20 December 2014

CIS FSK 200Bd/500


FSK 200Bd/500  mode is believed to be used by one of the Russian intelligence services. It transmits data using FSK (Frequency Shift Keying) modulation with the ITA-2 alphabet (with 1.5 stop bits) at a speed of 200 baud with a shift of 500 Hz.
FSK 200/500 messages are transmitted with fixed schedules on frequencies which change monthly. The latest information on the times and frequencies of these schedules can be found online here.

Rivet can decode FSK 200/500 messages directly from a radio in USB mode connected to a soundcard line input or from a WAV file that is mono and with a sample rate of 8000 Hz. The program calibrates itself by looking at the incoming audio and then starts to decode and display the message on the screen. Once a message is decoding do not retune your radio until the message is complete.
A short recording of a an FSK/200/500 transmission may heard here

When there is no message to send in a schedule the line 

 00000++++++++++162)5761

will be sent continuously for seven minutes as in the following decode output from Rivet:
 
FSK/200/500 null traffic
 When there is a message offline encryption is sent which starts like this:

00000++++++++++188=8331
52281013891141343 =8432
92874574809254333 =8573
814347960943078155=8794

The number to the left of the = sign appears to be the encrypted traffic and consists of 17 or 18 digits. The number to the right is interesting also though. The last digits of this is the line number which you can see incrementing. The messages ends like this:

28870268039372698 =81275
423345851935701126=86276
88837514787689596 =81277
26158186121423068 )57678

Certain 3 digit codes appear to have special meanings. The ones we have come across so far are:

162 Start of a null message
188 Start of a message
576 End of message or null

 (source: Rivet wiki)



15 December 2014

DPRK-ARQ 600/600 (KEGURI)

Known as DPRK-ARQ and DPRK-FEC, DPRK-ARQ 600bd/600 is a proprietary two-tone FSK system with a 600 Hz shift. This system is used by the Democratic People Republic of Korea (so the abbreviation DPRK) with 600 Baud and, as said, 600 Hz shift for their HF diplomatic traffic in ARQ mode on LSB.
DPRK-ARQ 600/600 sonagram and spectum

The block length is 217 ms, the pause 323 ms so that the total packet has a length of 540 ms. Each bit has a length of 1.67 ms so that one packet has 130 bit.



Sometimes they use DPRK-ARQ 1200 with 1200 Baud and 1200 Hz shift (DPRK-ARQ 1200/1200):


14 December 2014

Russian Navy radio Centers

Here is a list of the main Russian Navy radio Centers, set your web/mail browser to read cyrillic in order to see the Russian names of these sites correctly.

Radiocoverage area World wide
N  р/с 2201 (poss 2200)

Москва / Moscow
РИВ / RIW (+ RJE56)
Прогресс / Progress


Radiocoverage area Northern Fleet,
Arctic regions, North Atlantic Ocean, North sea, Norwegian Sea, white Sea, Northern inland waterways
N  р/с 2202

Североморск /Severomorsk
РИТ / RIT (+ RJH57 ?)
Вольфрам /Wolfram

Северодвинск / Severodvinsk
РЙД-99  / RJD99
Цветок / Swetok, "Flower"

Иоканьга*  / Iokanga aka Jagernaja / Ostrovnoj aka Gremikha aka Murmansk-140
РЙД-80  / RJD80
Светлана / Svetlana

Полярный   / Polyarny
РИР-2  / RIR2
Природа / Priroda, "Nature"

Мурманск  / Murmansk
РЙД-56  / RJD56
Флюгер / Flüger, "Vane"

Radiocoverage area Baltic Fleet

Baltic Sea, North sea, English Channel, Inland waterways
N  р/с 2203

Калининград / Kaliningrad
РМП  / RMP (+RJD71?)
Вестник / Westnik, "Herald", "Messenger"

С-Петербург / St. Petersburg
РЙД-85  / RJD85
Скакун  / Skakun, "Race horse", "Jumper"

Балтийск  / Baltiysk
РЙД-69  / RJD69
Искатель / Iskatelx, "Seeker"

Radiocoverage area Black Sea Fleet
Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Caspian Sea, Red Sea, inland waterways
N  р/с 2204

Севастополь / Sevastopol
РЦЖ / RCV  
Гвоздика / Gwozdika, "Cloves"

Новороссийск / Novorossiysk
РЙЕ-65  / RJE65
Тополь / Topolx, "White Poplar"

Radiocoverage area Caspian Flotilla
Caspian Sea, inland waterways
N   р/с 2205

Астрахань  / Astrakhan
РЙД-52 / RJD52
Зазор / Zazor, "Clearance" or poss "Gap"

Radiocoverage area Pacific Fleet
North Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Oceans, Bering Sea, inland waterways
N   р/с 2206

Владивосток / Vladivostok
РЙС   / RJS
Грейдер / Grejder "Grader"

Стрелок  / Strelok aka Pavlovsk Bay
РЙД-97  / RJD97
Чинара / Öjnara "Sycamore"

П.-Камчатский  / Petropavlomsk Kamchatskiy
РЦЦ  / RCC
Деканат / Dekanat "Deanery (Deans office)"

Совгавань /  Sowgwanx aka Sovjetskaya Gavan
РЙД-93  / RJD93
Флейта / Flejta "Flute"

Владивосток / Vladivostok
РЙЦ-60  / RJC60
Юрист / Ürist "Lawyer (Jurist)"


Radiocoverage area Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean, inland waterways
N   р/с 2207

Бишкек  / Bishkek
РЙХ-25  / RJH25
Сибиряк  / Sibiräk "Siberian"
From my good friend Trond Jacobsen in Norway.

6 December 2014

The Snake Charmer: a flute in HF


the signal has been spotted on 16927.0 KHz/USB from 1310 UTC, it's the so-called "snake charmer" here in the 16-step MFSK version. The transmission is likely sourced from HEB/WLO/WPG as reported in a detailed description reported here, although the author reports the 64 and 32 tones versions.
Below the 30 minutes long max-hold FFT spectrum that exhibits 16 tones, approximately 65 Hz spaced, in a range of 10 dB:

fig. 1 - max hold FFT spectrum

The signal is believed to be a test signal of some kind from WLO, WPG, or maybe HEB.  I just asked my friend MIke Chace-Ortiz (mco) and he replied that there have been 3 channels, all allocated to WPG active on 16MHz recently. The 22819.0 frequency (on USB) also remains active, usually with carrier from WLO direction but this also carries the same odd signal from time to time.

1 December 2014

my very first radio

I began to tune HF stations (48 meter band) using this simple-but-good radio receiver and a long wire antenna out of my window. I still love it !