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ENIGMA 2000 NEWSLETTER http://enigma2000group.org © P.Beaumont 10thJuly, 2018 RAF E3-D Sentry Photographed during the flypast of Buckingham Palace of 100 aircraft 1200z 10/07/2018 ISSUE 108 September 2018 http://www.enigma2000.org.uk © All items within this newsletter remain the property of ENIGMA 2000 and are copyright. See last page1 also. Editorial Apart from the variable signal strengths and continuing QRM and QRN [and sometimes accompanying QSB] frequency changes to the August E07 Sun/Wed 1700z and Mon/Wed 1900z schedules have been noted, but read on. Thanks for spotting the Sunday change Ary and thanks to Malc for Monday’s. Sun/Wed as: 1700z 13397kHz ; 1720z 12197kHz ; 1740z 10697kHz Mon/Wed as: 1900z 16147kHz; 1920z 14647kHz; 1940z 13447kHz The variable propagation changed for the worse abound the weekend 25th August as things became bad; not a lot above 10500kHz in the mornings and not helped by the noise from broadband on twisted pairs in the UK and other places. A daily check of my phone app illustrates 30 to 10m are generally poor. Several interesting developments in the world of the number station have been observed over the past couple of months; perhaps the most unusual occurrence is that the Sunday + Wednesday E07 schedule, 1700 UTC start, has made a change of operating mode from old fashioned amplitude modulation with a carrier and both side-bands to SSB, noticed on the very first day of July. There has often been a problem with E07 AM schedules in the past with very low levels of audio resulting in difficult to impossible copy, although this had been much improved in the weeks before the move to SSB. This is the schedule which sent several very long messages earlier in the year, group counts of over two hundred, and when the “full message” format appeared in July and August group counts were much more modest, but would have been at one time considered to be higher that usual. Does the combination of long messages and the use of SSB indicate that the recipient is engaged on an ongoing mission of great importance? Also, the related Saturday E07a, 0800 UTC start, hit the airwaves with a “full message” transmission on the last Saturday in June and the first one in July; since this schedule has been sending the standard “no message” routine for some considerable time, this might be regarded as a bit unusual. It has since reverted to type with the usual two minutes of “000”. Short-wave propagation, as always, very variable, most noticeable, for example, on regular schedules; worst of all in the summer months has been the HM01 “mixed mode” station from Cuba, generally very weak signals; perhaps things will improve now that we are loosing daylight as we move towards autumn. [From PoSW] One can be forgiven for asking why there is an image of the RAF’s Hawk T2 aircraft flying in diamond formation. Whilst I stood atop my University building watching this lot flypast I was unable to hear the RAF band striking the accompanying music. The Hawk T1 flying past to strains of ‘633 Squadron.’ However, BR noted the tune these T2’s flew past as ‘The Lincolnshire Poacher,’ the music often heard with the now gone E03 The Lincolnshire Poacher LAST ISSUE FRONT COVER Reading out request for more detail on the Moscow Building we receive this from ENIGMA 2000’s 'Man on the spot.' The Military Commission for the City of Moscow can be found on Prospekt Mira a few hundred metres south of the metro station of the same name. He assumed this organ has some sort of admin function, but was unable to find any local contact to clarify its role. The vertically polarised Yagis are not for TV for 2 reasons. The main TV tower for Moscow - Ostankino - is barely 3 miles away so the occupants of the building would be able to pick them up on a coat hanger, but also it transmits with horizontal polarisation (tv aerials almost out of shot over to the right). Comparing the vertical Yagis to the tv aerials suggest 40+ megs plus. 'Our man' said if he finds out what the Commission does, he'll let us know. [Thanks!] 2 Recommended Reading Who’s Watching You? A good solid read published in 1981 it describes not only the very interesting ABC Trial [letters depict accused surnames] of 1978 but also events leading to it and claimed legal skulduggery. It was this book that effectively outed GCHQ, at the then ‘Oakley site, into the public view unless you were a minority reader of The Statesman where Duncan Campbell [C ] had penned some interesting pieces, usually with a SIGINT subject about them. The author, Crispin Aubrey [A] joined with Campbell to interview John Berry[B] an ex-corporal in the Royal Signals. [I’m watching you 499] Berry had served some years with 9 Signals at the Ayios Nikolaos SIGINT base and had become disgruntled at whet he was having to do. He had also read the Time Out article ‘The Eavesdroppers’ written by Duncan Campbell in 1976 [feasibly the first ‘public’ outing of Britain’s SIGINT/ELINT organisation into a then minority magazine with limited circulation]. After contacting Duncan Campbell a meeting was arranged at a flat along with Crispin Aubrey and John Berry, plus tea, coffee and a tape recorder. Notebooks ready the interview was underway when Special Branch arrived and made three arrests. The ensuing trial, for offences against the Official Secrets Act, was fraught with legal challenges; Colonel B, the evidence , a jury member and a whole host of other matters. Eventually all involved received non-committal sentences – from a trial whose cost had reached a six figure sum. GCHQ became a byword in society, you were a nobody if you could not claim the two clicks at the start of a landline call that hailed you were being capped. There’s are some interesting images in the book. One of the pieces of evidence offending the OAS is shown: an image of the Post Office Tower [now BT Tower] and its antenna. Part of a Microwave link that spans Britain it was also part of a system code named ‘Back Bone’ to ensure communications in the event of severe difficulty [Nuclear War]. This is covered in two later Duncan Campbell Books. Another image shows a crystal bound VHF receiver and powerpack and entitled Telephone Tapping instrument. Whilst it was easy to ignore that Britain had at the time its forerunner of cellular phone technology. That was System 4. Using tones it used five out of six frequencies somewhere in the 159 and 164MHz bands [if I remember correctly]. Listening on a warbling frequency you’d apparently hear important people talking on these in-car devices, calling wives, employers and the occasional government official. Very illegal to do. Mr Moffat also appears, or rather Detective Chief Inspector Moffatt of Special Branch is photographed in profile and sporting his usual light coloured mackintosh. A true gent, full faced he bore an uncanny resemblance to the Irish actor TP McKenna. I spent a few memorable evenings in his presence in the ‘Tank,’ a bar for police officers on the ground floor of New Scotland Yard [at St James’ …. Now demolished and relocated] with a few other colleagues. It’s a decent book indeed; technically accurate and, I suspect, one that HMG wishes was never printed. Their Trade is Treachery (Central Office of Information) The Amazon blurb reads: ‘In the early 1960s, various UK government committees made recommendations on how to begin combatting what it perceived to be the growing threat to the UK from the Cold War spy armies. Perhaps the most famous outcome was the 'For Official Use Only' booklet produced for Civil Servants and the Armed Forces. Now reproduced for the first time since 1964, Their Trade is Treachery gives a fascinating glimpse into the world of secrecy, paranoia and betrayal that was the British Civil Service during the height of the Cold War. This revealing little volume was originally released in 1964 for issue to those working in the Diplomatic Service – that would include DWS ops too – and reprinted as facsimile in 2010. It is an interesting read citing different examples of British employees who are contacted by ‘those who do not have the best interests of HMG and Britain to heart.’ It costs around £7 and sill available – really recommended. 3 Morse Stations All frequencies listed in kHz. Freqs are generally +- 1k This is a representative sample of the logs received, giving an indication of station behaviour and the range of times/freqs heard. These need to be read in conjunction with any other articles/charts/comments appended to this issue. Morse - Number Stations UNID CW André, (F5JBR), has been monitoring a new network that he came across while searching for Russian Naval stations. Believed to be North Korean Military. Below are André's notes & logs. I have been running the bands (from 2 to 16 MHz) for several weeks ... especially looking for information on the Russian Pacific Navy. Since 3 days now I hear new networks, these networks are noted "North Korean Military",; these networks were not active until July 15 otherwise I think I would have heard several. Thanks to Ary for identifying networks. André, Strength of station from various SDR receivers: QSA 4 on Chinese SDR QSA 5 on Russian SDR QSA 3 on 2 Japanese SDR Logs: Heard this morning on 5553 kHz 25 July - Call sign JWN. All logged using remote SDR Japan.