ANALYSIS OF THE DATA ==================== It is a good idea to spend a few months collecting data before attempting any serious analysis of what you have collected. This initial collection period will give you the familiarity with Soviet radio traffic required for successful analysis. You may find that become a bit overwhelmed during the initial stages of this hobby. While there is nothing really that difficult involved in the collection and subsequent analysis of this data, the unfamiliar is often intimidating. If you persevere, after a few weeks or months of intercepting and storing data you will have a good idea of the different types of communications traffic you are likely to encounter. The majority of Soviet radioteletype messages I have observed consist of personal messages. The next largest message category encountered are "numbers" messages. I classify as "numbers" messages those which feature multiple columns of numerical data. About equal in quantity to the "numbers" messages are the administrative messages. Common subjects for the administrative category are: crew leave, crew entertainment, fish catch and storage data, and airline ticket reservations. You are likely to encounter reports from ships which reveal their location, provide associated navigation warnings, weather data, and a host of other topics. I have found that for me, while small in number, the most intriguing are those messages which the Soviets refer to as KRIPTOGRAMMA(s). These are messages which are deemed sensitive enough to have been encrypted by the Soviets. For novice analysts the easiest to analyze category of messages to analyzed are the personal telegrams, or LNK's (love and kisses), as I refer to them. LNK's are most profuse in the periods proceeding the major Soviet holidays. During these periods numerous messages equivalent to our Christmas or Valentine's day greetings are transmitted. Numerous messages are sent in conjunction with a the crew member or family member's birthday. LNK's also are commonly noted when the crew becomes aware of their next port call, during which time they may make a phone call home or pick up ordinary mail. While their "intelligence" content is generally low, LNK's often provide information concerning both the crew member's and ship's travel itinerary. Since the language used is often repetitious in nature, the LNK messages can be used to learn a smattering of Russian. There are numerous types of "numbers" messages. Most appear to provide fishing data to the major Soviet administrative centers dealing with such matters. They apparently are sent in accordance with pre-defined automated data processing formats. I have had only marginal success in determining the meaning of specific column/row pair's in the most commonly observed "standard" format messages. The pairs whose meaning I have been able to determine contained the "ID" number for the vessel, or date related (day, month, year) information. The remainder of the columns probably refer to size of catch, and data dealing with specific ship cargo holds. This data could well represent parameters such as weight, type of catch, and probably storage temperature. In certain messages there appear to geo-coordinates defining the area where fish are being netted. Recently I have discovered that, in most instances, "blocks" of ID numbers appear to be pre-allocated to ships subordinate to the various Soviet ports. For those who can read Russian, the administrative messages will be among the most meaningful. The few that I have seen fully translated give real insight into the Soviet mind set. I have seen: "ass chewings" for pilfered funds, requests for "approved" books to read, requests for concurrent time off for a crew member's spouse (non- compensated) during port calls within the Soviet Union, part lists, airline ticket requests, medical status reports, and tainted food warnings. Sometimes there are messages demanding more discipline from the ship's officers. One such message seemed to result from a tragedy which occurred as a result of the ship's officers lying about an incident. To ensure that this did not reoccur, the message demanded new periods of special training and reporting. I have even seen a message where a Soviet research ship's captain reported on a "mini-mutiny" involving several crew members. It appears the crew members were organizing a union because they felt their concerns weren't being fairly dealt with! Another sporadically observed category of message are those containing raw scientific data. Such messages have been observed to transmit data collected by hydrophones, provide antenna aiming data for space "objects", and provide weather data (POGODA messages) to weather reporting facilities at cities such as Moscow and Murmansk. Coastal stations are also used to forward personal messages, administrative messages, navigational messages, and traffic lists to ships at sea. Some of the navigational hazard messages are even broadcast in English. I find such messages of particular interest in that they often detail military activities (both Soviet and foreign) such as artillery firings, shipborne surface to surface missile tests, and even Soviet ICBM launches. KRIPTOGRAMMA traffic is tantalizing, in that encryption indicates messages of a particularly sensitive nature. Since all Soviet merchant ships can, and do, act as intelligence collectors, encrypted messages may be an indication of instances where the ship's mission crosses the line from the commercial to military. It should be reemphasized that useful analysis is possible without any knowledge of Russian in anything but the most trivial sense. A coming issue of SOVIET MONITOR will provide a "keyword" list for those who choose to decode their messages using the English phonetic equivalent of Cyrillic characters. The decoder boxes I have used offered a total of three options of displaying the messages. The first of these is the "code 2" output provided by the manufacturer of the AEA PK-232. It produces a quasi-phonetic output. It is reasonably close to an English phonetic equivalent of the Russian. Still there are non-phonetic characters ranging from English alphabet letters to punctuation marks which equate to specific Russian Cyrillic characters. The second option on the PK-232 is the "code 3" or phonetic transliteration of the Cyrillic. This will appear the most like "English" to the beginner. I found it the least intimidating during my initial phase of the hobby. Even if you already speak Russian, many of the phrases and abbreviations you will encounter in your intercepts are not likely to have been encountered in your previous studies. That brings me to an option currently available on the M-7000. Cyrillic. After many months of using the PK-232, I decided to purchase the M- 7000 decoder, which features a true representation of the message content by displaying the actual Cyrillic characters on a video monitor. If you can overcome your resistance to the "difficult" I strongly suggest that you learn the Cyrillic alphabet. If you learn only five characters a day, in only a week you will know almost the whole Cyrillic alphabet. The advantages to this approach are that it will allow you to use a standard Russian-English dictionary as a translation aid, remove ambiguity, and in reality result in your learning more Russian. I was fortunate enough to find a night class (five two hour sessions) on the Russian language offered by a local high school. This didn't take a lot of my time but proved extremely useful. As I write this there is a relatively low cost word processor that will process text files and is capable of displaying both the English and standard Cyrillic character set. The program is called PC-Write Lite and is available for about $80 from Quicksoft (206-282-0452). Quicksoft also offers a Russian spelling checker for $29 which works with PC Write Lite. I am using the original PC-Write to create this document. I am attempting to have the manufacturers of the M-7000 and the PK- 232 adopt the same "ASCII" equivalents as used by PC Write Lite. I expect that Russian language "translators" will become available in the not too distant future. Let's start the fundamentals of traffic analysis by examining the basic components of most Soviet radio traffic, i.e. the message header and address elements. The following, while not a "typical" message, will serve as a useful example: {Certain elements of the message have been changed to ensure confidentiality} NIS YUZHMORGEOLOGIYA 85 171 4/8 0700= RADIO GELENDZHIK BRIZ CHALENOV= NA VASHE RDO 31 OT 2/8 SOOBSHCHAEM SEREDNIE ZNA4ENIYA PARAMETROV GIDROZONDIROVANIYA STANTSII NR 14988-80E TIPE OT 22.06.88 GLUBINA TEMP. ELPROVODNOST' SOLENOST' KISLOROD SKOROST' ZVUKA 0 27.207 54.831 34.405 4.704 1539.6 1539.4 50 24.291 51.979 34.741 4.909 1533.1 1532.8 100 20.528 48.605 35.112 4.844 1524.7 1524.3 150 13.935 41.479 34.589 4.423 1505.2 1504.9 200 11.434 39.392 34.873 4.225 1498.0 1497.7 250 10.387 38.423 34.874 0.928 1495.1 1494.7 300 9.974 38.104 34.916 0.482 1494.5 1494.2 400 8.815 37.023 34.883 0.242 1491.9 1491.6 500 7.623 35.906 34.828 0.200 1489.0 1488.7 600 6.827 35.210 34.815 0.118 1487.5 1487.2 700 5.906 34.495 34.906 0.152 1485.6 1485.3 800 5.192 33.815 34.822 0.410 1485.1 1484.8 900 4.548 33.316 34.839 0.446 1483.9 1483.7 1000 4.144 33.011 34.853 0.885 1483.9 1483.6 1500 2.836 32.107 34.909 0.835 1486.7 1486.4 2000 2.074 31.660 34.929 1.262 1491.6 1491.5 2500 1.770 31.741 35.118 1.473 1498.9 1498.9 3000 1.631 31.829 35.130 1.641 1507.0 1507.1 4000 1.428 32.047 35.158 2.266 1523.4 1524.0 KOROBKO KOMAROV-NNNN Soviet RTTY messages almost invariably begin with a "header" line such as: NIS YUZHMORGEOLOGIYA 74 146 6/12 0200= The beginning phrase "NIS YUZHMORGEOLOGIYA " contains both the ship type and the ship's name. The term "NIS" is used by vessels subordinate to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. {See Appendix B for a listing of commonly used Soviet ship designators) associated with other ship types}. The ships name is YUZHMORGEOLOGIYA which translates to "South Sea Geologist". The number "85" indicates the message is the 85th message, presumably in agreement with the ship radioman's administrative log, where data on the traffic sent and received is recorded. The number "146" indicates the message will consist of 146 groups or separate words. I seldom bother to try to make this number reconcile exactly with the message as the way such groups are counted is not always exactly clear and, in case of a garble, the number can be misleading. Nevertheless it gives you a good indication of the message length (when not garbled!). The "6/12" indicates the message was logged in on the 6th day of the 12th month, i.e. December the 6th. I have never seen the year included in the header, since that information is usually obvious. The "0700" indicates the hour the message is logged in, and is believed to represent Moscow time. The Soviets do not appear to use UTC, as do most other nations. Add three hours to UTC and you will have Moscow Standard time. UTC times are given on a 24 hour a day basis by WWV and WWVH. You can listen to these stations on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 Mhz using your shortwave receiver. When reception conditions are correct you may find these signals are interfered with by time signals from the PRC, Taiwan, and Japan, to mention the most likely ones (for West Coast USA listeners). The second line of a message almost always contains the address of the message's intended recipient. "RADIO GELENDZHIK" almost certainly represents the Soviet coastal radio station in the city of Gelendzhik. Gelendzhik lies on the coast of the Black Sea about 25 miles from the better known Soviet port city of Novorossiysk. I am not certain of the meaning of "BRIZ". Perhaps it represents the administrative title of Comrade Chalenov, to whom it is apparently meant for. (Both my RTTY decoders use the roman numeral 4 to represent the Soviet "ch" sound, so it appeared originally as 4ALENOV, which I have changed to CH for instructional purposes). The message may not actually be being sent to the radio station in Gelendzhik, but regardless of the initial recipient, the message will be forwarded there by whomever is receiving the ships traffic. Most addresses include the name of the town or city, the street address, building name or number, and the apartment number (KV is an abbreviation used for "apartment") followed by the name of the intended recipient. From what I have seen, it appears most Soviet citizens live in multiple family dwellings. Next would follow the body of the message but first let's look at an element of a communication you may not always see, but which is of interest. This is "RY"'s as they are often referred to. The initial step in most ship's communications process requires that the ship establish communication with either another ship or a landbased station. This can occur in more than one way. The ship may have a pre-established time and frequency when the coastal station will be listening for her messages. In other cases there is the more widely used method where a given CW call up channel is paired with a "channel" on a different radio frequency on which the RTTY data will actually be transmitted. Our friend the YUZHMORGEOLOGIYA might start by transmitting an RTTY messages such as: RYRYRYRYRYRYRYR UAT DE UXXX This message is repeated till the station with the call sign "UAT" (Moscow) is successfully reading the transmission. This might involve the receiving station switching antennas, fine tuning their receiver, or making some other technical adjustment. When the tune up is completed the intended recipient ("UAT" in this case) will send a message (often in Morse code), on a second radio frequency telling the ship to go ahead and send her traffic. The letters GA in either Morse code or RTTY is an abbreviation for the English "Go ahead", i.e. transmit your message. Soviet Morse code and RTTY communications use a mish mash of such abbreviations. Some of the most common are: DE (French for "from") GA (go ahead) GM (good morning) GN (good night) AS (wait a minute) K (OK for you to transmit now) NIL (nothing to transmit) See any good text on amateur radio Morse code instruction to find others. There is also, especially in Morse code, liberal use of "Q" signals. The best list I have found for some of the bizarre Q signals used by the Soviets can be found the Klingenfuss's Guide to Utility Stations (1990). A note of caution. If you are using a device that uses either Code 2 or Code 3, switch to Code 2 for the RY's (you'll soon recognize these by their unique sound in RTTY). If you use Code 3 you might see "SHCHSL". If you use Code 2 you will see "QSL" instead. "QSL" just means verify that you have received the message(s), or if used by the receiving end, "I received the message(s)". The reason for this inconsistency is that the Cyrillic equivalent of a letter pronounced "SHCH" is used in place of the English letter "Q" since the Soviets do not have a "Q" in their alphabet. Be especially sure to use Code 2 for call signs. Assuming the actual call sign is UUWW then reading a message in the Code 3 mode will indicate the call sign is UUVV. While this might appear to be the actual call sign, it isn't. When I used the PK-232 I preferred Code 3 for the main section of the message since I preferred the spelling Vladivostok (Code 3) to Wladiwostok (code 2). An obvious advantage of recording all signals on a cassette tape is that you can replay the message and reset the decoder box for code 2, 3, or even Cyrillic (if you have an M7000). When you intercept a signal you recognize as an "RY", this is an ideal time for you to do the same as the its intended recipient, i.e. adjust your equipment for the best reception. This means fine tuning to the exact RF and/or setting up you decoder for proper reception. If you have an open reel tape or cassette recorder, now is the time to start recording. The M7000 features "auto tune" which can correct for many "errors" which could result from you or the transmitting station being slightly "off tune". The PK-232 is less forgiving if the transmitting station is off frequency and you have recorded the results. By far the greatest number of today's (July 1990) Soviet maritime RTTY signals use the "standard" 50 baud, 170 Hz, Baudot mode. I would estimate that about 85 percent of the Soviet RTTY signals I encounter on the two segments of the band I most favor use this mode. The exceptions mostly commonly use rates of 45, 75, or 100 baud. It should be noted that in the years ahead more Soviet communications will use the "SITOR" modes (both the M7000 and PK-232 can easily read this format), which are easily recognized by their unique sound. The SITOR mode ensures almost perfect copy of any message by the intended recipient. There are also other methods used to establish communications. Sometimes the landbased station will listen on a specific frequency for a CW transmission from any ship. At this time the landbased station will usually direct the ship to start RTTY communications on one of the standard channels. This results in the "RY" transmission already discussed. Perhaps atmospherics or other signals will interfere. This will result in the landbased station requesting the ship attempting communications to shift to another frequency. If you come across a ship transmitting a message only to see it disappear suddenly in the middle of a message, this might be the reason for the sudden disappearance. The SESS generally have a "net" call up in CW at a specific time. Because of my location and working schedule I most commonly monitor the SESS net broadcast on 8418 or 8417 kHz at 0305 hours UTC. Often there is interference from the a Spanish speaking "spy" lady. She operates in USB on 8418 kHz and reads five digit number groups. When she is present the net will drop to 8417 kHz. Sometimes these SESS will just acknowledge each other's presence and indicate there is no traffic to be passed that evening. About 25 or 30 percent of the time they will send an actual message, with a header line like that just explained. Or, they may tell the ship to tune to say, 12524 kHz for an RTTY message. Your knowledge of Morse code better be good to catch this. The operators on the net transmit at 30 to 40 words per minute (WPM). Under optimal conditions, when your CW decoder is tuned just right, and reception conditions are excellent you may be able to read these messages by using the decoder alone. If you see such a frequency, retune your receiver to the directed frequency, switch to the 50 Baud, 170 Hertz (Hz) mode and receive the subsequent message. A good indication of impending launch or Mir activity is the appearance of numerous KRIPTOGRAMMA traffic passed via RTTY. At other times boring speeches made by Gorbachev may be sent as "practise" messages. Back to the sample message which was as follows: ============================ NIS YUZHMORGEOLOGIYA 85 171 4/8 0700= RADIO GELENDZHIK BRIZ CHALENOV= NA VASHE RDO 31 OT 2/8 SOOBSHCHAEM SEREDNIE ZNA4ENIYA PARAMETROV GIDROZONDIROVANIYA STANTSII NR 14988-80E TIPE OT 22.06.88 GLUBINA TEMP. ELPROVODNOST' SOLENOST' KISLOROD SKOROST' ZVUKA 0 27.207 54.831 34.405 4.704 1539.6 1539.4 50 24.291 51.979 34.741 4.909 1533.1 1532.8 100 20.528 48.605 35.112 4.844 1524.7 1524.3 150 13.935 41.479 34.589 4.423 1505.2 1504.9 200 11.434 39.392 34.873 4.225 1498.0 1497.7 250 10.387 38.423 34.874 0.928 1495.1 1494.7 300 9.974 38.104 34.916 0.482 1494.5 1494.2 400 8.815 37.023 34.883 0.242 1491.9 1491.6 500 7.623 35.906 34.828 0.200 1489.0 1488.7 600 6.827 35.210 34.815 0.118 1487.5 1487.2 700 5.906 34.495 34.906 0.152 1485.6 1485.3 800 5.192 33.815 34.822 0.410 1485.1 1484.8 900 4.548 33.316 34.839 0.446 1483.9 1483.7 1000 4.144 33.011 34.853 0.885 1483.9 1483.6 1500 2.836 32.107 34.909 0.835 1486.7 1486.4 2000 2.074 31.660 34.929 1.262 1491.6 1491.5 2500 1.770 31.741 35.118 1.473 1498.9 1498.9 3000 1.631 31.829 35.130 1.641 1507.0 1507.1 4000 1.428 32.047 35.158 2.266 1523.4 1524.0 KOROBKO KOMAROV-NNNN The body of the message consists of data collected by a Soviet oceanographic collector designated as a "GIDROZONDIROVANIYA". The particular instrument is given the exact designator of "Station Number 14988-80E". The column headings represent respectively the depth, temperature, conductivity, salinity, oxygen content, and "speed" (twice). I used QUATTRO PRO, a microcomputer spreadsheet program to plot the data. Plots of this data may be of interest to any readers who are also interested in oceanography, as the Soviets obviously are. I find it quite interesting that they were able to make such measurements some 4,340 meters i.e. some 14,239 feet below the surface of the ocean. I have cleaned up the intercept for clarity, but it is a common practise for the Soviets to include in the message a group count indicator such as "=50=" or "=100=". This shifts the column line up so I have deleted it for clarity. The message is "signed" by Comrade Komarov who seems to have the title "Korobko". The "NNNN" is commonly transmitted to indicate the end of a message. TO BE CONTINUED ===================== SOVIET CITY OF THE MONTH In your analysis of Soviet messages you will encounter the names of many Soviet cities. Each month SOVIET MONITOR will provide information on a different Soviet city whose name you are likely to encounter. Militarily related information will often be included for many of these cities since I suspect a large portion of those who will read SOVIET MONITOR will have some interest from this perspective. When applicable, I will provide some details from the messages I have intercepted which mention the city, or are from vessels home ported there or are in direct communication with the a coastal station located in the city. Unless noted otherwise, all geo-coordinates provided were taken from the CIA's USSR Energy Atlas gazetteer. The three or four letter group following the geographic coordinates is that which will appear in the header line of messages from ships subordinate to an administrative entity located in the given city. A listing of HF frequencies to monitor from radio stations located in these cities is also provided. This month we look at the city of Arkhangelsk. Arkhangelsk 64 34N/040 32E ARKH Arkhangelsk, or Archangel as it is usually referred to in English language literature, is the administrative center of the Arkhangelsk oblast (the term used by the Soviets for an administrative region.) Arkhangelsk, with a population of about 425,000, is located on a branch of the Dvina river which flows into the White Sea, some 30 miles away. Arkhangelsk is the terminus of the White Sea Canal and is a major port on the Northern Sea Route. Due to the severe weather both the White Sea canal, which provides a direct shipping link to Leningrad, and the White Sea may be iced over for almost half of the year. Icebreakers enable sea traffic to continue for about 80 percent of the year. The city stretches for some ten miles along the bank of the Dvina river. Shipbuilding, and fishing are two of its major industries. The city is a major timber-exporting port. There are sawmills, as well as pulp and paper making facilities within its boundaries. Arkhangelsk derives some of its energy needs from a thermal floating power station. The city has a major railway connection to Moscow. An "ORBITA" satellite ground station provides a major communications link for the region. Arkhangelsk Radio, an outlet of Radio Moscow, operates daily on 5015 kHz. Military units whose mission is the defense of the Kola peninsula are located in Arkhangelsk. Nearby Olenegorsk may serve as a staging area for long range bombers. There is a VLF military communications facility tasked with providing submarine communications to submarines in the White and Barents sea. The 6th Army HQ is located in Arkhangelsk, as well as several units associated with FROG missiles. {Special thanks to Nuclear Battlefields for its excellent compendium of militarily related data on the Soviets. This book is authored by William Arkin and Richard W. Fieldhouse and is available at $14.95 from the Ballinger Publishing Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts} Arkhangelsk is a major Soviet fishing port. The headquarters of the Northern Shipping Company, a major commercial shipping company, is located here. The following is a partial list of ships subordinate to this city whose messages I have intercepted. When known I have included call signs, enclosed in brackets, as well as remarks which might prove of interest. NAME // CALL SIGN // VESSEL TYPE // MESSAGE CONTENTS AB-0012 // ---- // FACTORY TRAWLER // SH11XX FORMAT MESSAGE AB-0032 // ---- // FACTORY TRAWLER SH11XX MSG & FISHING RELATED MSGS AB-0033 // ---- // FACTORY TRAWLER SERIYA ZH-61 MESSAGE; LNK'S AB-0034 // UBHR // FACTORY TRAWLER FISHING RELATED MESSAGES AB-0035 // UBHT // FACTORY TRAWLER CALLING URB-2 (KLAIPEDA) SH11XX MSG AB-0112 // ---- // FACTORY TRAWLER AB-0122 // ---- // FACTORY TRAWLER SERIYA G-31 MESSAGE AB-0432 // ---- // FACTORY TRAWLER LNK'S AB-2423 // USXV // FACTORY TRAWLER AB KARPOGORY (AB-0126) // UUKU // FACTORY TRAWLER NEW YEARS GREETINGS AB PEVEK (AB-0119) // EWCS // FACTORY TRAWLER MSG TO AIRLINE TICKET OFFICE ===================== A coastal radio station (call sign UXN) is located at Arkhangelsk. A complete listing of frequencies associated with this and other Soviet cities is available in the Confidential Frequency List (7th edition). This book can be purchased from any of the three vendors mentioned in the hardware section of this months SOVIET MONITOR. You might try 6407.5 khZ for CW or 8708.5 kHz for RTTY. ===================== Ship of the Month This month the award goes to the PB Sulak a Severouralsk class vessel serving as a fish factory. The Sulak's call sign is UPTO and she is often heard or mentioned in traffic from coastal station UKA in Vladivostok, her home port. Some 571 feet long and 24 feet abeam the Sulak can chug along at 14.5 knots. While she is a Soviet ship her agent is the Kerr Steamship Corporation. Recently the Sulak was in the news when she besmirched the pristine waters of the Columbia river. Seems the Sulak bashed into a pier while docking in Astoria, Oregon where the crew were to disembark for some well deserved crew leave after months of shucking fish. This minor piloting error resulted in a 5 mile long trail of slimy oil as some 700 gallons of waste oil oozed from her wounded exterior. Last intercepts from the Sulak were noted on 12506.0 kHz at 1504Z on 7 July 1990 when she was noted in communications with UKA in Vladivostok. While most Soviet RTTY uses 50 Baud/170 Hz mode, the Sulak was noted switching back and forth between 50 and 100 Baud. She is headed for the Bering Sea, and was noting passing traffic which mentioned diesel and fuel oil. Hmmm.... Jason Berri's USSR Merchant Ship List (UMSL V3.01) notes the ASWLC bulletin reported communications from the Sulak back in December 1988. Your editor has seen many additional intercepts which she either originated or was mentioned in. West Coast U.S.A. listeners might try listening to 6503 kHz in the early morning hour, where she is mentioned most often in traffic. ===================== In future issues: * A review of reference books of special interest to SOVIET MONITOR readers * Using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get more information * How to monitor the Soviet Space Event Support Ships * More cities and ships of interest * Data encryption techniques Oh yes, if you have read this far you will realize I haven't told you the best place to look for Soviet RTTY signals. The two bands I have found most productive are from 12491.5 kHz to 12527.0 kHz. Tune in 500 Hz steps. Same techniques should be used from 16695.0 kHz to 16707.0 kHz. If you live on the west coast of the United States try 6503 and 8575 kHz in the wee hours (from around 3 AM PST to 8 AM PST). One last word. By now you must be sorely aware, I am NOT a professional writer. If enough of you subscribe to SOVIET MONITOR, perhaps I can hire one. Issue one was a solo effort. My real interest is in widening the circle of those who might find this hobby of interest.