old) of JMH. Here is the broadcast schedule, effective 1 March 2007 (source JMA).

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!

Two short E10 logs

The numbers station E10 (as called by Number fans of Enigma2000 group) is one of the most common oddity noted outside the usual shortwave broadcast bands. Here is a sample message, as logged today on 7918 kHz // 5820 kHz at 1130z:

YHF m g20 t
KEBPM RDPIM IFIXI RPXQZ ZBPBC SKWCY OZOID KHAIS RGBAD PQHWO
VOYVU CUHVQ GDLOR JJCFJ DCKXF NPZQG SDRJF LWVRS JBETN LWOIN
eom eot

Sound clip!
Very nice and noise-free signal!

At 1230z, on the same frequency, a little surprise: YHF3! An unusual call! When E10 has a message, Agent's call is repeated. If no message, the number "2" follows Agent's call instead: "YHF2". Let's see what will happen at 1900z 3840 kHz // 2844 kHz !

JMH Japan HF-Fax service frequencies

The latest HF-Fax frequencies for JMH Japan HF-Fax service are:

3622.5 kHz
7795.0 kHz
13988.5 kHz

(all H24, 120/576)

Myself have logged 7795 and 13988.5 kHz. Here is today's test transmission at 1300z:
There is some QRM from a digital station few Hz lower. That caused my decoder to choose 60 LPM instead of 120 so I cropped the resulting image.

13320 kHz not numbers related

The mysterious 13320 kHz station logged again ~1351z. It is not a numbers transmission but a live QSO between two stations. Here is the sound clip!

A better sample from 13320 kHz

Here is another sample from 13320 kHz! A bit better reception this morning!

"...LF! LTU, LF! OK? LTU, LF! LTU, LF! Roger? ??? ??? ??? Roger? Roger? ??? Roger? Roger-roger? ??? ???"

The letters are "Lima", "Tango", "Uniform". I can't understand the rest (question marks).

And here is another short one! "OUF, UW! YRC, ZN! WUL, UP!"

UNID station on 13320 kHz

After Poacher's post in Enigma2000 group, I logged 13320 kHz USB, 1222-1241z! Very weak! Here is a short clip! It is heavily processed to improve SNR. Noise reduction introduced some artifacts but you can hear the voice much easier that way!

This station was misidentified as V21.

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.