A fascinating facet but not widely publicized portion of the SWL hobby is the monitoring of Soviet radioteletype (RTTY) and continuous wave (CW) i.e. Morse code, transmissions. In the new era of "glastnost" this is just one more window you can look through into the once secret world of the U.S.S.R. Many fascinating insights that can be gained from pursuing this relatively untraveled path of the SWL hobby. First you may get an insight into the Soviet Space program by monitoring the messages sent to and from the Soviet Academy of Science Space Tracking ships. Sometimes the Soviets send messages in what at first appears to be "code". After some careful study the "code" soon reveals itself as dealing with a certain unnamed space object. Other times you may see the cargo manifest of a Soviet freighter that may be carrying anything from pipes to weapons. A lot of the time you may find out more about the Soviet fishing industry then you ever cared to know! The most fascinating aspect of this pursuit is that you can never be sure of what you will come across, so every message can bring a new discovery. It has proven to me an intellectual challenge that is fun. The following information is based on my personal exposure to this facet of the SWL world. I have tried to provide the names of vendors for specialized books or equipment as necessary. My opinions on equipment are just that. In the end whatever works for you is what's best. I only hope that you will share the fruits of your experience with others, right here on Compuserve. Please read the following in the spirit it is given: a desire to share what knowledge I have picked up since concentrating on this part of the SWL hobby. I may indeed be in error in some of what I say. If so, please let me know so it can be corrected. First Soviet CW. In theory this will be the least expensive of two paths of the hobby since the receiver requirements are less critical, and therefore less costly. To really keep expenses low you need only to be able to copy Morse code. Technology opens the door for those with the budget who can not copy Morse code. Even if you can copy Morse, you better be able to copy at least 20 WPM and that is at the slow end of the spectrum for most Soviet CW transmissions. Also the Soviets use special Morse characters for some characters peculiar to the Cyrillic alphabet. When you are ripping along at 20 WPM a "new" or unfamiliar character can throw you for a loop. For example "di di dah dah" is the Morse symbol for the Russian "YA". Not especially difficult but it will take you a while to add new characters to those you already know and still copy at 20 WPM. A complete table of Morse code characters for Russian, Japanese, Arabic and other languages can be found on page 19-3 of the big yellow 1988 ARRL Handbook (appx $20). This book also has a lot of other useful technical information and should be in every serious SWL'rs library. As already noted, the receiver requirements for CW are less stringent than for RTTY. Among relatively low cost alternatives, I find the Sony ICF-2010, an already excellent ISWBC receiver, generally quite adequate for CW. I recently made a side by side comparison of my NRD-525 and the Sony. I connected them both to the same 100 foot longwire and tuned to a weak CW signal. Using this highly scientific comparison I found that the weak signal was completly audible on both receivers. In a crowded environment the Sony's lower quality "narrow" filter will not perform in the same league as the NRD-525 equipped with a 500 Hz filter. When I first tried to compare the NRD and the Sony on the same signal (see comments on "COL" in Havana, Cuba which is discussed later), I wrote the Sony off as a total loss. I couldn't hear the signal at all on the Sony while it was loud and clear on the NRD. Then it dawned on me. I tuned the Sony 800 Hz BELOW the actual RF (in this case the NRD was on 15024 kHz and the Sony was retuned to 15023.2 kHz) and my initial disgust turned to satisfaction. Don't forget to subtract the 800 Hz when tuning based on "exact" frequencies listed by the Confidential Frequency List (CFL) {also to be discussed further below} or similar publications. No matter the speed of the CW, I have found a technique that helps me copy CW too fast for me to copy "live". I record the receiver output onto an open reel tape recorder at 7.5 ips and play it back at 3.75 ips. If you have a cassette recorder you could then use it to record the slowed down output, then rerecord the cassette back onto the open reel at 7.5 ips and then play the open reel back at 3.75 ips. Now we have our 20 WPM down to 5 wpm! Make sure the pitch of the initial recording is high. For those that have the money you could buy an M6000 or M7000 and read the CW on a VDT or computer monitor. In fact the M7000 brochure states it will print the characters in Cyrillic on the monitor! The AEA PK-232, which I use for RTTY can also read CW - or so the manual says. Mine can't in 95% of the cases when I tried so perhaps I have a defective unit. I can't bear to give it up long enough to send it in to be checked! For the rest of our discussion we'll assume you have found some way to copy Soviet CW. What can you expect to find in this traffic. Soviet CW often sends messages that appear identical to those you will see if you copy Soviet RTTY. That means lota of telegrams to lonely sailors on the Soviet fish factories. Look for CELEUM at the end of this type message. This roughly translates to "love and kisses". If you have a "code 3" Morse decoder this will come out as TSELEUM (more on code 2 and code 3 later). There is also CW aeradio traffic between "COL" in Havana, Cuba (15024 kHz) and RFNV in Moscow. Even on the West coast I have no trouble picking up these station day or night. It is almost 11 PM (Pacific Daylight Time) local and I am listening to "COL" as I write this. I assume that this link serves much the same purpose as that provided by the ICAO HF aeradio USB voice links most UTE listeners are familiar with. The "COL" traffic contains the destination, speed, and times of arrival of Soviet Aeroflot flights. This channel also sends CW messages to planes in flight. It may even be used by Soviet Bear A/C flying reconnaisance off the East coast of the USA while enroute to Cuba. It features bizarre "Q" signals, which can be found in Klingenfuss's RTTY book (available for appx $30 from Universal Shortwave). The CW speeds used by "COL" are probably closer to 13 WPM, which makes it easier for those who know some Morse. The Soviets also use CW to transmit weather and naval area closures. I found one message notifying of a closure in the East China Sea. A search of the Compuserve "GO NEWSGRID" feature using the keyword MILITARY revealed the Chinese were holding a simulated nuclear attack war game in this area. I have only been copying Soviet CW for a couple of weeks, so have just scratched the surface of what is there. From personal experience I can recommend the Gilfer's (201-391-7887) Confidential Frequency List (7th edition) as a source of exact frequencies to tune to for either CW or RTTY. In many cases the CFL will tell you the exact UTC time at which Naval weather or Naval warnings will be broadcast. In all instances where I have attempted to verify these listings, they appeared correct as the signals appeared right on time. To pursue RTTY you will need a good short wave receiver, an RTTY "decoder" device, and a computer or video monitor. This could cost you quite a few dollars. First, the receiver. The requirement for RTTY is that your receiver is "stable" and selective. The stability is required because if your receiver drifts, then the signal you send to the decoder device will eventually be unusable. The Soviets seem to use very stable transmitters so any drift you deal with is likely to be due to your receiver. The selectivity requirement is to keep other nearby signals from interfering with you. You should have a "narrow" filter of 500 Hz bandwidth, which works perfectly with "standard" 170 Hz frequency shift on most of the Soviet RTTY signals you will hear. For RTTY your receiver should be tuneable in frequency increments of 100 Hz or better. It also would be nice if the receiver was actually tuned to exactly the frequency it indicates. An error whether from drift, mistuning, or poor calibration of as little as 40 Hz can result in a garbled signal. Receivers of adequate technical means to monitor RTTY include the Kenwood R-5000, JRC NRD-525, and probably the ICOM R-71A. Top notch receivers will cost somewhere between $800 to $1300 including taxes and desirable modifications. It is also assumed that you have a reasonably good antenna and not overly noisy (RFI) location. By reasonably good, a "longwire" at least 25 feet or more in length is desirable. The next component in the system is the RTTY decoder. For once, the "best" is not the most expensive! The AEA PK-232 costs approximately $350. It can certainly be purchased from E.E.B. in Vienna, VA, and probably many other stores which deal with Hams or SWL'rs. It has competition from its famous cousins: the M6000 at approximately $900 and the M7000 over $1000. I like to be able to store intercepted data in a computer file for subsequent analysis, not just read it off a monitor or print it out. That is easily done with a PK-232 and low cost software. While you can purchase software "recommended" for the PK-232 for abou $50, I found that the BITCOM software which allows you to use your PC as a dumb terminal was far better equipped to allow me to store data on my computers disks while in the "smart" mode of the PK-232. The "smart" mode analyzes a signal and automatically puts you in the correct mode to copy a given signal. The Soviets use one of the least complex RTTY transmission schemes. Most of the signals you will want to copy use a 170 Hz, 66 wpm (50 baud), frequency shift to transmit data. The PK-232 ideally should be connected to a computer with a "serial port". If this sounds like a lot of gobbledy gook to you, it is easier to do than talk about. The computer needs some "software" to enable it to work with the PK- 232. As I already mentioned I use software called BITCOM which came "free" with my $155 2400 baud modem. It has worked perfectly for me. When buying any equipment it is wise to select a helpful dealer. They can help you over the "rough spots" when you first start to use the PK-232. There is nothing really difficult about making any of this work assuming you are basically familiar with your receiver and computer. For optimal analysis of your data, the computer also will need a word processor software capable of handling an ASCII file (e.g. PC-WRITE V2.71 available for as little as $12 is excellent). Recently I have been reading the specifications on the M7000. It sounds like it might eliminate some of the electronic noise generated by the PK-232, which on my computer is VERY noticeable. It also allows the Cyrillic characters to appear in Cyrillic on the monitor. Then with a Romanov's $4.95 Russian/English dictionary and a little patience you could soon be reading Russian! I plan to try this model someday soon. HOW TO MONITOR AND ANALYZE SOVIET DATA First you have to find a Russian signal to monitor. I live on the West coast of the United States so I find it particularly easy to monitor transmissions from Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk. Both of these Russian cities are renowned military and civilian maritime hotbeds. Another Russian city close to Vladivostok which also generates maritime traffic of interest is Nakhodka. It is very helpful to have some good reference material. A good place to look for frequencies to monitor is the CFL or Confidential Frequency List (7th edition) available from Gilfer for about $17. For RTTY look in the CFL for anything that says 170/50 in the modulation type column. In general look for a call sign starting with a "U" or and "R". If you don't have this book get yourself started try searching from 12491 to 12527 kHz at almost any time of the day or night. Be patient! If it isn't automatic set your decoder for 170 hZ, 50 baud, reverse. Tune in 0.5 kilohertz intervals between these two frequencies. I have discovered three other frequencies that are generally strong and almost certain to be active nightly on the West coast. These are 6460 kHz, 6503 kHz, and 13080 kHz. The best time to listen is between 0900Z and 1630Z. Since 0900Z is at 2 AM on the West coast the ability of a receiver to turn itself on and off automatically at preset times is a blessing. The PK-232 can be plugged into the receiver with its "parameters" already set up so when the receiver turns itself on, the signal is automatically "decoded" and stored in a file on your computer for analysis at your leisure. It is nice to awake in the morning to find 75,000 bytes of RTTY traffic in your "trap". If you live on the East coast you may find Murmansk, Odessa, and Batumi easy catches. The East coast is also a good place to pick up the TASS news service in an RTTY broadcast in English. For those in the midwest, well in theory you live in the best of both worlds. For some real left wing slant on the news monitor Havana's Prensa Latina on 8140 kHz at 0900Z till about 0950Z. Typical Soviet traffic can be heard from Soviet station UKA in Vladivostok. It often consists of the Soviet equivalent of MARSGRAMS. That is to say relatively brief messages from the families and loved ones of Russian men and women working at sea, often on a huge fishing vessel. If you know just a few words of Russian you can tell these messages from the rest. As I noted in my comments on Soviet CW, look for the Russian word TSELEUM. With the knowledge of just a few such words you can usually get the drift of most messages. I have included some of the most commonly used terms at the end of this article. The PK-232, and probably other RTTY or CW decoders feature a mode which outputs text in what is known as "transliterated Cyrillic" or "code 3". This means you get Russian words that read most like English. For example code 2 "Wladiwostok" is the more familiar "Vladivostok" in code 3. The manual that comes with the PK-232 deals with the differences between "code 2" and "code 3" Cyrillic, in greater depth and should be read. If you are used to manuallyt copying Soviet CW, then you have been using "code 2". Another type of message which abounds is official messages that list the types and amounts of cargo. One I message I saw kept using the word TONNE preceded by some numbers and followed by TRESKA. I found a Russian dictionary that revealed their cargo was cod fish. Another category of message that you will be almost certain to see are the KRIPTOGRAMMA messages. These are encrypted messages of a secret or private nature. An example of the heading of such a message is: UPTZH UPTZH DE UKA UK "UPTZH" equates to a call sign in English of "UPTV" which the ITU list reveals as belonging to the Severo'uralsk. She is being called by "UKA", a Vladivostok coastal station that sends traffic to Soviet fishing vessels. This might be followed by: I SR VLADIVOSTOK 7093/1895 245 9/6 1400= {This header reveals the message as coming from Vladivostok. It is numbered "7093/1895" has 245 groups and was transmitted on "9/6" or the 9th of June at 1400 (Moscow Time). SRO:NAYA KRIPTOGRAMMA 3 PUNKTA PB SUZDAL' PB SEVEROURALSK PB SUKHONA OT MALAKHITA 108 = The above is the address list and goes to three Soviet fishing vessels: Suzdal', Severouralsk, and Sukhona. I don't know what the "OT MALAKHITA 108= " means. Then the message which might start something like this: DDDDD AAAAA AAAYAYA YAKKKR RREEE EEESHCHSHCH SHCHSHSHSHTS TSTSDDJ IUTKP LJNKHG FNFASH SHCHSHSHKHY OEKEYU GNNKYA PEVSH4 YUINJK ILIKHY YAKNPT ZHSGMTS BTSRTOIFG4Z etc., which is encrypted. Good luck trying to decipher it! What do you do with the messages you intercept? I study them, and daily understand more and more of what they have to say. You might soon become an expert in knowing how many fish the Soviet fishing fleet catches. You can look in your Polmar's Guide to the Soviet Navy (Naval Institute Press) and search for ships associated with Soviet Space launch activity. The names of such ships are preceeded by "NIS" in the address portion of the message. If you own an IBM compatible, among the software tools you get with either the Microsoft or IBM operating system is a jewel called "FIND". It will search a huge text file in a jiffy and reveal to you every line where a given word was used. My personal favorite is a text search file program called "TS" for text search which comes as part of the Norton Utilities software. One Pacific fleet ship that I was told is almost certain to become active when the Soviets engage in a shuttle launch is a ship with called the NEDELIN. Just tell FIND or TS utility to look for any occurrence of "NEDELIN" in the data files you have collected. Let's assume you found it almost daily in your files of last summer's intercepts and then it wasn't heard from again after September. If TASS says there is going to be a shuttle launch sometime in 1988 and after months of no mention of its name you get gobs of "MARSGRAMS" to members of her crew, you may suspect she has just embarked for participation in the planned launch. You also might keep a data base of information related to a specific ship. Who are the crew members who get messages? What is the ship Captain's name (usually prefaced by "KMD")? Is there a sudden increase in KRIPTOGRAMMA messages? As you examine the traffic day after day you will come up with ideas of your own. A good analyst is one who keeps files of such trivia. There are numerous books available that you might find valuable if you are seriously considering monitoring the Soviets or any other military communications system. Among them are: "The American Black Chamber" by Herbert Yardley, and "The Codebreakers" by Herman Kahn. If you are going to seriously monitor Soviet maritime and Naval activity, then either purchase Jane's Warsaw Pact Merchant Ships (paperback $17) or go to a good local public library and see if they have a copy of the larger hardbound edition. Another extremely useful tool is the I.T.U. list of coastal stations and call signs. That can be gotten from the ITU in Switzerland for about $100. Jason Berri (21240 South Western Avenue, #18, Torrance, CA 90501) has managed to come up with a subset of the most commonly observed Soviet ship callsigns. These are available, with instructions on how to read Soviet traffic (I just sent for my copy yesterday) for about $6. Perhaps the best buy of all is the Janes paperback (about $17) titled Warsaw Pact Merchant Ships. There you will find a lot of details about the ships whose names you will find in the traffic. If you really are serious send off to Aegean Press (PO Box 2837, Laguna Hills, CA 92654) for their publications on military cryptology. They even sell software for an IBM PC to let you try your hand at a messages generated by the Enigma; the famous Nazi World War II cypher system. If your mathematical ability and temperament are at this level, who knows maybe you could put a dent in the Soviet KRIPTOGRAMMA messages mentioned earlier. As promised here are some commonly found Russian words (code 3): DAJ OTVET = GIVE ME AN ANSWER KVARTAL = QUARTER (AS IN 2ND QTR FISCAL YEAR) LI4NO = PERSONALLY MOL4ISH' = SILENT OTPRAVILA = SENT PEREVOD = TRIP PIS'MO = LETTER PISHI = WRITE POLU4IL = RECEIVED POKA = IN THE MEANTIME PONYALA = UNDERSTAND POZDRAVYLAEM = CONGRATULATIONS ROZHDENIYA = BIRTHDAY RYB = "RYB" AS A PREFIX - REFERS TO FISH OR FISHING SAMOGO = YOUR OWN SEVERNAYA = NORT SOOBSHCHU = ADVISE SRO4NO = URGENT TSELEUEM = KISSES VOSTOCHNAYA = EAST VSEGO = ALWAYS ZHELAEM = WISH Here are some "code 3" to "code 2" conversions: CODE 3 CODE 2 ====== ====== TS C ZH V KH H SHCH Q V W ' X [ YA ] YU Thus code 2 "UISHCHZH" is actually "UIQV" in the ITU call sign list. You will also see many cases where the Soviets send numbers as characters which work out as follows: QWERTYUIOP 1234567890 also "X" is equivalent to a slash / and often I see a V for an "=". See the 1988 ARRL Handbook for the Morse code Soviet characters. I hope to be writing more on this segment of the hobby in the future. I look forward to hearing from fellow hobbyists. Don't hesitate to ask for help. I have only been pursuing this hobby for about 4 months, and have received numerous helpful hints from other Compuserve members. I recommend you also read the file submitted by Sam Ricks (76367,2640) which also deals with reading Soviet messages. In summary you will find out a lot more about the Soviets than you might ever have believed possible by monitoring the shortwave bands.