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!