CIS MPSK-16, PSK2 500Bd

Interesting CIS transmission spotted by my friend KarapuZ, whom I thank for sharing. The signal is a wideband MPSK-16 waveform, with 2500 Hz channel spacing, and use a PSK2 modulation at the symbol rate of 500 Bd in each channel. The 16 channels transport the same data.

Fig. 1 - PSK parameters of a single channel

A better view of the decoded bitstream of a single channel is obtained by using a 36-bit length period (figure 2):

Fig. 2 - 36-bit period

The messages consist of 5-FGs groups and a separator character (111110). In my opinion each group is coded into a 5-bit Figures, (after the removal of the common trailing "0") and has a constant ratio "1s"/"0s" = 3/2, except the separator which consists of all ones bit (11111). Nothing changes if the reverse polarity is taken into consideration. By using the association:

11111 = space/separator
00111 = A
01011 = B
01101 = C
01110 = D
10011 = E
10101 = F
10110 = G
11001 = H
11010 = I
11100 = L

we get :

DBLIC DBLIC DBLIC BBBHI
DHCLG AGDHD DDAAC DHCLC
DHDLD EFEIL BHDLG EFDIC
DLCHD EFEIL DILCF GEEDD
DHCLF DIDLE EHGDI ILAFE
BCDGI LAHEF DIDLE EIDLG
DFHIL EHGFL GFEEA CDIGI
EFDIL DIDLE LEADC DFAIF
GFEEE LIHGH IHGGF AAHFI
BBBHI DBLIC DBLIC DBLIC

Notice the particular "format" that is used for the initial and last four groups of the message: some conjectures can be made about its purpose such as for example the signaling of SOM/EOM or the date/number of the message... anyway only hypotesis. The messages are probably off-line encrypted and maybe using the so-called OTP (one-time pad) technique: anyway, one could test the possible associations as for example the following A=0 - L=9 (or the reverse order) and see what it turns out:.

31982 31982 31982 11178
37296 06373 33002 37292
37393 45489 17396 45382
39273 45489 38925 64433
37295 38394 47638 89054
12368 90745 38394 48396
35789 47659 65440 23868
45389 38394 94032 35085
65444 98767 87665 00758
11178 31982 31982 31982

My friend Cryptomaster came to the same conclusions in his reply in radioscanner taking a different approach: ie 6-bit words consisting of 5-bit code + 1 parity bit. Probably the MPSK waveform is an evolution of the CIS PSK-2 serial tone waveform (same period, same bitstream pattern) [1]: given that the 16 channels transport the same data, they provide a better immunity to noise and interferences.

https://disk.yandex.com/d/uBpZwnz0dv47Rw

[1] http://signals.radioscanner.ru/base/signal172/