From VMSSERV@arecibo.aero.org Mon Mar 29 14:02:22 1993 Received: from arecibo.aero.org by cs.tut.fi with SMTP id AA16881 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Mon, 29 Mar 1993 14:02:15 +0300 Message-Id: <199303291102.AA16881@cs.tut.fi> Date: 29 Mar 93 02:44:00 PST From: "VMSSERV Mail Server" Subject: UWO9204.TXT To: "rko" Status: OR ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::: SPEEDX UTILITY WORLD ONLINE ELECTRONIC EDITION :::::: ::::::::: ****The Utility Signals Online Monthly****** :::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Volume 1, Number 2 April 1992 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Published by the Society to Preserve the Engrossing Enjoyment of DXing (SPEEDX) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Edited and Distributed by Chuck Yarbrough + + Internet: + + Compuserve: 70544,2566 + + Postal Service: Johnsons Mobile Court, Lot 29 + + Route 6 + + Statesboro, Georgia 30458 + + United States of America + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Contributions of information are requested. (for membership information, please see the end of this file) ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Well, here we are again with another month of utility news and reports. Thanks to all who responded to my original posting requesting addresses of people who wanted to receive this news- letter each month. Due to the large number of responses to that message, I have decided to provide the UWO to the SWL-L net and to rec.radio.shortwave. To date I have had over 120 requests for subscriptions online, with several more via post from swls who don't have net access. Feel free to distribute this newsletter to anyone you feel may be interested. You also are encouraged to post this file to any local BBS or network which you deem appropriate. All that I ask is that you do not change the text or heading sections. A U.S. MARS Primer Most of you who have reported to this column have included loggings which have a callsign something like NNN0xxx or AAR0xxx. For many utility buffs, these calls are quite mysterious and are hard to identify. This month I will provide you with an introduction to the marvelous world of the United States Military Affiliate Radio System, or MARS. The MARS network provides military personnel a low-cost, efficient means of communicating 'back home' while they are on duty overseas. There are three different military branches with active MARS nets, the Army, Navy, and Air Force. These are indeed separate groups, but they all coordinate upon occasion. Each service has its own methods and protocols, but they all exist to serve a similar purpose, to provide a channel through which U.S. servicemen (and women!) can communicate with the folks back home. There are two primary means of communication you are likely to hear on HF MARS nets. The first is the ever-popular TELEX. This is a printed message usually sent via RTTY or CW (less common) and is broadcast 'in the clear'. The other type of message is SSB voice, primarily through the use of phone patches. Both types of broadcasts are technically 'unclassified', but as an unauthorized party in the communication, you are expected to observe the non-disclosure rules found in the Communication Act of 1934 (the one that says you can listen, but you can't repeat it or use the info for personal gain). I personally think that of all the radio intercepts I have logged over the years, I like MARS intercepts the best. They are certainly the most personal. During the recent Gulf War/Conflict I read at least a dozen proposals for marriage from troops in the Middle East to their girls and guys back home as well as hundreds of 'letters to mom'. When war is personalized to such an extent, you really get a feeling for what our troops went, and are going, through. The Overall Arrangement With the three-part division within the overall U.S. MARS network in mind, it is easy to recognize which station is affiliated with which military branch. Each service's callsign starts out with different letter combinations. The U.S. Army MARS network station calls all start with the 'AAA' through the 'AEZ' letter prefix. Generally, any callsign with an 'AAx' prefix is a domestic station (ie. AAT4USA=Ft. Gordon, Ga.). Calls which start with the 'ABx' prefix are mostly Asian stations, and 'AEx' calls are located in Europe. This three-letter prefix is followed by a 'region designator' number which locates that particular station. Most amateur radio operators are familiar with this type of designator, although the regions are not the same as ham callsign regions. The final three letters in an Army MARS callsign are the specific station identifiers. The U.S. Navy MARS network station calls all start with 'NNN0'. According to Symington and Henault (Utility QSL Address Guide), the way to tell whether the station you have heard is an actual Navy ship/shore station or a civilian affiliate station is to look at the letter after the zero. If that letter is a 'C' then it is a shipboard station. If it is a 'M' then it is a Marine Corp station. If it is a 'N' then it could either be a shipboard or Navy shore station. Any other letter would indicate that it was an affiliate station. The third service, the U.S. Air Force, has a large contingent of MARS affiliates worldwide. the callsigns from 'AFA' through 'ALA' denote this service. However, to date only the 'AFx' and the 'AGx' prefixes have been used. An 'AFx' series callsign denotes a civilian affiliate. This means that the station does not reside on a US Air Base. The 'AGx' series denotes a military-based MARS station. The best that most SWL/DXers can hope for is to log the 'AGx' stations, since I have not been able to locate addresses for the civilian stations. The three-letter prefix is followed by a region number, just like the other services. That is followed by either a single or double letter suffix which denotes the specific station. Often if the suffix appears to be an abbreviation for a state, that station is probably the state MARS coordinator. What Next? Next month I will conclude the MARS article by looking at some of the best frequencies and resources which are available to you. I will also examine the U.S. Air Force MARS system in a more detailed manner. If you have any additional information, or would like to read about a particular aspect of MARS, let me know. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: New Publications Several new publications have come across my desk over the past few months and I thought I'd give you brief reviews of each one. Here we go. USSR Merchant Ship List by Jason Berri This book, just published by Universal Radio Research (address: 6830 Americana Parkway, Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068, USA), is overall an excellent resource for the radioteletype enthusiast who likes to decode Soviet shipping traffic. No previous knowledge of Soviet RTTY is needed to use this book. Jason has done a superlative job of demystifing the seemingly arcane Soviet protocols. The first third of this 71-page book introduces the reader to the Soviet Merchant Fleet (MORFLOT) and how to decode their transmissions. The bulk of the book contains Jason's database of Soviet ships by callsign, by ship name, and also by Ship Serial Number. Why list the same information three different ways? Often when you intercept a message, you will not always have all three pieces of information by which to identify the vessel. By looking up the callsign you can then find the name of the ship. This book is the only listing of the Soviet merchant marine in existence. All data has been updated (after all, this is the fourth edition!) and if a ship has not been received within the previous five years it is deleted from the database. This procedure ensures that only the most accurate data is included. As you all probably know, Jason Berri is a SPEEDX editor, so his writing is not entirely unfamiliar to you. I wholeheartedly recommend this essential work to all SPEEDX readers. Air and Meteo Code Manual By Jorg Klingenfuss Jorg Klingenfuss, the renowned ute writer, has just published his new 12th edition of the Air and Meteo Code Manual. Since I previously used the 10th edition, I will compare these two editions. The new edition is about 65 pages longer than the 10th edition. As with all of Klingenfuss' new editions, this book is laser printed and uses many more graphic images to illustrate his information. Another improvement of this edition over the 10th is the expanded section on Meteorological Code Forms--the information patterns which enable you to interpret what the data means. Who would use this book? Since this is a specialty publication, RTTY monitors who wish to decode weather data from various airports around the world will find this book essential reading. This book is the ONLY publication which covers this topic in detail. An added benefit of this book is that in most cases it is more understandable than the original World Meteorological Organization (WMO) publications upon which it is based. It is also MUCH less expensive than buying all of the relevant WMO publications. (available direct from Klingenfuss Publications, Hagenloher Strasse 14, D-740 00 Tubingen, Germany or from most radio supply stores) The RTTY Listener edited by Fred Osterman Another new publication from Universal Radio is the new assembly of issues one through twenty-five of the RTTY Listener. For those of you who do not know, this publication is an in-house limited distribution quarterly newsletter published by Universal on digital communication. As Fred Osterman, Manager at Universal, said, this book is not a beginners text. It is for moderate to advance level RTTY/CW/FAX monitors. The easy to read 'scrapbook' style of the book makes it easy to read and also allows the reader to see the rapid historical evolution of the RTTY monitoring hobby. This book contains all of the newsletters from June 1985 through December 1990. Going back and viewing old issues allowed this writer to finally 'crack the code' on ARQM2 and VFT modes by explaining how to tune them. One exclusive feature of this newsletter (ie. this book) is the excellent listing of French Army circuit identifiers and callsigns. This is the resource I use in determining where transmissions using the RF prefix come from and to which frequency they are paired. This information itself is worth the price of the book to the serious RTTY monitor. Another useful feature is the frequency section found at the end of each newsletter. Many of these frequencies are still active and can be intercepted. Overall, I recommend this advanced resource to those of you who are not familiar with the RTTY Listener. For those of us who do receive it, this is a good way of keeping up with the old issues. It is a book well worth the price. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Utility News VOA Bethany Relay R.C. Watts reports that the Fall 1991 issue of WRTH Downlink lists the VOA Bethany feeder frequencies as: 19261.5 USB 1600-2200UTC English 15752.0 USB 0300-0700UTC English R.C. also reports that the proper QSL address for the Bethany feeder as: Bethany Relay Station Voice of America ATTN: Jon Vodenik P.O. Box 227 Mason, Ohio 45040 Thanks R.C. for the info and welcome back to the column! MARS Update David Trachtenberg is a USAF MARS Region 2 affiliate station (AFA2TR). It appears that the Region 2 Master Net Control is no longer AGA2LA (Langley AFB), but rather is now AGA2SH (Shaw AFB) in South Carolina. David also adds that in addition to the SSB and RTTY nets reported in the article, there are VHF (FM), CW, and PACKET operational nets as well. Anybody got any freqs out there? If you are interested in learning more about how MARS works, I'll refer you to David's excellent article in QST Magazine (p. 81) in the December 1991 issue. I will try to use some excerpts from the article in a future column. USCG Cutters Commissioned Mike Hardester checks in with some updated information about the reassignment of US Coast Guard ships at Fort Macon, NC. The following info is from the 23 November 1991 issue of "The Daily News" of Jacksonville, NC. "FORT MACON--The pennants were broken, the flags were raised, and two of the newest U.S. Coast Guard cutters were accepted into operation Friday at Fort Macon. "About 300 Coast Guard personnel, families, and dignitaries attended the duel commissioning ceremony to celebrate the arrival of Coast Guard cutters Staten Island and Block Island. "The 110-foot patrol boats--capable of more than 30-knot speeds with a maximum range of 2000 nautical miles--arrived about a month ago and are part of the new Island-class of Coast Guard cutters built by Bollinger Machine Shop and Shipyard in Lockport, La. "The cutters will replace the 82-foot cutters Point Martin and Point Brown in search and rescue operations, law enforcement and maritime defense. The decommissioned boats have been in service for about 25 years." SRI RTTY QSL Policy As I listened to "The Two Bobs" on SRI's Shortwave Merry-go- round the a month or two ago, they announced that "they had been told" SRI was commencing a RTTY English language service. They also invited all RTTY monitors who copied their station to send in a printout of a SRI transmission for a QSL. However, the RTTY service has quite a unique QSL policy--THEY WILL QSL VIA RADIOTELETYPE!!! The way this works is that in response to your QSL request SRI will send you a notice which will tell you a time to listen when your QSL will be broadcast! Neat Idea SRI! SRI English service to Australia can be heard here in NAm on 15835.0 kHz from 1700-1800 UTC. Their QSL address is CH-3000 Berne 15, Switzerland. APO, FPO ZIP Guide Sheldon Daitch, who works for VOA Tinang Relay station in the Philippines, sent me a copy of the 23-page booklet Military Overseas Zip Code Directory. This little ditty provides a systematic listing of ALL APO, FPO, and military ZIP CODE addresses as well as all changes brought about by the modernization of the military postal service on 15 July 1991. From a glance through, it appears approximately 75-80 percent of all the codes have changed. While the booklet is designed for military personnel and personnel working overseas on military installations, you might give your local US Post Office a buzz to see if you can get the booklet. PIAB Singapore Relay If you are into exotic modes or German language news you might be interested in the schedule I monitored here in Georgia on 12 December at 1800UTC for PIAB Singapore Relay. PIAB transmits in FEC-A, and I monitored this sked on 16022.0 kHz in German. Here is the sked: Time UTC Freq. Call Target 1600-1800 11007.0 (9VF67) East Asia 1600-1800 10217.5 (9VF59) Australia/New Zealand 0230-0430 7900.0 (9VF39) Indonesia 0230-0430 19535.0 (9VF91) Southern India 0230-0430 18050.0 (9VF255) Eastern India Interestingly, I can't find a listing anywhere for the 16022.0 transmission! Anyone have a callsign for that station? FAA COTHERN Net Skip Sanders via SW Echo BBS writes that, "The FAA has an entirely separate SelScan-type HF system all their own, it's not part of the US Customs HF (COTHERN) system. There are, by the way, only 10 frequencies in the COTHERN (Customs Over The Horizon Enforcement Network) system that use the SelScan tones...other "discrete" channels aren't part of the COTHERN scan system. COTHERN Frequencies: Chnl 1= 7527.0 Chnl 2= 8912.0 Chnl 3= 10242.0 Chnl 4= 11494.0 Chnl 5= 13907.0 Chnl 6= 15867.0 Chnl 7= 18594.0 Chnl 8= 20890.0 Chnl 9= 23214.0 Chnl 10= 25350.0 These are the frequencies for the SelScan system of US Customs. Of course, much of the traffic on these channels is scrambled with TDM Scramblers. (The "gobbling" sound with digital bursts front and rear.) Propagation test data braps are sent every 15 minutes or so by the C3I (Command, Control, Communication, & Intelligence) center in Florida and the C3I center in California, working up from channel 1 to channel 10, in order. You can use that to discover how high in frequency the propagation is good for you from each of them (if you can figure out which set of bursts is from which C3I center!). :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Guest Article: Controle de Voie (CdeV) by Robert Hall Capetown, RSA The words "Controle de Voie" will often be seen in RTTY loggings, sometimes shortened to "CdeV". Roughly speaking, the meaning of this phrase is "LINE TEST" and the transmitter origin will be a French Military, Naval or Air Force station--often shortened to "FF", for French Forces. There are hundreds of FF stations in France and dotted around the world. Each station has at least one callsign. In France these callsigns will begin with the letters "RFF", and overseas the signs will begin with the letters "RF". Callsigns are usually made up of four or five letters but they can run up to six or seven. Here are some typcial examples: RFQP--Jibouti RFFA, RFFUBA, RFFA--N'Djamena, Chad RFVI, RFVICS, RFVITZ--Le Port, Reunion RFLI, RFLIA, RFLIB--Fort de France, Martinique RFFA, RFFAAA, RFAAB, RFFAB--Paris, France RFFLUW, RFFLVA, RFFLVo--Toulon, France FF stations transmit in the following modes: ARQ-E; ARQ-E3; ARQ-M2/4; and to a very small extent in Baudot RTTY. Within these modes, baud speeds and shifts will vary. Almost all FF stations have more than one transmit frequency--high up the scale in daytime, and lower down at night. The Confidential Frequency List and Klingenfuss' Guide to Utility Stations give most of the data needed to identify FF stations, but there are frequent changes. Many FF stations are linked into circuits which are identified by a three-letter "circuit identifier". Thus, 'FTI' for Libreville to Paris, 'HIJ' for Noumea to Papeete, 'HJI' for Papeet to Noumea, 'DAD' for Libreville to Dakar, and so on. Transmissions are often 'en clair', and in French of course, but one frequently sees endless coded five-letter groups. When not transmitting coded or clear messages many FF stations will test their lines and circuits by sending out a brief "Controle de Voie" flash similar to the examples which follow. This is only a brief and somewhat inexpert look at FF transmissions but hopefully it will help stir interest in the fascinating RTTY hobby. What follows are two actual French Military message formats provided by Robert. All messages were logged by him on 20179.6 KHz in ARQ-E3 mode (100/395). The format is typical of the types of messages you will encounter when you decode FF stations. ZCZC RR RFVITZ RFVIT DE RFFAK 0056 ZNR VVVV R 071420Z OCT 91 ZY3 FM DISTRANSIT VINCENNES TO RFVITZ/COMSUP SAINT DENIS INFO RFFECC/CONSAIR BORDEAUX RFVIT/TRANSITMIL SAINT DENIS BT NON PROTEGE [flight info traffic] NNNN ZCZC IRE681 PP DFVIC DE RFIM 0121 ZNR VVVV P 0715452 OCT 91 BT BBBB EORIN ENRNI FGPSN DFKNO FISOW WIPNR JRIIE RIGNS SNKAS NANAD RIWID IASIE EWHEI WRHAM NNNN ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Well, that's it for another month. Hope you enjoyed the offerings. As some of you have already probably guessed, most of the articles in the newsletter this month are by now several months old. My method of assembling the UWO is to go back and pick many of the features and reviews which have appeared in the SPEEDX Utility World column in the monthly hardcopy magazine. As a result, I have to use news stories which have first been printed in the regular club magazine. I do this to protect the investment of the club members who have paid their dues and contribute every month. If you would like to receive the very latest information each month (and not wait 2-3 months for it!), consider joining SPEEDX. Our rates are competitive and our membership friendly. SPEEDX is an international shortwave radio club. Currently we have members in over 30 countries around the world, although most of our members are located in North America. We are an 'open' club--in other words we do not limit contributions to reporters from a particular geographical region. SWLs in Finland are just as welcome to report as members from California, USA. We publish the monthly hardcopy magazine, SHORTWAVE RADIO TODAY. For a sample copy send two IRCs to our publisher at the following address: Ed Janusz P.O. Box 149 Brick Township, New Jersey 08723-0149 United States of America To subscribe, please contact our Business Manager at this address: Bob Thunberg P.O. Box 196 DuBois, Pennsylvania 15801-0196 United States of America Here are our membership rates for different regions of the world: SUBSCRIPTION/MEMBERSHIP FEES USA/Mexico (First Class Mail) $23.00 Canada (AO Airmail) $25.00 Central/South America, Caribbean (AO Airmail) $29.00 Europe (AO Airmail) $33.00 Africa/CIS/Asia/Oceania (AO Airmail) $37.00 Outside North America (Surface Mail) $23.00 Payments in US dollars only to SPEEDX. Please send all renewals, new memberships, and changes of address to the DuBois address. See you next month. 73 and Cheers. Chuck Yarbrough, Editor Utility World Online Internet: Compuserve: 70544,2566