NASA has publicly presented data from its new Solar Dynamics Observatory in a news conference that just ended. SDO gathered a great deal of data on the recent flares and CMEs that messed up band conditions a few days back, and the presentation was pretty jaw-dropping for those who are really into solar-terrestrial physics and how they influence what we hear on the radio.
NASA has the first light images and videos here.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Discovery Prepares for Tuesday Landing
From NASA:
Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:59:09 PM PDT
At 10:21 p.m., mission control played “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson as the wakeup call for Commander Alan G. Poindexter, Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. and Mission Specialists Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Clayton Anderson and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki.
Space shuttle Discovery’s crew is prepared to return home Tuesday, as mission managers closely monitor weather that could affect their entry and landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The first Kennedy opportunity Tuesday would see a deorbit burn at 5:28 a.m. with a landing at 6:34 a.m. For the second opportunity the deorbit burn at 7:02 a.m. would lead to a landing 8:08 a.m.
For Edwards, the first opportunity deorbit burn would be at 6:56 a.m. with landing at 8:01 a.m. The next would have a deorbit burn at 8:30 a.m. and a landing at 9:35 a.m. while the third would begin with a deorbit burn at 10:05 a.m. leading to a landing at 11:11 a.m.
STS-131 Set to Land Tuesday
After a Monday wave-off of both KSC landings for bad weather, STS-131 has several opportunities to land on Tuesday, starting early in the morning local time.
Weather permitting, Discovery is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility Tuesday at 7:34 a.m., 40 minutes after sunrise. The second landing opportunity at Kennedy is at 9:08 a.m. Edwards Air Force Base in California is expected to be called up as a possible landing site. The first landing opportunity at Edwards is at 9:01 a.m.
All of the KSC opportunities are on descending paths over much of the continental US, allowing many people an opportunity to see a pretty spectacular re-entry in a dark or early morning sky. The Edwards opportunities go right down the West Coast, and may do similar. The rain storm that is moving into California should not affect Edwards in this time frame.
Check web sites for which orbit will actually have a landing. Also, a table of passes for your US city can be generated by entering orbit number and KSC or EDW somewhere on NASA's site at spaceflight.nasa.gov.
Weather permitting, Discovery is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility Tuesday at 7:34 a.m., 40 minutes after sunrise. The second landing opportunity at Kennedy is at 9:08 a.m. Edwards Air Force Base in California is expected to be called up as a possible landing site. The first landing opportunity at Edwards is at 9:01 a.m.
All of the KSC opportunities are on descending paths over much of the continental US, allowing many people an opportunity to see a pretty spectacular re-entry in a dark or early morning sky. The Edwards opportunities go right down the West Coast, and may do similar. The rain storm that is moving into California should not affect Edwards in this time frame.
Check web sites for which orbit will actually have a landing. Also, a table of passes for your US city can be generated by entering orbit number and KSC or EDW somewhere on NASA's site at spaceflight.nasa.gov.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
STS-131 May Land Monday (If Weather Permits)
The first landing opportunity is on the KSC runway at 8:48 AM (1248 UTC). If this landing happens, the ground track is different than usual, making the re-entry potentially visible to much of the continental US.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast is for conditions violating several constraints. Another KSC opportunity exists Monday, and this one also uses the descending node track that would take it over the US. If this is also waved off, STS-131 has several shots at KSC and Edwards on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, the weather forecast is for conditions violating several constraints. Another KSC opportunity exists Monday, and this one also uses the descending node track that would take it over the US. If this is also waved off, STS-131 has several shots at KSC and Edwards on Tuesday.
Bletchley Park #3
Showing a few examples from Bletchley's large collection of WW II code machines.
This is a standard 3-rotor ENIGMA machine, like the ones used by the German army. Note the Steckerbrett (plugboard) at the front that added more possible electrical paths for determining substitute characters for those typed on the keys. This greatly complicated decipherment.
Bletchley has one of the world's few surviving "Abwehr" ENIGMAs, as used by the German military intelligence department. It has four rotors instead of three, but lacks a Stecker. This may be the machine which was stolen in 2000, leading to a (fortunately) rather badly organized ransom attempt. Offers to pay the ransom were unanswered, and finally the machine was sent (anonymously) to a BBC journalist, minus three of the rotors. These turned up later, when an arrest was made in the case.
This imposing collection of heavy metal shows the notorious 12-rotor Lorenz machine, with associated tape reader and teleprinter. The setup was used to encrypt and decrypt the teleprinter communications at the higher levels of German command. Colossus was built to attack this encryption, with considerable success.
Finally, this isn't a code machine at all. It's a vintage (late 1950s) K.W. "Vanguard" ham radio transmitter with 30 watts. These were typically built from kits sold by a British company. This particular old rig is at one of the operating positions set up by the Milton Keynes Amateur Radio Club upstairs in B Block. The antenna tuner on top is modern.
Hope you liked my photo trip to Bletchley Park.
All photos Copyright © 2010 Hugh Stegman
This is a standard 3-rotor ENIGMA machine, like the ones used by the German army. Note the Steckerbrett (plugboard) at the front that added more possible electrical paths for determining substitute characters for those typed on the keys. This greatly complicated decipherment.
Bletchley has one of the world's few surviving "Abwehr" ENIGMAs, as used by the German military intelligence department. It has four rotors instead of three, but lacks a Stecker. This may be the machine which was stolen in 2000, leading to a (fortunately) rather badly organized ransom attempt. Offers to pay the ransom were unanswered, and finally the machine was sent (anonymously) to a BBC journalist, minus three of the rotors. These turned up later, when an arrest was made in the case.
This imposing collection of heavy metal shows the notorious 12-rotor Lorenz machine, with associated tape reader and teleprinter. The setup was used to encrypt and decrypt the teleprinter communications at the higher levels of German command. Colossus was built to attack this encryption, with considerable success.
Finally, this isn't a code machine at all. It's a vintage (late 1950s) K.W. "Vanguard" ham radio transmitter with 30 watts. These were typically built from kits sold by a British company. This particular old rig is at one of the operating positions set up by the Milton Keynes Amateur Radio Club upstairs in B Block. The antenna tuner on top is modern.
Hope you liked my photo trip to Bletchley Park.
All photos Copyright © 2010 Hugh Stegman
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Bletchley Park #2
Part 2 of our tour begins when we leave B Block and explore the extensive grounds of Bletchley Park. This entire complex is always adding exhibits and special programs, some on more diverse subjects such as model railroading. There's a lot to do there, and a lot of opportunities to volunteer.
Pictures of the rather flamboyant mansion house are all over the Internet, and we are about radio here, so a quick Google is recommended for those wishing to see some truly dotty British country architecture. This neat old place is available for weddings, if you can talk your non-radio-nerd fiancee into it.
Our first photo is of Hut 1. It was built in 1938 or '39 as early wartime operations outgrew the mansion. As the sign suggests, it once housed radio transmitters, connected to a giant rhombic antenna on the grounds. This activity was moved away from Bletchley to avoid attracting attention to the site. Today, Hut 1 houses vintage radio gear from the "Diplomatic Wireless Service," but due to low staffing it is only open weekends.
The low brick wall was added in 1942. It is only a few centimeters from the building, making access to the walls difficult. It was intended as partial protection for the hut, which by then was used for ENIGMA activities.
At a far corner of Bletchley, one comes upon H Block, which is arguably the birthplace of modern computing. It housed an activity related to attacking German High Command teleprinting traffic, which was on-line encrypted and decrypted at the Baudot bit level with a fearsome multi-rotored mechanical device called the Lorenz machine. Appropriately, the building is now becoming a British museum of computing.
Geeks won't want to miss H Block. One wing of it tells the whole story of the Lorenz project. The next photo shows a recreation of a rather impressive rack from the dedicated intercept station in Kent. Note the battery of RCA receivers plus two HROs, and associated gear. These fed the intercepts to an Undulator tape inker for storage and transfer to Bletchley for attempted decryption.
At Bletchley, the encrypted traffic was attacked using a series of increasingly large and sophisticated computing machines. Early versions were like the "Heath Robinson" machine that's been recreated in this room of H Block:
This line of attack led to the famous Colossus, a true computer using 1500 thermionic valves (radio tubes). Certain features in the Colossus design made it more like modern programmable digital computers than the American ENIAC or other such wartime projects. Toward the end of the war, 10 of these machines were operational at Bletchley. All were destroyed for security reasons.
Here's the recreated Colossus Mark 2.
The large frame in the foreground is where the inked tape loops were threaded up and run at a high speed (for the time) past optical readers. Other racks hold the various parts of the computer. The black battery of switches was used for manual programming. A series of counters analyzed the bits for statistical patterns useful for determining the proper wheel settings for decryption. When the operator got it right, resulting plaintext was printed out by a local teleprinter.
This machine was operating at the time, producing the regular 2-second clicking of relays by which Colossus is known. You can see some of the clustered tubes all pulsing away. They don't make any of these tube types any more, so it took some real scrounging to find enough to make this machine go.
This recreation of Colossus has been used several times to decrypt leftover WW II Lorenz text, or newer messages encrypted using Lorenz machines or emulations on the PC. Again, operator insight is very helpful. In the right hands, Colossus still performs surprisingly well for this application, with decryption times stacking up fairly well against modern equipment.
Bletchley Park's very comprehensive web site is at http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ .
All photos Copyright © 2010 Hugh Stegman
Pictures of the rather flamboyant mansion house are all over the Internet, and we are about radio here, so a quick Google is recommended for those wishing to see some truly dotty British country architecture. This neat old place is available for weddings, if you can talk your non-radio-nerd fiancee into it.
Our first photo is of Hut 1. It was built in 1938 or '39 as early wartime operations outgrew the mansion. As the sign suggests, it once housed radio transmitters, connected to a giant rhombic antenna on the grounds. This activity was moved away from Bletchley to avoid attracting attention to the site. Today, Hut 1 houses vintage radio gear from the "Diplomatic Wireless Service," but due to low staffing it is only open weekends.
The low brick wall was added in 1942. It is only a few centimeters from the building, making access to the walls difficult. It was intended as partial protection for the hut, which by then was used for ENIGMA activities.
At a far corner of Bletchley, one comes upon H Block, which is arguably the birthplace of modern computing. It housed an activity related to attacking German High Command teleprinting traffic, which was on-line encrypted and decrypted at the Baudot bit level with a fearsome multi-rotored mechanical device called the Lorenz machine. Appropriately, the building is now becoming a British museum of computing.
Geeks won't want to miss H Block. One wing of it tells the whole story of the Lorenz project. The next photo shows a recreation of a rather impressive rack from the dedicated intercept station in Kent. Note the battery of RCA receivers plus two HROs, and associated gear. These fed the intercepts to an Undulator tape inker for storage and transfer to Bletchley for attempted decryption.
At Bletchley, the encrypted traffic was attacked using a series of increasingly large and sophisticated computing machines. Early versions were like the "Heath Robinson" machine that's been recreated in this room of H Block:
This line of attack led to the famous Colossus, a true computer using 1500 thermionic valves (radio tubes). Certain features in the Colossus design made it more like modern programmable digital computers than the American ENIAC or other such wartime projects. Toward the end of the war, 10 of these machines were operational at Bletchley. All were destroyed for security reasons.
Here's the recreated Colossus Mark 2.
The large frame in the foreground is where the inked tape loops were threaded up and run at a high speed (for the time) past optical readers. Other racks hold the various parts of the computer. The black battery of switches was used for manual programming. A series of counters analyzed the bits for statistical patterns useful for determining the proper wheel settings for decryption. When the operator got it right, resulting plaintext was printed out by a local teleprinter.
This machine was operating at the time, producing the regular 2-second clicking of relays by which Colossus is known. You can see some of the clustered tubes all pulsing away. They don't make any of these tube types any more, so it took some real scrounging to find enough to make this machine go.
This recreation of Colossus has been used several times to decrypt leftover WW II Lorenz text, or newer messages encrypted using Lorenz machines or emulations on the PC. Again, operator insight is very helpful. In the right hands, Colossus still performs surprisingly well for this application, with decryption times stacking up fairly well against modern equipment.
Bletchley Park's very comprehensive web site is at http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ .
All photos Copyright © 2010 Hugh Stegman
Friday, April 16, 2010
Bletchley Park #1
One reaches Bletchley from London, England, in the manner we described in a previous blog post. Once you're at Euston Station with your tickets, there are several choices of train. The best ones stop only once before reaching Bletchley, which is the last stop before Milton Keynes. This train gets there in good time, and it's a pretty ride out there.
Bletchley Park is literally across the street from the Bletchley railway station. It was constructed by the UK crypto department on the grounds of a typically flamboyant Victorian-era mansion that had been purchased by Naval Intelligence at the onset of the war. It is organized into "blocks," many of which are groupings of "huts." Some of the huts look like the name suggests, while others can be substantial brick buildings.
One walks up a long path past vintage-looking barbed-wire fences to B Block, a former center for decryption of Italian and Japanese traffic. The beam antenna on top is for amateur radio. Upstairs are three operating positions with an interesting mix of vintage and modern gear. These will be replaced by an RSGB "National Amateur Radio Centre" which is under construction nearby.
This is where the self-guided audio tour starts. You pay your admission, watch an informative orientation film, and go through an absolutely first-rate collection of WW II cipher, crypto, and cryptanalysis machines. These are displayed alongside a rather quirky and interesting collection of all things 1940s, from product boxes and ration cards to vacuum cleaners and even metal toys.
Here is a striking reproduction of the radio room ("Funkraum") in a Nazi command bunker. Note the authentic vintage gear and the ENIGMA machine.
Moving on, we see a recreation of a typical Allied "Y-station" intercept position. These were deployed in many places to capture enemy traffic for analysis and decryption/ decipherment at Bletchley. This combined COMINT effort considerably shortened WW II and maybe even turned the tide altogether. Many, if not most, Y-stations used what "boat anchor" fans will immediately recognize as the National "HRO" receiver. From all the radios available, they picked the American HRO, with James Millen's indestructable tuning system.
We continue past many glass cases full of every imaginable WW II code machine, not to mention parts, tubes, and associated gear. One room is dominated by a megalithic black machine built like a bank vault and just as imposing. This is the amazing Bombe recreation.
The original iteration of this electromechanical Godzilla was used to reverse-engineer the day's changing ENIGMA rotor and Stecker (plugboard) settings. This used a combination of brute force (each Bombe was equal to at least 36 ENIGMA machines) and operator insight to attack the ENIGMA cipher. Bombes ground away 24/7 at Bletchley and other sites. Operators used "cribs" (known or suspected plaintext), and other ideas to set the initial states for a run. Successful solutions ("stops") would be tested on other machines until one worked. Then another round of ENIGMA enciphered traffic could be deciphered, usually the same day.
The Germans never lost faith in the ENIGMA machine, though they refined it as the war went on. Allies did not act on all intelligence, for fear the other side would catch on that its communications were no longer secure. This sometimes caused heartbreaking decisions in which commanders knew that men would have to die.
After the war, all 200 or so existing Bombes were destroyed to keep the technology from falling into the wrong hands. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
The last photo in this set shows the extreme complexity of the Bombe's guts. Rebuilding one from scratch was NOT an easy task!
All photos copyright © 2010 Hugh Stegman
Bletchley Park is literally across the street from the Bletchley railway station. It was constructed by the UK crypto department on the grounds of a typically flamboyant Victorian-era mansion that had been purchased by Naval Intelligence at the onset of the war. It is organized into "blocks," many of which are groupings of "huts." Some of the huts look like the name suggests, while others can be substantial brick buildings.
One walks up a long path past vintage-looking barbed-wire fences to B Block, a former center for decryption of Italian and Japanese traffic. The beam antenna on top is for amateur radio. Upstairs are three operating positions with an interesting mix of vintage and modern gear. These will be replaced by an RSGB "National Amateur Radio Centre" which is under construction nearby.
This is where the self-guided audio tour starts. You pay your admission, watch an informative orientation film, and go through an absolutely first-rate collection of WW II cipher, crypto, and cryptanalysis machines. These are displayed alongside a rather quirky and interesting collection of all things 1940s, from product boxes and ration cards to vacuum cleaners and even metal toys.
Here is a striking reproduction of the radio room ("Funkraum") in a Nazi command bunker. Note the authentic vintage gear and the ENIGMA machine.
Moving on, we see a recreation of a typical Allied "Y-station" intercept position. These were deployed in many places to capture enemy traffic for analysis and decryption/ decipherment at Bletchley. This combined COMINT effort considerably shortened WW II and maybe even turned the tide altogether. Many, if not most, Y-stations used what "boat anchor" fans will immediately recognize as the National "HRO" receiver. From all the radios available, they picked the American HRO, with James Millen's indestructable tuning system.
We continue past many glass cases full of every imaginable WW II code machine, not to mention parts, tubes, and associated gear. One room is dominated by a megalithic black machine built like a bank vault and just as imposing. This is the amazing Bombe recreation.
The original iteration of this electromechanical Godzilla was used to reverse-engineer the day's changing ENIGMA rotor and Stecker (plugboard) settings. This used a combination of brute force (each Bombe was equal to at least 36 ENIGMA machines) and operator insight to attack the ENIGMA cipher. Bombes ground away 24/7 at Bletchley and other sites. Operators used "cribs" (known or suspected plaintext), and other ideas to set the initial states for a run. Successful solutions ("stops") would be tested on other machines until one worked. Then another round of ENIGMA enciphered traffic could be deciphered, usually the same day.
The Germans never lost faith in the ENIGMA machine, though they refined it as the war went on. Allies did not act on all intelligence, for fear the other side would catch on that its communications were no longer secure. This sometimes caused heartbreaking decisions in which commanders knew that men would have to die.
After the war, all 200 or so existing Bombes were destroyed to keep the technology from falling into the wrong hands. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
The last photo in this set shows the extreme complexity of the Bombe's guts. Rebuilding one from scratch was NOT an easy task!
All photos copyright © 2010 Hugh Stegman
The Blog Is Back
Returned from England just before the Iceland volcano closed much of the North Europe air space. I'll bet the NAT frequencies were interesting listening when that first happened. There could be issues with this volcano on and off for quite some time, so I suspect Atlantic aircraft monitoring just got better for the whole summer.
Will be posting more about Bletchley Park soon.
Will be posting more about Bletchley Park soon.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Single-Hop Propagation
I'm about to hop the pond for 2 weeks in London. This blog will probably be pretty slow until I get back.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
That QRN Was A Solar Burst
Remember sunspots? They were quite the thing about 10 years ago, then they seemed to go away on an extended vacation.
A couple of days back, something absolutely whomped on the Japanese fax I was trying to copy on 22 MHz. No big deal, just the noise came up about 15 dB. I thought the neighbors had turned on some new consumer electronic device.
The neighbor had, but it was our neighboring star. It was a solar radio burst caused by energetic electrons from a large sunspot group (Region 1057) exciting plasmas in the sun's corona.
2010 has had only 6 days with no sunspots so far, compared to 2009 when there were 260.
There's more at http://www.spaceweather.com/ .
A couple of days back, something absolutely whomped on the Japanese fax I was trying to copy on 22 MHz. No big deal, just the noise came up about 15 dB. I thought the neighbors had turned on some new consumer electronic device.
The neighbor had, but it was our neighboring star. It was a solar radio burst caused by energetic electrons from a large sunspot group (Region 1057) exciting plasmas in the sun's corona.
2010 has had only 6 days with no sunspots so far, compared to 2009 when there were 260.
There's more at http://www.spaceweather.com/ .
10255 Vietnamese Numbers Continue Daily
The Vietnamese numbers station on 10255 has settled into something of a routine. First callup is usually right at 1558 UTC. Perhaps someone's clock is a bit off. Transmissions are repeated, but on an irregular schedule. Today, we had three repetitions right together. This seems to be the most common.
The signal is very strong (S9 +10 dB today) on the West Coast, conditions permitting, and weaker in Europe.
This is one of the more compelling "numbers" finds in quite a while. It's daily, on 10255 kHz USB. We really need a speaker of Vietnamese to hear the recordings and figure this out. My own recording has been sent to Monitoring Times and will appear on the magazine's web site at some unknown time in the future.
The signal is very strong (S9 +10 dB today) on the West Coast, conditions permitting, and weaker in Europe.
This is one of the more compelling "numbers" finds in quite a while. It's daily, on 10255 kHz USB. We really need a speaker of Vietnamese to hear the recordings and figure this out. My own recording has been sent to Monitoring Times and will appear on the magazine's web site at some unknown time in the future.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
RSGB Challenges UK Ofcom Regarding Home Powerline Telecom
For the first time, the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) has directly challenged the UK's Office of Communication (Ofcom), regarding its technical standards and regulatory policies in the matter of home power line communication (PLA/PLT) interference to licensed radio services.
In a letter written to Ofcom Chairman Colette Bowe, over the signature of RSGB Director Donald F. Beattie, the RSGB gives a detailed response to Ofcom's official statement made last September. RSGB takes issue with some of the Ofcom assertions in the September statement, and asks for clarification in a number of other areas.
Excerpts:
...
...
The full text of this letter, with plenty of numbers, cites, and technical details, is available at the RSGB web site. One can also find details regarding the RSGB Spectrum Defence Fund.
Expect this controversy to heat up. Due to the ever-higher data speeds required in new broadband plans, manufacturers of next-generation PLT units are using much wider RF bandwidths, well into VHF. It's not just about HF any more.
In a letter written to Ofcom Chairman Colette Bowe, over the signature of RSGB Director Donald F. Beattie, the RSGB gives a detailed response to Ofcom's official statement made last September. RSGB takes issue with some of the Ofcom assertions in the September statement, and asks for clarification in a number of other areas.
Excerpts:
"Ofcom believes the electromagnetic disturbance produced by this technology is an inevitable by‐product of its operation and not attributed to poor design or manufacturing."
We disagree ‐ there is poor design involved here. The trade‐off between headline data rate and emission level is wrongly set. It is only an inevitable by‐product of its operation if that operation is aimed at transmitting an unreasonably high data rate.
...
Emissions are an inevitable consequence of an unsuitable technology.
...
Our underlying concern is that the invaluable asset of the radio spectrum is being progressively sacrificed to allow a polluting technology to flourish, based on the mistaken argument that there is public good involved. Arguments are being mustered to support this strategy, which have little or no basis in fact. We see the inevitable consequence of the current policy as being the consignment of the High Frequency Radio Spectrum to history. Once this has happened, it will not be possible to reverse matters. International standards exist to provide for sensible coexistence of services, and the RSGB contends that the setting aside of such standards for expediency is not in the long‐term public interest.
The full text of this letter, with plenty of numbers, cites, and technical details, is available at the RSGB web site. One can also find details regarding the RSGB Spectrum Defence Fund.
Expect this controversy to heat up. Due to the ever-higher data speeds required in new broadband plans, manufacturers of next-generation PLT units are using much wider RF bandwidths, well into VHF. It's not just about HF any more.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Passport to World Band Radio to Shut Down Web Site
2009 was the last edition of Larry Magne's excellent Passport to World Band Radio series of books. This highly respected publication lasted 25 years, with definitive broadcast schedules and radio reviews. The usual reasons were given, such as Internet and the closing of many large government broadcasting operations.
Now we learn from the blog that the Passport web site will also be shutting down soon. While the home page hadn't been updated in quite a while, the blog had continued with absolutely topnotch radio reviews and information that's hard to get anywhere else. It will be missed.
The blog post is here.
Now we learn from the blog that the Passport web site will also be shutting down soon. While the home page hadn't been updated in quite a while, the blog had continued with absolutely topnotch radio reviews and information that's hard to get anywhere else. It will be missed.
The blog post is here.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
EasyPal Issue Resolved As Norton False Positive
After talking to knowledgeable people on the digital SSTV group, I have decided that the "virus" detected by Norton is a legitimate file distributed with the program.
The confusion seems to be stemming from Norton's detection of a file called loop.zip, which contains a Windows library file called loop.dll. Loop.dll has been around for a few years, and it contains routines that are sometimes used with SDRs. However, another file named loop.exe is associated with several known Trojans.
This leaves only the odd question of why loop.zip would be recreated whenever EasyPal ran. After I completely uninstalled EasyPal, this behavior stopped, so there's no evidence that the system is doing it.
I have not tested the latest version of EasyPal, which is only a few weeks old, to see whether it, too stops this behavior. However, I now once again consider it excellent software.
Apologies to the programmers of EasyPal, who have really done a nice job bringing hams a more reliable way to use a complex mode.
Other discussions have centered on the widely known fact that there are probably better anti-virus packages on the market than Norton. While my version is better than the previous two or so, it's still pretty bloated and prone to causing issues such as this one with EasyPal.
Sorry about that.
The confusion seems to be stemming from Norton's detection of a file called loop.zip, which contains a Windows library file called loop.dll. Loop.dll has been around for a few years, and it contains routines that are sometimes used with SDRs. However, another file named loop.exe is associated with several known Trojans.
This leaves only the odd question of why loop.zip would be recreated whenever EasyPal ran. After I completely uninstalled EasyPal, this behavior stopped, so there's no evidence that the system is doing it.
I have not tested the latest version of EasyPal, which is only a few weeks old, to see whether it, too stops this behavior. However, I now once again consider it excellent software.
Apologies to the programmers of EasyPal, who have really done a nice job bringing hams a more reliable way to use a complex mode.
Other discussions have centered on the widely known fact that there are probably better anti-virus packages on the market than Norton. While my version is better than the previous two or so, it's still pretty bloated and prone to causing issues such as this one with EasyPal.
Sorry about that.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Possible Issue With EasyPal
Some people might have noticed that the glowing review of the EasyPal software has been deleted from this blog. This is because of various strange virus detection issues that many users, myself included, have gotten since the start of 2010 while using this program.
A rather spirited discussion of this subject is on QRZ. There's another on the DigiSSTV Yahoo! group.
The areas of agreement are as follows:
1. EasyPal detects as clear of malware on all checkers when its files are scanned on first installation.
2. At some point after the first picture is viewed, various different virus checkers start to show various different Trojan loaders in EasyPal's directories. MalwareBytes seems to do this the most often. (There is no agreement on whether or not these are false positives.)
3. After this detection, EasyPal still shows as clear. The alleged virus is in a more recently created file that was not distributed with the original package.
Such a behavior is common to some types of dropper programs, which will download the malware later while not making code changes that will be detected. Sometimes anti-virus programs find the new bad stuff before it runs, and sometimes they don't.
Unfortunately, it is also typical of false positives, given the huge complexity of virus detection lists.
In my own case, running EasyPal would create a zip file named loop.zip, which Norton would "quarantine" as containing a rare Trojan which logs keystrokes and steals all your passwords. I would delete the zip archive, but it would reappear on every subsequent running of EasyPal.
The suspect file inside loop.zip is called loop.dll. Searches show one old (~2008) reference to a QRZ forum thread mentioning a file with this name associated with ham radio software. Perhaps it creates a local loopback so a simplex sound card can feed multiple programs.
There is no other mention of this file anywhere detectable on Google, and a full disk search of my computer (which has at least 30 ham radio programs), finds nothing.
Therefore, there are two main possibilities:
1. Norton is confusing loop.dll with loop.exe, a program dropped by many Trojan loaders to capture keystrokes.
2. Norton is finding malicious code that somehow gets into the EasyPal directory hierarchy via file transfers on the air, or an infected utility which is called on the fly when pictures are viewed. (If so, this is a good reason to transfer them to Irfan View, the way DIGTRX does.)
Everyone will have to draw their own conclusion. In my own case, I am far, far from certain that there is any problem with EasyPal. I still really like it a lot. However, I won't put any version of it back on any of my computers until the issue is resolved one way or the other.
Perhaps I'm erring on the safe side, but that's what I do.
A rather spirited discussion of this subject is on QRZ. There's another on the DigiSSTV Yahoo! group.
The areas of agreement are as follows:
1. EasyPal detects as clear of malware on all checkers when its files are scanned on first installation.
2. At some point after the first picture is viewed, various different virus checkers start to show various different Trojan loaders in EasyPal's directories. MalwareBytes seems to do this the most often. (There is no agreement on whether or not these are false positives.)
3. After this detection, EasyPal still shows as clear. The alleged virus is in a more recently created file that was not distributed with the original package.
Such a behavior is common to some types of dropper programs, which will download the malware later while not making code changes that will be detected. Sometimes anti-virus programs find the new bad stuff before it runs, and sometimes they don't.
Unfortunately, it is also typical of false positives, given the huge complexity of virus detection lists.
In my own case, running EasyPal would create a zip file named loop.zip, which Norton would "quarantine" as containing a rare Trojan which logs keystrokes and steals all your passwords. I would delete the zip archive, but it would reappear on every subsequent running of EasyPal.
The suspect file inside loop.zip is called loop.dll. Searches show one old (~2008) reference to a QRZ forum thread mentioning a file with this name associated with ham radio software. Perhaps it creates a local loopback so a simplex sound card can feed multiple programs.
There is no other mention of this file anywhere detectable on Google, and a full disk search of my computer (which has at least 30 ham radio programs), finds nothing.
Therefore, there are two main possibilities:
1. Norton is confusing loop.dll with loop.exe, a program dropped by many Trojan loaders to capture keystrokes.
2. Norton is finding malicious code that somehow gets into the EasyPal directory hierarchy via file transfers on the air, or an infected utility which is called on the fly when pictures are viewed. (If so, this is a good reason to transfer them to Irfan View, the way DIGTRX does.)
Everyone will have to draw their own conclusion. In my own case, I am far, far from certain that there is any problem with EasyPal. I still really like it a lot. However, I won't put any version of it back on any of my computers until the issue is resolved one way or the other.
Perhaps I'm erring on the safe side, but that's what I do.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
More 2010 SDR Hits #3
WebSDR at U. of Twente, Netherlands:
3579.1 CW DARC Propagation Beacon: "DK0WCY BEACON 1/11/N/N," and into long space weather bulletin. 01/25/10 0719
3595.0 ALE ZHEL German Customs, also ZLST clg ZSHO; ZLST wkg ZHEL, ALE and data modem, poss secure voice 02/09/10 0458
3752.0 PSK Unid Link-11 or similar tadil 02/09/10 0526
7002.0 PSK Unid Link-11 02/06/10 0630
7175.0 ISB? Unid Carrier + 2 sidebands sounding like PSK, but each out 5 kHz 02/09/10 0423
10063.0 HFDL 0B ARINC ground stn 0B, Albrook, Panama, squitters and working flights CM0750, CO1037, UP0403, AVA061, FX0524, AVA992, AVA933, CM0447, CM0203, XL0538, CM0294, AS0743 02/23/10 2258
10075.0 HFDL 15 ARINC ground stn 0x15, Al Muharraq, Bahrain, squitters and working flights SA0264 (ZS-SXB), SIA334 (9V-SKB, ICAO 76CD62), SU0110 (VP-BDM, 4000FB), SU0228 (VP-BWG , 400155), CO0049 (N78013), SU0248 (424944), QR0265 (A7-ADZ, 06A067), SA0265 (ZS-SXC, 00B1F1), ETD275 (A6-EIG, 8003D4), IT0008 (800497), QR0251 (06A05F0, 6E0523 (VT-INL, 800424), 6E0000 (ICAO 8001F7), CLX785 (4D010B), 6E02007 (VT-INK), left fq at 0000 02/23/10 1953
10081.0 HFDL AC0095 D/L w/posn for Molokai 03/09/10 0659
10084.0 HFDL 05, ARINC ground station, Auckland, NZ, squitters and logging on ICAO 8850B0, then d/l from RJA613 & QFA11 w/posns 02/10/10 0655
10126.0 USB Unid RR/2 OMs 02/24/10 0011
14024.2 ? 12 PSK tones, 2.5 kHz wide, poss. high pilot tone 02/05/10 0716
14099.1 CW "I"? Beacon/marker/? 03/09/10 0748
3579.1 CW DARC Propagation Beacon: "DK0WCY BEACON 1/11/N/N," and into long space weather bulletin. 01/25/10 0719
3595.0 ALE ZHEL German Customs, also ZLST clg ZSHO; ZLST wkg ZHEL, ALE and data modem, poss secure voice 02/09/10 0458
3752.0 PSK Unid Link-11 or similar tadil 02/09/10 0526
7002.0 PSK Unid Link-11 02/06/10 0630
7175.0 ISB? Unid Carrier + 2 sidebands sounding like PSK, but each out 5 kHz 02/09/10 0423
10063.0 HFDL 0B ARINC ground stn 0B, Albrook, Panama, squitters and working flights CM0750, CO1037, UP0403, AVA061, FX0524, AVA992, AVA933, CM0447, CM0203, XL0538, CM0294, AS0743 02/23/10 2258
10075.0 HFDL 15 ARINC ground stn 0x15, Al Muharraq, Bahrain, squitters and working flights SA0264 (ZS-SXB), SIA334 (9V-SKB, ICAO 76CD62), SU0110 (VP-BDM, 4000FB), SU0228 (VP-BWG , 400155), CO0049 (N78013), SU0248 (424944), QR0265 (A7-ADZ, 06A067), SA0265 (ZS-SXC, 00B1F1), ETD275 (A6-EIG, 8003D4), IT0008 (800497), QR0251 (06A05F0, 6E0523 (VT-INL, 800424), 6E0000 (ICAO 8001F7), CLX785 (4D010B), 6E02007 (VT-INK), left fq at 0000 02/23/10 1953
10081.0 HFDL AC0095 D/L w/posn for Molokai 03/09/10 0659
10084.0 HFDL 05, ARINC ground station, Auckland, NZ, squitters and logging on ICAO 8850B0, then d/l from RJA613 & QFA11 w/posns 02/10/10 0655
10126.0 USB Unid RR/2 OMs 02/24/10 0011
14024.2 ? 12 PSK tones, 2.5 kHz wide, poss. high pilot tone 02/05/10 0716
14099.1 CW "I"? Beacon/marker/? 03/09/10 0748
More 2010 SDR Hits #2
WebSDR at U. of Twente, Netherlands:
491.1 CW WNY NDB 02/06/10 0512
492.0 MCW TBV NDB, Trebova, Czech Republic 01/21/10 0450
494.0 MCW KN NDB, Oksywie, Poland 01/22/10 0632
495.0 MCW PA NDB, Pancevo, Serbia, tone and ID 03/09/10 2341
500.0 CW ? QRSS (3 sec dit): "SK6RUD" and faster "VVV BEACON DE SK6RUD = QTH JO67KI = WST RPRT TO WWW.RADIORUD.SE =" 03/10/10 0445
505.06 CW OK0EMW QRSS "OK0EMW JN88KS," temporary experimental beacon, Czech Republic, 1W 03/10/10 0500
505.2 CW DE2AM ID "DE2AM" QRSS3 and fast CW w/ coordinates and QSL info VVV DE2AM 54.08N 12.05E QSA? DE2AM AT WEB.DE = 01/21/10 0532
508.0 MCW "Z" Beacon/marker, long interval between IDs 02/09/10 0415
514.6 MCW "LA" NDB beacon 03/09/10 2334
517.0 MCW ARD NDB, Arad, Romania 02/06/10 0457
518.0 Sitor-B F UGE, Arkhangelsk, Russia, Navtex in EE, FA02, nav warning for Arkhangelsk 01/21/10 0454
518.0 Sitor-B G GCC, Cullercoats Radio, UK, Idler, then NAVTEX EE wngs for navaids on offshore platforms in North Sea, followed by NAVAREA I wngs 01/21/10 0500
518.0 Sitor-B R Prob. Puerto Rico NAVTEX, WX for USVI 01/22/10 0615
518.0 Sitor-B O GPK, Portpatrick, Scotland, NAVTEX, came on at 0620, obliterating PR, w/ WX for UK and Iceland waters 01/22/10 0620
518.0 Sitor-B J LZW, Varna Radio, Bulgaria, Navtex, wx & warnings for Baltic & Germany 01/23/10 0534
518.0 Sitor-B K GNI, Niton Radio, UK, Navtex, weak, in FF and (mostly) EE 01/23/10 0540
518.0 Sitor-B P PBK, Netherlands Coast Guard, Navtex, EE, "Netherlands Coastguard" warnings, full stop between msgs 02/05/10 0630
518.0 Sitor-B E GNI, Niton Radio, UK, Navtex, EE, probably UK Coast Guard, warnings 02/06/10 0440 (also 0344 2/16)
518.0 Sitor-B F UGE, Arkhangelsk Radio, Russia, Navtex, EE, gale warning for Arkhangelsk, wx 02/06/10 0451
518.0 Sitor-B G GCC, Cullercoats Radio, UK, Navtex, like 1/21 02/06/10 0500 (Also 0343 on 2/16)
518.0 Sitor-B Q 9AS, Split Radio (self-identified), Croatia, Navtex, WX for Adriatic 02/12/10 0645
518.0 Sitor-B S DDH51, Hamburg Meteo, Germany, Navtex, wngs fm NCC-Hamburg 02/12/10 0700
518.0 Sitor-B T OST, Oostende Radio, Belgium, Navtex, wngs 02/12/10 0710
ZCZC TA55
271635 UTC DEC =
OOSTENDERADIO - INFO 333/09 =
ANCHOR LOST BY MV TORM MARIANNE IN POS.
51-24.3)N 002-34.30E.+
NNNN
518.0 Sitor-B M Navtex wngs for England 03/03/10 0600-0605
518.0 Sitor-B ? Underneath M, brief copy after M s/off 03/03/10 0605
518.0 Sitor-B R IAR, Roma Radio, Italy, wngs for Ligurian Sea (Italy/Monaco/France/Corsica), cut 2300 03/09/10 2255
518.0 Sitor-B S DEU, Hamburg Meteo, Germany, Navtex, wngs fm NCC-Hamburg, fading 03/09/10 2300
518.0 Sitor-B T OST, Oostende Radio, Belgium, Navtex, wngs 03/09/10 2310
~524.0 FSK? WRW NDB?, buzzy sounding 01/21/10 0518
525.0 MCW CH NDB, Cherniakhiv, Ukraine, sends "CH CH" every 30 sec 02/16/10 0329
525.0 CW PL NDB, Pulkovo, Russia, ID 02/16/10 0329
491.1 CW WNY NDB 02/06/10 0512
492.0 MCW TBV NDB, Trebova, Czech Republic 01/21/10 0450
494.0 MCW KN NDB, Oksywie, Poland 01/22/10 0632
495.0 MCW PA NDB, Pancevo, Serbia, tone and ID 03/09/10 2341
500.0 CW ? QRSS (3 sec dit): "SK6RUD" and faster "VVV BEACON DE SK6RUD = QTH JO67KI = WST RPRT TO WWW.RADIORUD.SE =" 03/10/10 0445
505.06 CW OK0EMW QRSS "OK0EMW JN88KS," temporary experimental beacon, Czech Republic, 1W 03/10/10 0500
505.2 CW DE2AM ID "DE2AM" QRSS3 and fast CW w/ coordinates and QSL info VVV DE2AM 54.08N 12.05E QSA? DE2AM AT WEB.DE = 01/21/10 0532
508.0 MCW "Z" Beacon/marker, long interval between IDs 02/09/10 0415
514.6 MCW "LA" NDB beacon 03/09/10 2334
517.0 MCW ARD NDB, Arad, Romania 02/06/10 0457
518.0 Sitor-B F UGE, Arkhangelsk, Russia, Navtex in EE, FA02, nav warning for Arkhangelsk 01/21/10 0454
518.0 Sitor-B G GCC, Cullercoats Radio, UK, Idler, then NAVTEX EE wngs for navaids on offshore platforms in North Sea, followed by NAVAREA I wngs 01/21/10 0500
518.0 Sitor-B R Prob. Puerto Rico NAVTEX, WX for USVI 01/22/10 0615
518.0 Sitor-B O GPK, Portpatrick, Scotland, NAVTEX, came on at 0620, obliterating PR, w/ WX for UK and Iceland waters 01/22/10 0620
518.0 Sitor-B J LZW, Varna Radio, Bulgaria, Navtex, wx & warnings for Baltic & Germany 01/23/10 0534
518.0 Sitor-B K GNI, Niton Radio, UK, Navtex, weak, in FF and (mostly) EE 01/23/10 0540
518.0 Sitor-B P PBK, Netherlands Coast Guard, Navtex, EE, "Netherlands Coastguard" warnings, full stop between msgs 02/05/10 0630
518.0 Sitor-B E GNI, Niton Radio, UK, Navtex, EE, probably UK Coast Guard, warnings 02/06/10 0440 (also 0344 2/16)
518.0 Sitor-B F UGE, Arkhangelsk Radio, Russia, Navtex, EE, gale warning for Arkhangelsk, wx 02/06/10 0451
518.0 Sitor-B G GCC, Cullercoats Radio, UK, Navtex, like 1/21 02/06/10 0500 (Also 0343 on 2/16)
518.0 Sitor-B Q 9AS, Split Radio (self-identified), Croatia, Navtex, WX for Adriatic 02/12/10 0645
518.0 Sitor-B S DDH51, Hamburg Meteo, Germany, Navtex, wngs fm NCC-Hamburg 02/12/10 0700
518.0 Sitor-B T OST, Oostende Radio, Belgium, Navtex, wngs 02/12/10 0710
ZCZC TA55
271635 UTC DEC =
OOSTENDERADIO - INFO 333/09 =
ANCHOR LOST BY MV TORM MARIANNE IN POS.
51-24.3)N 002-34.30E.+
NNNN
518.0 Sitor-B M Navtex wngs for England 03/03/10 0600-0605
518.0 Sitor-B ? Underneath M, brief copy after M s/off 03/03/10 0605
518.0 Sitor-B R IAR, Roma Radio, Italy, wngs for Ligurian Sea (Italy/Monaco/France/Corsica), cut 2300 03/09/10 2255
518.0 Sitor-B S DEU, Hamburg Meteo, Germany, Navtex, wngs fm NCC-Hamburg, fading 03/09/10 2300
518.0 Sitor-B T OST, Oostende Radio, Belgium, Navtex, wngs 03/09/10 2310
~524.0 FSK? WRW NDB?, buzzy sounding 01/21/10 0518
525.0 MCW CH NDB, Cherniakhiv, Ukraine, sends "CH CH" every 30 sec 02/16/10 0329
525.0 CW PL NDB, Pulkovo, Russia, ID 02/16/10 0329
More 2010 SDR Hits #1
Using the WebSDR at U. of Twente, Netherlands:
468.0 MCW FTZ NDB, Fritzlar, Germany, ID and tones 01/22/10 0658
473.0 MCW FHA NDB, Freidrichshafen, Germany, ID 03/10/10
474.0 MCW BIA NDB 02/16/10 0359
477.0 MCW RP NDB, Malacky, Slovakia, ID 02/16/10 0358
480.0 MCW VIB NDB, Viterbo, Italy, ID 02/16/10 0350
484.0 MCW HOF NDB, Hof Plauen, Germany, 50° 17' 04.66" N x 11.761394 E 02/06/10 0516
485.0 MCW IA NDB, Indija, Serbia, long dash & ID 01/06/10 0509
488.0 MCW ILM NDB, Illesheim, Germany 02/06/10 0500
489.0 MCW NPR NDB, 500 Hz tone 02/06/10 0514
490.0 Sitor-B E FRC, CROSS Corsen, NAVTEX in FF, EL22, MSI from AVURNAV BREST regarding artillery exercise hazard 01/21/10 0447
490.0 Sitor-B G CTV, Monsanto Radio, Portugal, Navtex in EE and PP, coastal WX obs 01/21/10 0510
490.0 Sitor-B S FRL, CROSS La Garde, Navtex in EE, wngs & wx for "German Bight" from NCC-Hamburg 01/22/10 0700-0705
490.0 Sitor-B S FRL, CROSS La Garde, Navtex in FF, 01/22/10 0708-0709
490.0 Sitor-B I Niton Radio, UK, Navtex in EE, coastal wx for UK region 02/06/10 0524
490.0 Sitor-B T GNI, Niton Radio, UK, Navtex in FF, wx & wngs fm Origine Meteo-France 02/12/10 0710
490.0 Sitor-B U GCC, Cullercoats Radio, UK, Navtex, wx in EE for UK region 02/12/10 0720
490.0 Sitor-B T GNI, Niton Radio, UK, Navtex in FF,wngs fm Avurnav Cherboug 03/09/10 2315
491.0 CW Unk Rpt character "-.-.-" 01/22/10 0630
468.0 MCW FTZ NDB, Fritzlar, Germany, ID and tones 01/22/10 0658
473.0 MCW FHA NDB, Freidrichshafen, Germany, ID 03/10/10
474.0 MCW BIA NDB 02/16/10 0359
477.0 MCW RP NDB, Malacky, Slovakia, ID 02/16/10 0358
480.0 MCW VIB NDB, Viterbo, Italy, ID 02/16/10 0350
484.0 MCW HOF NDB, Hof Plauen, Germany, 50° 17' 04.66" N x 11.761394 E 02/06/10 0516
485.0 MCW IA NDB, Indija, Serbia, long dash & ID 01/06/10 0509
488.0 MCW ILM NDB, Illesheim, Germany 02/06/10 0500
489.0 MCW NPR NDB, 500 Hz tone 02/06/10 0514
490.0 Sitor-B E FRC, CROSS Corsen, NAVTEX in FF, EL22, MSI from AVURNAV BREST regarding artillery exercise hazard 01/21/10 0447
490.0 Sitor-B G CTV, Monsanto Radio, Portugal, Navtex in EE and PP, coastal WX obs 01/21/10 0510
490.0 Sitor-B S FRL, CROSS La Garde, Navtex in EE, wngs & wx for "German Bight" from NCC-Hamburg 01/22/10 0700-0705
490.0 Sitor-B S FRL, CROSS La Garde, Navtex in FF, 01/22/10 0708-0709
490.0 Sitor-B I Niton Radio, UK, Navtex in EE, coastal wx for UK region 02/06/10 0524
490.0 Sitor-B T GNI, Niton Radio, UK, Navtex in FF, wx & wngs fm Origine Meteo-France 02/12/10 0710
490.0 Sitor-B U GCC, Cullercoats Radio, UK, Navtex, wx in EE for UK region 02/12/10 0720
490.0 Sitor-B T GNI, Niton Radio, UK, Navtex in FF,wngs fm Avurnav Cherboug 03/09/10 2315
491.0 CW Unk Rpt character "-.-.-" 01/22/10 0630
Getting to Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park, as most utility people already know, is a museum at the preserved historical site where ENIGMA and other German encryption schemes were broken. This truly inspired work, which among other things involved the first true modern computer (Colossus) using 1500 vacuum tubes ("valves"), is said to have shortened World War II in Europe by 1-3 years.
Directions in a recent Monitoring Times (not MY column!) on how to get there from London appear to be erroneous. Long time contributor Ken Maltz writes about how he made a recent trip:
My own visit to London, including a day trip to Bletchley, is a few weeks off. Research has confirmed that Ken's directions do seem to be accurate. There are something like four trains per hour, one of which is an express and stops only at Milton Keynes, so you change trains. Either way, you end up at a station very close to Bletchley.
There's a lot there. More after I see it!
Directions in a recent Monitoring Times (not MY column!) on how to get there from London appear to be erroneous. Long time contributor Ken Maltz writes about how he made a recent trip:
... coming up from London, Bletchley is a local stop on the National Rail system. Either take a local train to Bletchley or take an Express train to Milton Keynes and then a local train southbound for just one stop to Bletchley. Once you get to the Bletchley station, there are signs directing you to Bletchley Park; less than a 5-minute walk.
My own visit to London, including a day trip to Bletchley, is a few weeks off. Research has confirmed that Ken's directions do seem to be accurate. There are something like four trains per hour, one of which is an express and stops only at Milton Keynes, so you change trains. Either way, you end up at a station very close to Bletchley.
There's a lot there. More after I see it!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
New Vietnamese Numbers Station on 10255!
A new "numbers" station has begun regular broadcasting on 10255 kHz USB at approximately 1600 UTC. Transmissions are in Vietnamese.
Leif Dehio, in Germany, made the first discovery in late February. Since then, it has been heard in the Western US, and other places.
The schedule, if that's what it can be called, is a bit irregular. If there's going to be a transmission at all, it starts sometime between 1555 and 1615, though one person reported a transmission at 1700.
Male and female voices have been heard. These sound live. A typical transmission goes as follows:
Callup #1
First message, in 5-figure groups
Callup #2
Message #2
Announcement
End of transmission
It is not known whether this broadcast is for spies, or coded messages to the fishery. ENIGMA2000 is on the case.
More when we get it.
Leif Dehio, in Germany, made the first discovery in late February. Since then, it has been heard in the Western US, and other places.
The schedule, if that's what it can be called, is a bit irregular. If there's going to be a transmission at all, it starts sometime between 1555 and 1615, though one person reported a transmission at 1700.
Male and female voices have been heard. These sound live. A typical transmission goes as follows:
Callup #1
First message, in 5-figure groups
Callup #2
Message #2
Announcement
End of transmission
It is not known whether this broadcast is for spies, or coded messages to the fishery. ENIGMA2000 is on the case.
More when we get it.
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