E10 is QRT!

First, an apology.

I work hard at keeping up with all this. I have sniffed out fishery frequencies at a time when that operation has good reason to be as secretive as any military. I have followed Libyan air ops via remotes. I have kept up with 11 other trouble spots.

At the same time, I have run daily cruises through 10 MHz of suddenly active HF spectrum looking for whatever changes have occurred in the past 6 spotless years.

It would appear, however, that I didn't try hard enough. My only excuse is that the human brain has its limits. In this case, it meant that I got behind on the ENIGMA 2000 list.

Today I just saw something that everyone else has known about for 10 days. E10, the Israeli Intelligence Phonetic Alphabet Station, the largest or second largest "numbers" operation in the world, has not transmitted since March first. The extensive network of ENIGMA members, which has followed every photon coming from E10 for years, reports only nil.

The shutting down of E10, even if it comes back eventually, is huge utility news. No one knows why this has happened, and probably no one ever will. The timing appears superficially to be interesting, but then this could also be simply looking for connections that don't exist. There is no information upon which to base a conclusion at this time.

More when I stop watching tsunami activity in CA.

Aero Frequencies for North African Trouble Spots

Major World Air Route Areas (MWARA):

AFI-2
3419 5652 8894 13273 17961

AFI-3
3467 5517 6574 11300 13288 17961


Regional and Domestic Air Route Areas (RDARA):

2562 (Egypt)
2815 (Libya)
2854-3488
3175 (Egypt)
4651-4696
5481-5526
5547-5640
5790 (Egypt)
5830 (Egypt)
5859 (Egypt)
6526-6701
6930 (Egypt)
8816-8960
10006-10096
10947 (Egypt)
11276-11396
13270 13276 13291 17913 17943 17955

Egyptian Government Changes Hands

At approximately 1600 UTC, the VP of Egypt came on air for about 20 seconds to say the president had resigned, and a military council had taken power. This came a few hours after President Mubarak left the palace, and the military tanks guarding the perimeter turned their turrets so that the cannon faced inward at the facility, not outward at the crowd.

That probably says it all.

Egyptian MFA is probably the best catch right now. There might be some opchat in amid the encrypted messages. Keep in mind that often their ARQ teleprinting uses ATU80, an Arabic alphabet, instead of the standard ITA2.

Aero freqs might be good as well.

Along with the Middle East in general, Egypt will be a good country to keep tabs on until things shake out. This process could last well after the promised September elections.

"Numbers" Activity Increases In Gaza Crisis

The Israeli phonetic alphabet station (E10) became much more active soon after the air strikes began in Gaza. Also more time slots have messages, and new messages come out more frequently.

E10 can start on the hour, half-hour, or sometimes even 15 minutes after the hour. Most schedules come between 1800 and 2300 UTC.

Recently logged E10 frequencies:

3150 PCD
3270 ULX
4270 PCD + 2 abnormal PCD strings
4560 YHF
4880 ULX
5435 ART
6840 EZI + 1 abnormal EZI string

In addition, 4270 and 4880 are frequently jammed.

4XZ, the Israeli Navy CW station that broadcasts weather and coded "numbers" like traffic is being heard on 2680 and 4331 around 1700 UTC.